QuickDevastating Mystery:What, Who & How! Plz Help

Question

Yesterday when I was here aboard my, then healthy/happy, Mac Mini, I posted and new topic/issue snd then was reading a thread describing what to me seemed like one truly weird mini problem. At the end of this thread was a reply from AndyO
who addressed one mini owner'snoopy dance'and cart wheeling comments.The dude
wanted us to know that he was feeling serene, elated and merry from seeing pain/anguish of the OP's mini woes which,like the spectacle of someone shoving
a wheelchaired person down a flight of stairs,was outrageous enough to make
me chuckle.
But best of all was AndyO's perspective in which he compared this forum to that of a hospital. Indeed,this is where distressed and needy responsible mini owners come when their mini has incurred some serious injury or illness.
Given the sudden and devastating illness/death that struck my mini shortly after my visit here (its down at the morgue/funeral arrangments forthcoming), I'm wondering if AndyO's hospital analogy may have more than just metaphoric relevance. Of course I'm referring to the sceneario where ER patients seeking treatment for a sprained thumb croke the next day from some rare infectious disease they came in contact with from the Doc,nurs or other patients.
Very unlikely I'm sure, but after 1.5 yrs of'snoopy dance'-worthy,cart wheeling problem-free performance, it was amazing/tortured to watch my mini come unglued before my eyes and become rogue /'unresponsive to my basic troubleshooting /diagnostic efforts.Briefly, here's the sequence:
•I started up photoshop snd got this error mssggr shortly into a session-
"startup disc full: quit other apps to free up memory and delete files
to save open docs."Last time I noticed, I had 4 or 6 Gb o disc space just days ago but now i had 120mb.No idea how/what this is about.
•I quit all apps and dug around though pic and movie folders of folders to find a few hefty ones to drop onto my 500GB external USB drive. A few min.later after all files where copied I flushed approx 11GB from my main drive and just for the heck of it i ran Disc Utility to verify my mini'HD. Surprisingly,several problems were reported and need disc repair.
•I popped my install disc #1 in the drive tried to reboot from install disc\but disc ejects every time. So I yanked out all cables from mini except the keyboard snd VGA and started up mini to run Disc Utiliy on my install disc. Ha! The DU thinks its a DVD-RW with with read/write permissions!Utterly insane!!!
How do ya repair an install disc???? I ejected the disc and hosed it off with a long blast of isopropyl 90% then shook off the drops and wiped it once with new microfiber towel.Popped disc back into mini and boom-- disc mounted and Mac OS Install Disc opens,all folders intact.I ran DU again to confirm.It did so. OK.
Worth noting:These sorts of strange problems which appear for no reason but then
are fixed by simply cleaning the disc are timely confidence boosters as you delve into the troubleshooting process. And its especially good to know for sure that your tools disc is a healthy one. So forgive me as I snoopy dance here pat myself on the back for fixing my install disc in a clutch sitution. That's because from here forward I had nothing more to inspire me to dance as I was too busy getting my butt kicked.:(
•I rebooted from the install disc and ran DU to to REPAIR DISC on mini HD.
This went smoothly as the progress bar chugged forward to the end... almost
to the end...I'm waiting...its still chugging...Like Ben Franklin always says
"A Watched Progress Bar Never Finishes" and I'm still waiting...just a few seconds more...waiting.... waitng... I don't mind waiting BTW, afterall its not as if i run DU regularly and prophylactically(eeep!)
"Click." (silence/darkness fills the room)
***!! Mini just shut down.Why? Who knows.
•I tried to rebooted from install disc but the Mini maindrive started
which is okay--I only need to run DU once more to verify if repairs were successful. I launched DU and..
"Click." (silence/darkness fills the room again)
•This was verifying info just the same which told me "Sumpins big rong!!"
• I tried to reboot from inst disc. but I cannot do that now.
I zapped pRA and this restored the startup chime.
But when the mini's desktop appeared there were NO ICONs then a few seconds
later..."Click." (silence/darkness fills the room)
•Reboot and now i see the desktop and no icons but an open folder
pops up "MY COMPUTER" and my MINI HD icon is inside..Okay so I
move my cursor onto the ...
"Click." (silence/darkness fills the room)
Reboot and try to open a Finder window and while I'm
"Click." (silence/darkness fills the room)
The machine shuts down within 5 to 8 sec after
desktop appears.
I stopped and shut it down in order to do some
work using my G4 before I try anymore I'd like
have the input/suggestions from you guys.
Oh and,yeah,it would be heartwarming as well
if Mr Happy feels inspired by the sudden tragic
loss of my mini and wishes to cart wheel, snoopy
dance or perhaps dress up in his french maids outfit
with dark redlipstick and sing"Cry Me A River".
Its all good.:b
Thanks,guys!
Scott

Answer 1

Scott,
It's good to see you bearing up in times of great adversity. Sadly I don't know whether to be happy or sad because I can't work out for sure whether your system is dead or alive!
I do think that a deep breath, followed by putting away the isopropyl might be a good place to start once you've carried out the SMC reset to ensure your system can count all it's various parts. After that, I can't wait for chapter two, though a brief synopsis might help in the event there's a question embedded in it somewhere.
I would, as the regulars here would know, generally say 'If I were in this situation, I would.....' but alas I can't say that this time because I have barely half a clue what 'this situation' actually is. So in the absence of having a clue, I'll offer you a couple since you mention a G4 which seems not to have succumbed to illness: Suitable firewire cable. Firewire target disk mode. Disk Utility. Perhaps that was just one clue really, or it might have been three. Either way, that may provide a ready means to get at your mini's hard drive and see what's up without resorting to alcohol.
Just a thought.