"NO Symbol" on startup after Apple icon; had just ran an auto Mac Update…

Question

"NO Symbol" on startup after Apple icon; had just ran an auto Mac Update…

Hi! Okay, I'm freaking out. I have a late model G4, mirrored 2003 model. A Maxtor master drive taken out from my first gen G4 as my boot drive is installed, along with two slave drives internally. Yesterday, I was getting my freelance work loaded up when .Mac Update alerted me, and I clicked "yeah, go ahead." I went about my biz in the house; my screensaver went on. Long story short, I couldn't get the computer screen back on, to show me my login window, so I rebooted. That's when I freaked out. (all that was running at the time was Mail, Safari, Firefox and the updater asking to restart… maybe the OLD AOL app, I'm not sure.)

Everything looked fine on startup until the nice grey apple turned into a NO symbol. After a few retries, I held down the option key to see what I'd get. I was offered my HD, but again I got the NO symbol. I then booted from TTP's eDrive. I didn't even see my HD to repair it. I then booted from Drive Genius No go. I tried Disk Warrior and got the same thing. (and no, booting from the OS X DVD did nothing; it saw nothing and Disk Utility saw nothing) Usually when I "lose" a drive, I can save my @ss. I'm having a coronary because I can't even see the drive with all these utils. I don't understand why I DO see it on the "option key" bootup. I'm not at all good with OS X, which is a big disappointment to me since I was able to fix anything prior… software and hardware. I have A LOT of stuff on this hard drive that won't boot up, and I'm freaking out, to put it lightly. I don't hear a hardware problem, though. It spins up, and I don't hear anything odd. I definitely do not hear a head crash. There's no clicks of death. Something else is going on that I'm just not able to figure out since I've fallen behind in my geekery since having a baby. (I will let him know of this one day. haha)

HELP. I'm broke, and I'm literally freaking out. I'm posting this from my CUBE and original cinema screen system. A lot of my work is on one of the internals, and safe, but a huge amount of stuff is on my main drive and I'm just ready to commit myself or smash the G4 into 6 million pieces. Could it be the G4 and not the HD? Like I said, I see the drive as an option when I boot the mac holding down the option key: it says "spookie's macintosh HD OSX" — my main drive. I am BAFFLED. I don't understand why NOTHING sees the drive when I try to access it.

help. please.

Mirrored Macosaurus G4 2003, Mac OS X (10.4), Can't boot; don't remember. Ha ha! I'm f#@ked.

Posted on Jun 25, 2009 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,339 points

Jun 25, 2009 11:59 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

Try holding down the shift key at startup. This starts up by running a disk repair and then loads a minimal set of extensions (aka "Safe Mode"). Then try some of the steps in this article. Don't re-install the system until you check back here with your results.

TS1892- Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts

Do you have an original Install CD, black with silver-white X, not Update?

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Answer 2

Jun 25, 2009 1:26 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

"Do you have an original Install CD, black with silver-white X, not Update?"
Yes, I have a black DVD with a silver "X" — a full install purchased from Apple, since the original was probably tiger, and I do have that as well, but it's far older than what it's installed.

I'm going to attempt what you've suggested and post back soon. Thank you for the help!

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Answer 3

Jun 25, 2009 3:26 PM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

Update:
Holding down command/option/P/R = prohibitory sign icon
Holding down "X" on startup = prohibitory sign icon

Booting from Tech Tool Pro eDrive shows NO hard drive to repair.
Booting from Disk Warrior 4 CD shows no hard drive to repair.

When booting while holding down OPTION key, I see my HD in the list. WHY? If it's appearing to all the utilities, why is it's name appearing as an option for startup, as a HD running OS X 10.4.x? It shows it named as I had it, too.

All of this occurred after I ran a SW Update last night and didn't reboot until this morning.

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Answer 4

Jun 25, 2009 5:00 PM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

If you did not get additional chime sounds about once a minute for as long as you hold down 4 keys:
Command Option p r

... then your Mac may have a dead battery or a hardware Problem.

If you are getting the large Apple in the center of the gray screen, you Hard Drive is loading the BootX file, required to start up your mac in Mac OS X.

What happens when you hold down SHIFT?

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Answer 5

Jun 26, 2009 9:06 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant,

I zapped the PRAM and did get all the chimes. As expected, this didn't solve the problem 😟

"If you are getting the large Apple in the center of the gray screen, you Hard Drive is loading the BootX file, required to start up your mac in Mac OS X."
YES, I'm getting the Apple first for a while, then the prohibitory sign / NO symbol appears.
"What happens when you hold down SHIFT?"
Same as above…

I can still see the drive when I power up holding down the Option key. I'm totally baffled.

