Blueberry iMac issues

A friend's blueberry iMac (crt) went south on her the other day. When you turn it on the apple logo appears then nothing. Checked the diagnostics, everything is fine. Tried to repair the permissions and verify the disc but it said "invalid sibling link". Broke out DiskWarrior. It spent the day doing its thing, then I rebooted. Now it gives me a kernel panic. Nice.

The machine had OS9 and OS X on it. The owner used both and had documents saved on both in no order - "I just saved stuff where ever".

I'm trying to get it working again so her kid can do her homework. Here's where I need some help.

Since she has stuff saved all over creation, if I do an OS X install with the "archive and ____" option, will I still be able to get to the OS9 part of the drive to recover data? I'm not sure if the HD is bad or not. I could give her a spare of mine, but I'm trying not to spend money on something that isn't mine.

What would you do in a situation like this?

Do you have the recovery CDs?

Yes. I'm trying NOT to lose any data with this. Is that possible? I guess it's time to send her to a class to teach her how to save data in one place AND to backup.

I gave my kid sister one of these iMacs and you have to admit they're pretty long in the tooth. I expect it to die any day now. Even updating software can kill this thing. If your friend's still got the original hd I don't like your chances.

If you've tried everything and still no go then you have to use the recovery cds. Your friend will just have to cut her losses.

If you have the OS 9 boot install cd, boot from that. The installer does not automatically start. Then move all her files she wants to keep into her OS X user folder. Then try an archive and install of OS X.

If possible, backup her files to cd or zip drive and do a wipe and fresh install (preferably on a new hard drive if it's the original drive).

I agree, teach her where to save files and get her organized.

If you OS 9 is not corrupted, you should be able to boot from it. I believe that if you reboot your system and press and hold the option key. You should get a choose of what OS you want to boot from.