Ugh and Blech. Today, my beloved iMac G5 crashed. At first, it would appear to go to sleep without being able to be woken up. Then, it would not boot far enough to get to the login screen (although once I got an open firmware prompt). The next step was to run the hardware diagnostics, which all indicated no problems.
So I thought I was OK; I'd just have to reinstall the system software. But when I went to do that, the system installation program would not recognize the internal hard disk. At all. It's hard to install system software without a hard disk to install it onto.
The worst case is that the hard drive is gone. That means all the files on it are gone, too. It being a relatively new hard drive, though, I'd be surprised if it were a total loss. I am hopeful the data on the hard drive is recoverable.
Donna will drop the computer off at the Houston Galleria Apple store tomorrow. We'll be without the computer for a few weeks, but it is still under warranty, so I don't expect to have to pay for the repairs (except for a nominal service fee, perhaps). They can fix the faulty Bluetooth module while the have it, too.
BTW - I'm accessing my blog from my wife's blueberry iBook, connected to the internet via the wireless Airport network and router. It's nice having a backup computer.