question mark folder, start up from osx install disk then spitting disk out. HELP

[njharrison1979]

Sorry if this sounds like a repeat but I have been to the link about the flashing question mark folder but to no avail. I have tried putting the install disks in and pressing c while start up but the system just ejects the disk after reading it for a few seconds and then the screen with the dreaded question mark comes ups.

Before I restarted the computer it had been running very slow so I decided to app zap norton anti virus and restart the computer then this problem happened.

I need to get this fixed asap can anyone help me please

 

[Jamie-Jamie]

Can you tell us more? What model Macintosh is it? What OS are you trying to boot?

 

[njharrison1979]

its a g5 with osx leopard 10.5.4 I think, ive got the disk to work now and have gone into disk utility but the hard disk doesnt seem to be mounted. It says about resetting pram if its not mounted and see if the system starts up. How do I do that?

 

[njharrison1979]

ok i decided to restart the system 5th time and it has found the hard drive and has loaded the osx but as I said before I App zapped Norton anti virus but up in the task bar it is still showing ???

 

[njharrison1979]

Looks like the mac was having a blonde moment. We have success.To un install norton properly I just went to the symantecs folder and there is an uninstall option, it asked me to restart which I did and all went aok.

 

[Jamie-Jamie]

Whew! Well, that's a relief, hon! Get yourself an external hard disk if you don't already have one! Split it into two partitions and use one for Time Machine. Install Mac OS X on the other one so that you have a bootable backup system!

 

[njharrison1979]

Dont have time machine and not 100% co-sher with all apple products. I do have a ex HD but it only has 130gb left on it as its used to store music and movies. What do I need to do?

 

[chscag]

If you are using Leopard 10.5.4, then you have Time Machine. It should be listed as "Time Machine.app" in your applications folder.

You can use the empty space on your external hard drive for Time Machine backups provided the drive is formatted to HFS Extended Journaled. Of course the empty space would have to be set aside as a partition first. You can do that with Disk Utility.

And contrary to what the other post mentioned about using your internal hard drive for Time Machine, don't do it. If the internal hard drive fails you would have no way to restore. Always use an external hard drive for backup.

Regards.