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Still waiting for Root Device

Hey,
Recently i noticed a slow down with my mac. So i thought i would erase the hard drive and reinstall Leopard. I booted into the disc, and erased the hard drive using disk utility.
Then i restarted the machine. Following this, i tried to boot back to the cd. I got the no boot sign.
So i thought i would go to verbose, to see what was happening.

The final message is "Still Waiting for Root Device".

What does that mean, and how do i fix it?
I know the disc works, because it's the disc i originally used to upgrade to leopard.

Thanks
x5315

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.5), 17" 1.6 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD, SuperDrive

Posted on Jan 9, 2008 3:31 PM

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12 replies

Jan 9, 2008 3:55 PM in response to x5315

I booted into the disc, and erased the hard drive using disk utility. Then, I restarted the machine. Following this, i tried to boot back to the cd. I got the no boot sign.


If you erased the HD, why did you restart the machine? Your next step should have been to install Leopard. How did you try to boot with the CD? Best bet is to restart, holding down the C key, and, when the clock stops spinning and shows all bootable volumes, which should only be the CD since you erased the HD (assuming you only had a single partition), select the CD, and click the right-hand arrow.

Jan 9, 2008 4:29 PM in response to baltwo

I have tried restarting. And instead of the C, i hold down option to load a menu. Then i select the disk. It boots into the disk and then i get the no booting sign.
I have tried this quite a few times. In verbose mode, the final thing that is stated is
"Waiting for root device", this is when i'm booting into the CD. Not just the hard drive. All i need is for the cd to boot, so i can start to install Leopard on the hard drive, but the cd won't boot.

Jan 9, 2008 5:06 PM in response to x5315

OK, that means it cannot find the DVD. Try this: restart, holding down the CMD OP+OF keys, and when the text stops scrolling, type in these commands, following each with hitting the return key—the last one reboots the machine, so hold down the OPTION key, select the DVD, and click the right-hand arrow. Don't use verbose mode.

reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

Jan 9, 2008 5:25 PM in response to baltwo

The open firmware:
http://hosting.nitescifi.com/upload/1199927981.jpg

The options screen:
http://hosting.nitescifi.com/upload/1199928090.jpg

Then no boot:
http://hosting.nitescifi.com/upload/1199928122.jpg

Thanks very much for your help.

Actually just tried it again, and after the reboot, it doesn't find the dvd.
So i had to reboot above

Message was edited by: x5315

Jan 9, 2008 7:01 PM in response to x5315

I'd suggest trying to boot with the Apple Hardware Test disk that came with the machine and run the extended tests. It might be a hardware problem that just popped up. If the machine and installed RAM pass those, then download and run Rember which does more extensive RAM tests. If the problem still exists, then a trip to the Apple Store is in order.

Still waiting for Root Device

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