E-Mac Reboot probem

Question

I have an e-mac, about 4 years old ... When I power up all I get is a question mark blinking inside a folder, if I press Shift F. If I restart holding the option key down, I get a gold padlock, a place to enter a password, (non will work), for the accounts that seem now lost ... the mouse pointer appears but will not move.. It is a frozen screen. I did manage to get the restore CD in at one point, but cannot seem to get it to open. (It is now stuck in the CD Tray) I'm getting the feeling this is the end of the line for this emac short of some major repair .... Any help would be most appreciated

Answer 1

Hi DenverSteve!
Run Repair Disk using the instructions posted below, and post the results.
The disc is already inserted, so restart while pressing the C key.
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD
1.Insert the System Install disk, Mac OS X CD-ROM disk, or Restore DVD disk, then restart the computer while holding the C key. Use the System disk, of the OS, that is currently installed.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, on the Menubar at the top of the screen, choose Disk Utility from the Installer contextual menu.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3.Click the First Aid tab.
4.Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5.Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.Repeat steps 5 & 6, but select the Hard Drive this time. It's usually the first listed with the manufacturer's model number. Make note of the S.M.A.R.T. status.
8.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
9.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
10.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
11.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
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