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Tech Tips: Startup Troubles
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Having problems before you even reach the desktop?
I get a blinking disk icon on Startup - What's happening?
How do I switch extensions Off at startup?
How do I boot a Mac Classic directly from ROM?
How do I boot from a CD/external drive?
[Q]: I get a blinking disk icon on Startup - What's happening?
[A]: Your Mac can't find the system software to boot off and this can mean one of several things: your startup disk is damaged, your startup disk is missing (e.g. you have a floppy only Mac) or you have a SCSI conflict. If you have several SCSI devices attached, disconnect them and try restarting the machine. If this doesn't work (or you have no devices attached) try booting from a floppy disk. If your hard drive isn't visible on the desktop, try scanning the SCSI bus using a program such as SCSIProbe. If your hard drive appears to be Ok, try setting it to be the Startup Disk (via the Control Panels) and reboot. If the disk ISN'T Ok (or it fails to reboot) you should re-install Mac OS. If none of these approaches work, pull the drive, install another (to get your machine running) and then add the old drive as a secondary hard disk (setting the SCSI ID accordingly). Now start retreiving what you can and then go for a big re-format/initialisation...
[Q]: How do I switch extensions Off at startup?
[A]: Hold down the SHIFT key when you turn the Mac on and keep it down until the you get a message saying 'Extensions Off'. Doing this forces the Mac to boot with no extensions or control panels and while this may make certain devices and functionality unavailable, it will allow you to track down any conflicts. It also makes your Mac a whole lot faster to boot!
[Q]: How do I boot a Mac Classic directly from ROM?
[A]: The Mac Classic includes a special version of Mac OS on its ROM. No other Mac has this feature and if you need to boot your Classic from ROM, hold down Command-Option-X-O at startup.
[Q]: How do I boot from a CD/external drive?
[A]: This depends on how old your Mac is but the easiest solution is to hold down the 'C' key on startup. If this doesn't work, try booting from a specific SCSI device by holding down CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE- at startup instead (where 'SCSI ID No.' is the ID of the SCSI drive (internal or external) that you want to boot from)
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