so i bought a password-locked powerbook (roomate of seller owed him back rent, so he sold the p-book he'd left behind). anyway, it's a 1.5 ghz 15 inch with osx installed and a os9 disc. so i insert the disc, restart multiple times holding 'c' (supposed to boot from disc) - nothing, just logon screen. restart a few times holding trackpad button to eject disc - nothing. that would sound like a superdrive problem, but the disc went in nice and smooth and anytime you restart, it spins up with perfectly normal sounds. i ran the harware test (restart holding 'option'), it showed screen with a reload arrow on left, mac harddrive with 'x' in middle and arrow to right, which lead to logon screen. should there have been the superdrive icon too? suppose there is a problem with the drive, is there any way to log on? any way to create another account?bypass the password? thanks much dp

suppose i got a USB external hardrive and managed to get osx on it tru my imac. could i plug in into the powerbook, start and boot from there? if not, could a firewire one do it? how about getting an external superdrive?

Is there anyway you can get an OSX disc instead of an OS9 one? Try booting in safe -mode, and if the machine manages to boot in safe-mode, it is likely to be a startup item that is causing the problem. To boot in safe-mode, ensure the machine is turned off fully, and then press the power button. Just after you hear the startup tone (NOT BEFORE), press and hold the down the shift key. Now release the shift key when you see the start up screen with the Apple logo and the progress indicator. During the startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen. Please note that booting in safe-mode takes longer than a normal boot. To leave the Mac OS X Safe Mode just restart you Mac normally, without holding any keys during the startup period. Safe-mode forces a directory check of your Mac hard drive OS files, and only the required kernel extensions are loaded (some of the items are located in /System/Library/ Extensions). The cache of kernel extensions used to speed startup during normal use is ignored, and this cache file is located at /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache - here is where the normal start-up problem is likely to be if you can boot in safe-mode. Regards, Kyomii

hmmm, sound good for the 1st guy, but if u r getting a X on the harddrive when in option manger then the harddrive is bad. you could boot to the os disk and change the password there i thin kit is under installer on the tool bar....let me know what happens b101875@aol.com jel

jel, you really need to do some research ! Your answers are incorrect and you are in danger of severely misinforming new users :( The X on the drive does not mean the drive is bad at all - it is merely the boot configuration screen he was talking about. The folder with the X on is the bootup option, same at you get a network startup option - they appear as icons and you choose what you want to boot from. The firewire drive was not visible from this screen and this is what he was trying to explain so that he could choose the drive and boot from it. To answer the question, the firewire drive will not show as an option to boot unless it has a bootable OS on it, or a bootable disc in it (in the case of a firewire cd drive). Regards, Kyomii