iBook, PowerBook Data Loss Problem Noted -- Apple has issued a Tech Info Library article cautioning iBook and PowerBook (FireWire) owners of a potential data loss problem with those portable Macs. Under certain low-memory situations, putting the machine to sleep with the "Preserve memory contents on sleep" option enabled can overwrite essential file system data. When restarted, the laptops display a flashing question mark; after booting from a CD-ROM, the hard disk fails to appear and Disk First Aid reports errors that cannot be repaired. Apple is working on a software fix to be released at the end of March. In the meantime, Apple recommends disabling the "Preserve memory contents on sleep" feature. [JLC]

<http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/ n25130>