[Info-vax] OT: For MAC Lovers Only :-)

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <a9f5f667-270b-4c95-8415-ff119b3a187b at q16g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>,
	Steven Schweda <sms.antinode at gmail.com> writes:
>> And here I have always been led to believe this was a
>> Windows only solution.
> 
>    Well, duh.  The flashing folder/disk icon means that the
> firmware couldn't find a disk with a valid OS on it.  In that
> case, (re-)installing the OS would seem to me to be a pretty
> reasonable course, especially if Disk First Aid can't repair
> it.

Close, but no cigar.  I had three disks that had been bootable.
All still have all the softwre on them and yes, they even have
the "smiling mac" on the system folder.  But, they still would
not boot.  As I just told JF, installing 7.1 from the CD onto
each of these fixed whatever the problem was.

> 
>> I have a Powerbook 160 which sometimes doesn't start up
>> right.
> 
>    I was recently given a PowerBook 165, which has a failing
> Quantum GoDrive GR160S 160MB 2.5-inch SCSI disk, which has a
> fairly low probability of spinning up successfully.
> Somewhere between zero and twenty retries typically gets it
> going, though (so far).  I also installed a 2032-coin-cell
> holder to replace the dead, soldered-in, original coin cell.
> 
>> I believe it installs from a stack of floppies, so I am not
>> very excited about doing a clean install.
> 
>    It can probably load the OS from whichever medium on which
> you have the OS.  My System 7.5[.x] kits are all floppies,
> but I have a 7.6 CD-ROM.  (System 7.5 = 1 "Before You
> Install", 1 "Disk Tools", 7 Install; System 7.5 Update 2.0
> (7.5.3) = 14; System 7.5.5 Update = 3.)  For a CD-ROM, you'd
> need an external SCSI CD-ROM drive (and the odd-ball compact
> SCSI cable, and possibly a matching CD-ROM driver, ...), and
> I wouldn't bet that an old PowerBook knows how to boot from a
> CD-ROM.  (But the System 7.6 CD-ROM includes 19 floppy images
> for the installation, plus four more with docs and tools, so,
> as usual, many things are possible.)

7.6?  I thought 7.5.5 was the last of that line.

> 
>> I have about reacjed the point of doing Treatment 7:
>> Perform a clean install.
> 
>    Assuming that the System folder is not too corrupt, a Web
> search for, say:
>       bless "system folder"
> should find some suggestions.
> 
>    Re-installing the OS has the advantage of a fresh start,
> which can be considerable with the typical piece of old junk.

Yes, but I would have prefered a more orderly upgrade. As I said,
this one made some stuff I really needed disappear.

> 
>> With OS-X, [...]
> 
>    Is there a System folder on Mac OS X?
> 
>    And yes, a VMS forum is probably not the best place to
> seek Mac advice.

I don;t know.  I seem to recall a lot of people here saying they were
Mac people on the desktop.  Now, asking for Windows advice, that would
be a totally different matter.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>