Weird Folder Thing

The cd changed your startup disk in the prefs so it can't find a startup drive. I've seen this a few times. Try zapping the P-ram or rebuilding the desktop, both require holding down two or three keys, right after pushing the start button I forget which keys do what at the moment but usually that gets it to look for the system folder.

It may be just a desktop folder which you would use to continue an installation, you should delete and start again.

Zap the PRAM. Hold down (P) (R) (OPTION) (MacLogokey) on keyboard and press the Power Button. Hold these keys down until you hear the chimes 6 times. Also take the battery out for an hour. If this does not help, put the Mac OS (9 or X) and hold down the (C) key as you power up. This will usually get the unit to boot from the CD. Go on and re-install the OS. WARNING! You may loose all of your data doing an OS install. I don't know what kind of Mac you have but I've had problems sometimes installing OSX on the old beige G3s but it is possible. I think I had to update to 9.1 then 9.2 to make it work.

1) select a new boot drive/folder holding down the "alt" key during the boot sequence, it'll show you a grey screen with one icon for each bootable drive on your Mac;

2) choose one icon to boot from that drive;

3) after desktop appears, open the "Startup Disk" system preference pane and select the right boot disk/folder;

That's all.

If you are lucky you have only one boot disk/folder, and you can't make choose from drivers.

This solution works with new Apple computers, if you have an old Mac with MacOS 8 or early you need a boot/install MacOS CD to start your Mac, then open the "Startup Disk" system preference pane and select the right boot disk/folder.

Enjoy,
Fabrizio.