Prohibition symbol, but eventual boot...why?
Last two days I'm getting the prohibition symbol when I try to start up
my G4.
After several minutes, a blue screen appears...then another longish wait...
then my computer starts up. At least something!
I then get "The disk you inserted was unreadable on this computer",
but there's nothing in the combo drive.
The machine then functions normally, but I get the same issue
each time I shut down and then attempt to re-start.
I've disconnected all peripherals, same result.
I can't boot cleanly from the installation disk (C key)...I still get all of the above.
I can't boot from my Disk Warrior utility CD either...it starts but then
dies early in its reconstruction process, leaving me with a black
and very dead screen and no further result.
Two years ago I cloned the original start-up disk and have been using
the clone as my start-up ever since. However, the icon for that
original start-up disk has now vanished from the desktop and although Disk
Utility sees it, all the repair and verification boxes are ghosted out,
so I can't do anything with it.
So...is it that original drive that's screwing things, or the clone,
or the combo drive?
Any tips would be appreciated.
Jet
Mac OS X (10.4.11)