HD not detected

Question

I inherited a decapitated iBook G4 - 14 inch early 2004 (A1095) It had been dropped twice and was received in pieces after the hard drive was removed.
I purchased a HD and new ribbon cable which I installed using the instructions from iFixit.com.
The iBook will boot with my OS X 10.4 install DVD but the HD is not seen by Disk Utility nor do I hear it spin up.
Would I suspect a logic board problem? Is there anything else I can try?
I did try a second known good but smaller HD still using the new ribbon cable. It too did not spin up nor was it seen by Disk Utility.
I hate to throw the iBook away. Can it be booted from an OS 9 System Folder on a USB flash drive?

Answer 1

There is a distinct possibility the logic board may have been damaged;
and some components on there may no longer be able to function.
Were you able to test with a multi-meter the power outputs and any
other indications the hard disk drive you installed had any electricity?
The cable is one thing, yet the drive may not have power. Also, there
is an ATA controller and other stuff. Dropping a live computer could
result in component failure due to impact as well as arc shorting of
the actively breaking parts with electricity through them.
And, some other part or wire may be broken, and maybe not the
main board. Those are fragile components if they get hit hard
against a hard enough surface on the wrong angle a few times.
Have you tried seeing if an external FireWire enclosed drive could be
used as a boot disc and receive an installation of OS X from the
optical drive's installer disc? Not all FW drives are bootable models.
{I've heard of some portable Macs being turned into desktop units
and a few conversions (older G3 PowerBook, etc) used a flash-type
memory disc as a hard drive for pre-X systems. Not sure how.}
Good luck & happy computing!