I tempted fate too long (a plea for help)

[CommotoshX86]

Hi folks. Admittedly I have not been around for a long time. In 2012 I built this computer: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/g4-powermac-mod-candy-apple.55635/ I'm really not a computer guy, so the fact that I was able to build two Hackintoshes (the first one was a mini build in a Commodore 64 case) made me quite delighted and I just stopped there. I upgraded it to 6 TB of hard drive storage. Otherwise it is exactly as it was in 2012. Even still running Lion. All along I knew I should be keeping up with updates and such but I was just too afraid of screwing it up. A friend who builds Hacks kept advising me to update but I ignored him. The only thing I use this computer for is video and photo editing. Tonight I got a message that my startup drive was full. I was putzing around, moving files, deleting stuff, and emptying the downloads folder. Well, something in the downloads folder was obviously crucial for my startup success because I now just have a black screen that says "loading operating system." uh-oh.
Can anyone make my day and point me to how to bring her back to life? Here are the build specs if you don't want to click the link:

Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H motherboard
OCZ 600 Watt PSU
3.4 GHZ Intel i5 quad core processor
OCZ 120 GB solid state drive
6 TB storage
16 GB RAM
Sony Optiarc slot load CD DVD drive
Dynex Firewire card
EVGA nvidia GeForce 1024 MB video card

 

[Gigamaxx]

Hi folks. Admittedly I have not been around for a long time. In 2012 I built this computer: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/g4-powermac-mod-candy-apple.55635/ I'm really not a computer guy, so the fact that I was able to build two Hackintoshes (the first one was a mini build in a Commodore 64 case) made me quite delighted and I just stopped there. I upgraded it to 6 TB of hard drive storage. Otherwise it is exactly as it was in 2012. Even still running Lion. All along I knew I should be keeping up with updates and such but I was just too afraid of screwing it up. A friend who builds Hacks kept advising me to update but I ignored him. The only thing I use this computer for is video and photo editing. Tonight I got a message that my startup drive was full. I was putzing around, moving files, deleting stuff, and emptying the downloads folder. Well, something in the downloads folder was obviously crucial for my startup success because I now just have a black screen that says "loading operating system." uh-oh.
Can anyone make my day and point me to how to bring her back to life? Here are the build specs if you don't want to click the link:

Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H motherboard
OCZ 600 Watt PSU
3.4 GHZ Intel i5 quad core processor
OCZ 120 GB solid state drive
6 TB storage
16 GB RAM
Sony Optiarc slot load CD DVD drive
Dynex Firewire card
EVGA nvidia GeForce 1024 MB video card

At startup hold the delete key to go into bios menu. Look into the disk drive for priority 1. Hopefully it just got set to the 6tb drive and you can change it back to the OCZ drive.

 

[CommotoshX86]

Thank you, Gigamaxx. Unfortunately that didn't work. I can't enter bios. All I get is the black screen and "loading operating system" message.I had also tried holding command at startup to boot from a carbon copy of the OS that I had on a backup drive but the same thing happens.

It looks like I have some work ahead of me. Are the hardware components I have still compatible with more recent operating systems?

Thank you.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Thank you, Gigamaxx. Unfortunately that didn't work. I can't enter bios. All I get is the black screen and "loading operating system" message.I had also tried holding command at startup to boot from a carbon copy of the OS that I had on a backup drive but the same thing happens.

It looks like I have some work ahead of me. Are the hardware components I have still compatible with more recent operating systems?

Thank you.

Unplug all your disk drive Sata cables, and optical drive and boot up. It should default boot into bios.

You should be able to go up to High Sierra, the gt210 works there but no longer in Mojave. Mojave requires Metal capable graphics, GT710 DDR3 models, GTX 650-780, AMD 7XXX, R9 270-280, RX 460-580 (***except XFX brand), RX Vega 56-64.

 

[CommotoshX86]

That was GREAT advice. Thank you for being patient and taking time to help me troubleshoot. Your comment made me realize that perhaps deleting the downloads was not the problem. One detail I neglected to mention when I said that I upgraded from 3 TB to 6TB is that I added a 3TB drive (for storage) on the same day that I made the other changes. I just went back and unplugged that new drive and it booted right up. For some reason it was trying to boot from the new empty drive instead of the SSD where the OS is.Now I just need to figure out how to stop that from happening and then do some studying on updating my OS. Thanks also for the feedback on the hardware!