Gray screen with a folder/?

This happens everytime the PowerBook g4 starts up. This Mac is year old and my dad blame's it on me leaving the comp on all the time without shutting it off, he's an expert with Pc's but with a Mac he can't do much.
I'm a spriter so I manually pixeled this based on what I observed.
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/8378/macscreenon2.gif

I mean we tried taking the battery out and rebooting over and over, we even tried putting the battery in the freezer for 15 minutes then putting it back in the comp. >.>

Edit: And no i dont use any software like "bootcamp".

thats the computer saying it can't find the startup disk. If you leave it a while does it eventually load up OS X? Try holding down Option when you turn on the computer to see if it shows your hard drive

trpnmonkey41 said:

thats the computer saying it can't find the startup disk. If you leave it a while does it eventually load up OS X? Try holding down Option when you turn on the computer to see if it shows your hard drive

Click to expand...

Nice option lets me see a new screen blue with 2 arrows. Should i call my administrator or can you guide me through this?

Edit: And no it doesnt eventually load up

What are the two arrows pointing to? You should see your Hard drive and any CD's that you have in the drive.

Try putting in your OS X cd and holding C when you start up the computer. You can access disk utility from the CD and try to repair your volume

(My father did not get the operating system cd when he got the computer) When i held down option i got this http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1047/2arrowswr0.png
When i clicked on the right arrow nothing happened but when i clicked on the left arrow my cursor turned into a clock and i sort of lagged for a moment.

Its not picking up any system hard drives. WIthout an OS X disc you are out of luck in terms of seeing if the hard drive is still working.

So basically there is only one solution to my problem and this requires the disk which grants me access to disk utility and repair.

All and all this is no serious problem? (as in i wont lose some of my precious documents)?

Welcome to Mac-Forums, Hulio-G.

Go on eBay and buy a copy of Mac OS X Tiger (but be careful, buy the full retail install DVD kit, not an OS install kit that came with another Mac model as these are model-specific and you'll never get them to work/install properly - safer yet would be to buy directly from an Apple or Mac store: at least you'd know what you get for your money). That's the only way to get this to work.

Once you get the install DVD, you can use the Archive and Install option: this will preserve all your user files and will store the old system (or what's left of it) in a folder called Previous System Folder.

The best method yet would be for you to somehow get hold of another Mac, use Target Disk Mode to get your files off of the ailing Mac and do an Erase and Install instead. The reason why I say this is that if ever there is a deep rooted corruption, this method will get rid of it as it completely erases the hard drive.

The Archive and Install method preserves some of the data and you could carry the file corruption back into your new freshly installed system. But, mind you this is a long shot.

That's why we say to avoid at all costs buying a Mac that doesn't have the install disks that came with it. Now you can't reinstall the iLife suit which comes free with every Mac. Even buying a OS X install disk won't bring that back but at least you will be getting back diagnostic tools and an OS installer.