Dead hard drive on Powerbook 100?

I think my Powerbook 100, which I never use but keep out of sentiment, may finally be dead. Symptoms: I can't get it to start up and produce a smiley face except using a startup disk in the external floppy drive. There is no hard drive icon on the desktop. If I try to install the software from the external disk, it doesn't recognize the existence of any other disk onto which to install.
I've tried the reset/interrupt button trick, to no avail.
I have not replaced the little battery--is there any point in doing that?
And I can't find the original instruction book except for the quick-start version.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi,
You could always try a PRAM reset to begin with.
It cannot be ruled out that the hard drive is defective. Do you hear any sounds?
Are you using an original (System 7.0.1) startup/tools floppy right now?
If the hard disk is spinning (and if you have access to a second old Macintosh computer), you could also try another disk utility (such as Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5 here or Drive Setup 1.7.3 here). Post back if you need advice regarding floppy modifications et cetera.
Battery issues have been discussed e.g. in this FAQ. There you will also find additional information about hard drive detection problems.
Jan

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