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

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <k5gpil$g8m$1 at iltempo.update.uu.se>,
	Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
> On 2012-10-13 03:36, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> Having the digital equivalent of a sticker on the floppy does not 
> necessarily make it bootable. :-)

No doubt, but all the stuff I found on the net prtty much said that the
system checked ouyt the "System Folder" and if it was intact displayed
the "smiling mac". Not having one was the priomary sign of a corrupted
System Folder.

> There are special things of importance to get a disk bootable, in most 
> cases. And it involves areas of the disk you do not look at, or even 
> see, during normal operation. And if those areas have been corrupted, 
> you cannot boot. Doing a reinstall it not only reasonable, it is pretty 
> much required on any operating system, at that point.

I agree.  And with the Mac being as you can't really look at the disk
unless you have a bootable system because no one else can even read
the disks reload of the OS becomes the obvious solution.  I just got
a laugh at it being the suggested way to fix things after hearing people
here (and elsewhere) dis MS all the time for this very behavior.

> 
> I thought you knew more about computers and operating systems than this, 
> Bill.

I know lots about lots of OSes.  I know little about Macs beyond the fact
that it was a pretty dismal OS that never got as much out of the M68K cpu
as any other OS.  Even CP/M-68K was a better OS.  I was never a Mac fanatic
and actually only got my first usable Mac last year. And the thing that
made it usable was that it runs BSD.  The first smart move Apple ever made.

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>