HELP! Powerbook G4 does not recognize its hard drive

I had a hard freeze this afternoon and my computer has not yet recovered. I could not force quit any applications and was forced to turn the computer off. When I turned it back on, I got the flashing question mark and file folder. Since then, I have tried every keystroke combination on start up that I could find to no avail.
Now I put the Tiger OS X DVD in there and when it prompts me to select a destination volume to install it, there are no hard drives to choose from.
I need some help here super fast. Either post a reply here or email me at [email protected]
Thanks

There are some troubleshooting steps for this problem at A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac.
The inability of the system to find a hard drive for installation is concerning and could be a symptom of a hard drive gone bad.
If the steps in the link above do not help, it would be worth connecting your computer to another MAC with a firewire cable and seeing if you can boot in Firewire Target Disk Mode. If that works, your hard drive will show up on the desktop of the second machine. Then, you could try to copy over the contents of your user folder in order to back up your harddrive. However, if you really have a harddrive problem, there is no guarantee that this will work.
EMAC G4 1.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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Moderator edit: Masked serial number to prevent mis-use.
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Hi
I changed BIOS setup from AHCI to Compatibility and indeed it worked.
However there is easier way to reload new system on thinkpad.
I didn't know that but you can press ThinkVantage button when you start your laptop and IBM utilities start up.
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Help my computer does not recognise my hard drive

Hi All,
Yesterday I turned my computer on to find that it would not start up. I tried following advice etc about starting up in safe mode etc but no help what I have found is that he computer does not recognise the hard drive anymore so when I out the osx install disk in and run system profiler and disk utility it does not show a hard drive. I have not done anything for this to happen. Can anyone help me with this.
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Instead of using older OS X CD/DVD install to a new drive.
Where is your backup and clone?
Buy some drives! that is a must.
Pick up a FW case, you will need it to put the old drive in, and later, so you have an external and off line drive for backups and maintenance.
A copy of TechTool Pro 4/5 and Disk Warrior (DW first).
SuperDuper to clone your drives.
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can be this reasons
01 , you have problem with connection ? check the port if you can find any problems physically .
02. if not try to change the cable and with connection ,
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Glad I was able to help.
Just be careful, the usual "if it doesn't fit, find a bigger hammer" doesn't apply to this model laptop.
Also, there is a part available to adjust the frustration level, I don't happen to have the FRU number available, but I do have a photo and I'm sure you can find a local shop to provide it. Any experienced vendor should be able to match up a similar item from this photo.
It comes in many varieties, this model has a handy extention to aid in installation so you can easily do it with one hand. Others may require two hands to safely install. Use care when installing, one slip can destroy your laptop. Acute abuse can lead to severe embarassing situations and cronic abuse can have impact on your health, so use wisely and always get a spare to share with a friend. They tend ot come conviently packaged in quantity of 6, so you can invite a few friends over.
This invention has saved many a laptop from sailing out of windows worldwide.
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Thank you. That's what I thought will need to happen.
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This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
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HELP! Powerbook G4 does not recognize its hard drive

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