Can't boot with Disk Warrior

The Disk Warrior CD is not designed for Intel based Macs such as your MacBook. It only works in PowerPC based Macs. You'll have to contact Alsoft and ask them when an Intel native version of Disk Warrior, and it's CD will be available.

Disk Warrior is not yet Intel-compliant, so it won't boot any of the new Macs. They claim a Universal app is forthcoming, but they've been saying that for a while. You may want to try something like Data Rescue to get the stuff you need off the G4 and then reinstall the OS and apps.

Good luck!

MacBook w/2GB & 100GB 7200 rpm hd, G5 iMac, 15PB, G4 iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.8) G4 QS, AX, 3G iPod, Shffl, nano.

Then it could be that the CD drive in the G4 has died. It's entirely possible for you to be able to hear it spinning, but the laser might be out.

But try resetting the Mac. It may resurrect the CD drive.

Resetting the Mac from Open Firmware.

Restart the Mac and immediately hold down the Command Option+OF keys. This will boot you into open firmware. When it stops, you will be looking at a ">" prompt. At the prompt, type each of the next three lines, followed by pressing the Return key. Type each line exactly as show (without the (press Return) part), no capital letters or spaces.

reset-nvram (press Return)
set-defaults (press Return)
reset-all (press Return)

The Mac should restart after pressing Return on the third command.

Now try booting to the DiskWarrior CD.

I run a similar system to yours and boot from my DW cd by shuting down and then starting up while holding down the "c" key until startup is under way.

A second method would be, I guess, to start up from your OS X cd and then insert the DW cd after the Mac is running.

Ignore the idea of starting from the OS X disk, it wonk work.

However, while your Mac is running, insert the Diskwarrior cd, then go to system preferences, Startup Disk and select the Diskwarrior cd as startup. then restart and it should work, unless you have a bad Diskwarrior disk, in which care you should send it back for a replacement.

You'll have a couple of limitations with DiskWarrior and Intel-based Macs.

First, since DiskWarrior uses a kernel extension (.kext), it can't run properly on Intel-based Macs. (Since the kernel on an Intel-based Mac is an Intel process, and a kernel extension works by plugging into the kernel, for an Intel Mac to be able to load a kernel extension, that extension has to be a universal binary. Since DiskWarrior is a PowerPC-only application, the kernel extension can't be loaded).

Second, if you start an Intel-based Mac up in FireWire Target Disk-mode, and connect it to a PowerPC Mac and run DiskWarrior from there, the volumes from the Intel Mac won't appear in the list of volumes in DiskWarrior. (This actually sounds like the opposite of what you were trying to do, but I figure I'd mention it anyway). The reason for that is that, as far as I know, DiskWarrior only recognizes disks that have an "Apple Partition Map" type partition map. Since, by default, Intel-based Macs use "GUID Partition Table" type partition map, DiskWarrior won't list the volumes on these disks as ones which it can repair.

Hope this helps.....

Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The problem that I have is with my Power PC based
Mac, the dual G4 450 that for some reason will no
longer boot with the Disk Warrior CD. I only used
the MacBook pro as an alternative method to try and
check my PowerPC but that too is not working for some
reason.

Put the Disk Warrior CD in the MacBook Pro and boot the MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode (from the "Startup Disk" System Preference, or by holding down "T" while booting). Connect the two machines with a FireWire cable and boot the G4 with Option held down. When the arrow cursor appears, select the Disk Warrior CD icon and click the right arrow icon to start the Disk Warrior boot.

Second, if you start an Intel-based Mac up in
FireWire Target Disk-mode, and connect it to a
PowerPC Mac and run DiskWarrior from there, the
volumes from the Intel Mac won't appear in the list
of volumes in DiskWarrior. (This actually sounds like
the opposite of what you were trying to do, but I
figure I'd mention it anyway). The reason for that is
that, as far as I know, DiskWarrior only recognizes
disks that have an "Apple Partition Map" type
partition map. Since, by default, Intel-based Macs
use "GUID Partition Table" type partition map,
DiskWarrior won't list the volumes on these disks as
ones which it can repair.

Though this is not for the original problem, it might work if you install Disk Warrior on the Power PC's OSX disk and run it under OSX, instead of from its CD. The newer OSX should know how to mount a partition on an Intel Mac with the GUID Partition Table. As long as Disk Warrior calls on OSX to dismount and mount the volume it's working on, and doesn't try to read the partition map itself, it should work.

"Though this is not for the original problem, it might work if you install Disk Warrior on the Power PC's OSX disk and run it under OSX, instead of from its CD. The newer OSX should know how to mount a partition on an Intel Mac with the GUID Partition Table. As long as Disk Warrior calls on OSX to dismount and mount the volume it's working on, and doesn't try to read the partition map itself, it should work."

That's just it: I believe DiskWarrior is actually examining the partition map. I tried this and my G5 was booted into 10.4.7 and I was running DiskWarrior 3.0.3 from the hard drive. (I've never run it from the CD, since I have 9+ partitions in the G5 and I boot to another one to run it). I read through the documentation for DW and one of the requirements for being able to repair a drive is "a valid partition map". While no error message was presented to me or reported to Console, I assume that the GUID partition table was the reason for the volumes not appearing in the list. Also, I happened to have an Apple Developer monthly mailing files DVD in the DVD drive of the MacBook Pro, which had an Apple Partition Map, and that did appear in the list of volumes in DiskWarrior (obviously the repair was disabled since it was read-only).



Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.8)