Q: I have a mac G5 that will only boot to white screen with rotating wait sign. I can't start in safe or recovery modes. I have cleaned and reset connections. One time it booted up and showed a screen that had a HD icon with a NO symbol. Pls advise thks

There is no Recovery mode for a Power PC Mac. That requires an Intel processor and 10.7 or later.

What happens when you boot from an install disk and try repairing the start up disk?

This is the Mac Pro (this superseded the PowerMac model which you have) desktop forum. I requested your post be moved to the

Power Mac

Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!

Tough without the Install disc, but some things to try...

Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...

/sbin/fsck -fy

Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.

(Space between fsck AND -fy important).

http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/commandline/single-user.html

Hmmmm, we may be up a creek without an Install Disk, but what shows as boot choices if you hold alt key at bootup?

You need an official OS installation disc/s OR a replacement OEM install disc for that Mac.

You need to contact Apple in order to get OS X 10.4 Tiger or OS X 10.5 Leopard from Apple assuming they still have copies. Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 These discs will be replacement OS install discs. You will need to give the rep your Mac model and serial number (it's on the actual computer somewhere) and you'll, also, need a credit card as there is a nominal fee of around $18 for processing and shipping of the disc.

Great to hear, good luck, & consider an external drive for a backup!