🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <229@winston.UUCP>, keashly@winston.UUCP (Lance Keashly) writes:
> Help, oh please help!
> 
> Our Lisa has decided that our harddisk is not a Mac disk.
> The disk runs as it loads in the Macworks and gets all the way to
> where it wants to load the Mac system and it comes up with a sad mac.
> 
> We can boot off of floppys but when we install the harddisk it says the
> disk is not a Macintosh disk, want to format??? Well we don't want to lose
> the data.
> 
> Anybody know how we can save any of the data on the disk?? I have no doubt that
> when the disk is reformatted that it will work fine but with no backup and
> important data on it we need help.
> 
>     Lance Keashly

First of all, it sounds like your copy of Macworks on your hard disk is okay,
but that your system file on the hard disk is corrupted.  You came close to
fixing it, but it sounds like you tried to run the installer off of the floppy.
The 'fix' I am about to suggest has worked to recover my XL's internal hard
disk when I had accidentally trashed the system file.  Here it goes:

1) Boot up off the XL/Lisa's hard disk and HOLD DOWN the Command(Apple) and
   Option keys simultaneously right after the machine completes the internal
   hardware checks.
2) If all worked well, you should see a disk icon with a flashing '?' in the
   middle.  Now insert your MacWorks Mac-System disk (or any other disk with
   a working copy of the system and finder.
3) The internal disk should then boot and it should go to the finder (assuming
   you haven't set up anything else on the disk as a startup application).
4) If your hard disk only had a corrupted system file, then it should also
   appear on the finders desktop.  Remove the system file off the hard disk
   and copy over the System file from your current boot-up floppy.
5) You should be all set.  Reboot your lisa and it should boot off the hard
   disk properly.  Then BACKUP, BACKUP, and BACKUP.  It isn't that bad, and
   can be a life saver.

*) What happens if in step #4 the hard disk doesn't appear on the desktop,
   or worse, the finder says that the disk is corrupted/bad/sick/etc...?
   First retry steps 1-3, if you don't have any message appear on your screen
   then check your cables (if using an external profile).  If you get the bad
   disk message/reformat you have one known alternative (at least only one
   that I know of).  That alternative is to have MacTools 5.? from central
   point.  Put that on your boot floppy, set it as the startup application.
   The repeat steps 1-3, it should now boot into Mactools.  Hopefully (I
   haven't had my XL disk trashed this bad yet), Mactools will give you its 
   repair/mount dialog box.  See if it can mount/repair you hard disk.  If
   this works, follow the instructions in the manual for copy II mac to
   recover your hard disk.
     If none of this works, your only hope is to have someone else on the net
   post a better solution (I'd like to see more - better prepared) or you
   just have to grin and bear it.  Reformat the hard disk and hope that you
   have hard copy or some backups to help restore your disk.  There's nothing
   like trashing a hard disk with valuable information, to drive home the
   idea of doing regular backups.

Hope this helps.  Send me some mail if everything worked okay for you.


-- 
Brian Bezanson {seismo,ihnp4,allegra,topaz,harvard}!uwvax!gumby!bezanson
Manta Software Corp.				  bezanson@gumby.wisc.edu