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Answer 6

Jun 26, 2009 10:48 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

The routine that shows the screen with an Icon for each bootable drive is the Startup Manager. It lives in your Mac's ROM, and when it shows an Icon for a drive, that tells you the drive answers and appears (after a very cursory check) to contain evidence of a System. The Icons for Mac OS X or Mac OS 9 are displayed as appropriate. Later in the boot up sequence, your Mac is finding problems that give you the prohibitory sign.

You appear to have carried in a System on a drive from an older Mac, that may not contain all the drivers needed for the specific Hardware in a Mirrored Drive Doors model -- especially if the Install on it came from a Mac-specific CD originally.

I suggest you try your "Full Retail" black with silver-white X Install CD again, (after you have reset the PRAM, as you reported) to see if it can now see your Hard drive. If you are not using a ful retail CD/DVD, that may be the reason your drive is not seen. The gray CD from a different Mac will not contain the drivers needed for the ATA/100 Bus connectors (the rear drive pair). You MAY be able to have the drive recognized in the ATA/66 Bus (front connectors) as that Hardware is essentially the same as in many older G4 Macs.

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Answer 7

Jun 26, 2009 11:03 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

The routine that shows the screen with an Icon for each bootable drive is the Startup Manager. It lives in your Mac's ROM, and when it shows an Icon for a drive, that tells you the drive answers and appears (after a very cursory check) to contain evidence of a System. The Icons for Mac OS X or Mac OS 9 are displayed as appropriate. Later in the boot up sequence, your Mac is finding problems that give you the prohibitory sign.

You appear to have carried in a System on a drive from an older Mac, that may not contain all the drivers needed for the specific Hardware in a Mirrored Drive Doors model -- especially if the Install on it came from a Mac-specific CD originally.

I suggest you try your "Full Retail" black with silver-white X Install CD again, (after you have reset the PRAM, as you reported) to see if it can now see your Hard drive. If you are not using a full retail CD/DVD, that may be the reason your drive is not seen. The gray CD from a different Mac will not contain the drivers needed for the ATA/100 Bus connectors (the rear drive pair). You MAY be able to have the drive recognized in the ATA/66 Bus (front connectors) as that Hardware is essentially the same as in many older G4 Macs.

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Answer 8

Jun 27, 2009 7:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Will the full retail install of TIGER do? It appears to be all I have. I don't have the original CD/DVD from the mirrored door model.

Also, the drive had been working fine in the mirrored model for around a year. This happened right after running the SW Update that night and rebooting the next morning. I still have my first gen G4 that I pulled the drive from; I only swapped it out because the first gen was too slow for my job (graphics).

p.s. I didn't attempt anything today; was sick in bed. I just wanted to ask about the DVD of TIGER since it's all I seem to have besides Leopard and OS 9 full retails.

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Answer 9

Jun 28, 2009 6:17 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

Hi, Would my being booted from the eDrive (TTP) and able to see all my bookmarks in Safari a good thing? I woke up today and realized the mirrored G4 was still on. I pushed the mouse to see if the screen would still show the prohibitory sign / NO symbol, and I was asked for my password!

I'm going to reboot from the Mac OS X Install DVD (Tiger) now and see what happens. BTW, my other two drives, which were fine all along, are now supposedly seriously damaged according to Disk Utility, but not according to TTP.

If my hard drive doesn't show up, I'll have to try swapping out the drives. I'm assuming the drive's information is intact and the drive is actually okay, being that Safari's bookmark's are all loaded from Tech Tool Pro 4.1.1.'s eDrive boot? I'm posting from the mirrored G4 right now.

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Answer 10

Jun 28, 2009 8:07 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

I just booted from the Retail DVD of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4, and it does NOT see my drive at all. It's the full retail boxed DVD purchased from Apple via the online store.

While booted from the eDrive, which is located on one of the other internals, I was asked for my password to unlock my screen, and I was asked for my password for Keychain for my admin account when Safari launched. Does this mean my information is on my drive?

(soon as my toddler naps, I'm going to pull the drives and swap… fingers all crossed)

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Answer 11

Jun 28, 2009 10:08 AM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

I just booted from the Retail DVD of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4, and it does NOT see my drive at all.

For your drive to be repaired by Disk Utility, it must show up in the left pane when booted from the CD/DVD and Disk Utility invoked from the Utilities menu.

If your drive can be seen in Apple System Profiler (which should also be available from the Utilities menu when booted from the CD/DVD) it MAY be repairable from another Utility, such as Tech Tool Pro, Disk Warrior, or (if you have another drive onto which to place rescued files) Prosoft Data Rescue.

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