IBook G4 800MHz, Hard Drive dissapears

Hello,
I've been searching on these discussions boards for a while now but can't find any clues to what's going on.
I just got my hands on an iBook G4 800Mhz who's owner explained how the Hard Drive just "died" one day and when he took it in to be looked it, they said the Hard Drive needed to be repaired.
It sounded like a simple task for me, so I switched the Hard Drive out with an apple 30GB HD I had laying around from a previous 1Gb iBook G4 I had laying around.
OSX installed properly but midway through the second update to 10.4.9 (after 1 restart) it stopped, froze and wouldn't do anything for 25 minutes.
So I powered it down and restarted the computer.
It had that Folder with the Question Mark on it flashing, so I restarted again, same thing.
I popped in my OSX 10.4.6 cd and booted off to check out the HD, at first it showed the HD as a grey disk icon with a "disc0s3" so i tried to install osx again doing a clean install (erase drive then install)
halfway through the installation it froze, I restarted and the hard drive was now gone. Everytime I went to Disk Utility it only showed the OSX CD I booted off.
After several restarts and half a pizza pie later, the hard drive was showing up again, so I am now again reinstalling OSX and doing it's updates.
Could this be a Logic Board problem? Or something far worst than a new Hard Drive?
The hard drive I'm using in it now is about 2-3 years old which I got in my G4 iBook 1GHz (which now lays in pieces on the floor, it's been broken for a long time now but I jsut can't bare to throw it out)
Should I spend the $$$ and buy a brand NEW Hard Drive?
Any opinions or hints would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
-kahloz
24" iMac 2.16GHz 256mb Vid Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Ok, here's some new information on what's going on.
After I saw that error earlier, I googled it up and zapped the pram which didn't do anything. I kept getting kernel panics as soon as it booted up on the grey screen with the grey apple.
I let the computer cool off for an hour and reinstalled osx, did the updates and sat in front of it waiting for it to crap out again; which happened about45 minutes later. The screen turned blue, I thought it was going to "sleep" mode but it just turned blue then dimmed.
Finally it was frozen and i forced it off and booted off the osx cd, and sure enough the HD Header was damaged. I repaired the disc with disk utility and rebooted straight into OSX.
This all leads me to believe it's a problem with the HD part on the MoBo itself which means I'll have to replace the whole thing
thoughts?

Similar Messages

Ibook g4 and hard drive expansion

I have an ibook g4 that came with about 40 gb of space on the hard drive. needless to say that space is about all used up. I'm wondering how I can expand my hard drive without getting an external hard drive-- or is that the only method? I'm also fairly computer illiterate so if anyone could give me the basics on this I'd really appreciate it. I apologize if this is the billionth time this question's been asked.

It is funny you bring this up.. i am trying to do the same with one of my powerbooks.. apple told me they do not sell the internal drives nor will they put it in for you. so i asked "if i buy one myself and put it in will it still be under my apple care warranty?" they said if something fails because of the hard drive or install it will void the warranty onthe computer.. if i put it in and something fails that has nothing to do with the har drive or me installing it they would cover it..
Long story short, you will have to buy a internal off of ebay or the internet and put it in yourself or have another retail shop besides apple do it for you.
hope that helps.

IBook only recognizing hard drive sometimes

Hello,
I have an iBook G4 that only sometimes recognizes the hard drive. I have even tried replacing the drive but it's still doing the same thing.
Does anyone know what part could be going bad?
Thanks,
Joe

Hi and welcome back to Apple Discussions!
If you have replaced the drive with a known good working drive and it still isn't recognized (how do you know it's not?), then you ought to target the ribbon cable (922-6124) which attaches to the hard drive. Replace that first. If that doesn't do it then chances are it is the logic board. The cost of a logic board replacement would probably be more than what the computer is worth, and wouldn't be a great investment.

N91 hard drive dissapeared!

Hi folks
can any1 help me.i transfered some music files onto my n91 and now the hard drive doesnt work-it was a bit dodgy before (in message settings,when trying to change from phone memory to hdd it would keep reverting back to phone memory)but now theres nothing showing up on the gallery,all the games have dissapeared-it still shows in memory details that memory in use is 3327mb and 511mb free memory-ive not tried to reset as there are resent video and photo files that i don't wanna get rid of!!(also when trying to link it to pc it doesnt bring the drive up!)
Can any1 please give me sum advice!
thanks!

One thing you can try is to reset the phone using the instructions you can find in this post :
/discussions/board/message?board.id=smartphones&message.id=4007
However please be aware that doing so will wipe ALL the data from your phone such as information in your calendar, contacts and so on.
In order to save your data you can use the PC Suite application to save and restore the data from your phone - this software can be found here :
http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite
One thing to note is that as part of these diagnostics, you should NOT restore any backup or install any software on the phone as you could be putting the problem back onto the phone.
If this doesn't work then it's likely you have a hardware fault and you should approach your local Nokia Service Centre to get your phone fixed.
Hope this helps.
Please let me know how you get on.
Regards,
Edward

IBook running slowly, hard drive possibly dying

My iBook has been working reasonably well (bar the occasional odd noise) but in the last few days it's started running really slowly. This morning when I switched it on, it took about fifteen minutes to start up, where it used to take about five, and then ran really slowly once it had started. I restarted and got the same problem; worked ok on the third try. It doesn't run slowly every time I turn it on, but sometimes it is just ridiculously slow and I just have to restart it until it works properly.
I took it to the computing service at my university. They said it's possible that my hard drive is on the way out. I have been told to back everything up and bring it in for diagnostics, so I'm about to get started on backing up.
If my hard drive does break down, can it be replaced, or is this the sort of situation where it's cheaper to just replace the whole thing, given the age of the computer?

What is the MHz rating of the iBook?
How much RAM is installed?
What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Sometimes things start to slow down when your hard drive has less than 5 GB of free hard drive space.
Try booting into Safe Mode. This will take awhile longer than a normal startup because it does a file check and repair of the hard disk. Once completely started up in Safe Mode, restart normally, and go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and note the S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom right of the pane. What does it say?
Select the named boot volume in the left sidebar, and repair permissions on it. A little hard drive maintenance may help things out.

IBook SE Graphite Hard Drive Question (2 parts)

Hello, all. I have been an on-again/off-again Mac user since 2006...but have used Macs now almost 100% exclusively since the end of August. And it's been great. I have enjoyed it so much that I bought an almost perfect iBook SE that was used in the Rochester School System. Clearly, this iBook sat in a storeroom for many years, because it is cosmetically and functionally perfect. (Not bad for $32)
Anyway...the hard drive is rather loud. It spins freely, and isn't making the crunching "death-soon-to-come" sounds. It's just LOUD. It sounds like a server. Question 1) Is this typical for other iBook users?
Question 2) Since the HDD replacement on iFixit looks EXTREMELY difficult, can this model iBook boot from a USB "flash drive" if need be?
Anyway...lovin' the Mac experience. (And as a professional PBX Technician, having a quality product is important to me)
John

If you own a second edition iBook with firewire i would recommend an external firewire HD. Booting from Usb 1 is extremely slow and very complicated from a stick because you need to go into open firware, i havn't done this yet, but some linux guys say it's possible.
If you want to swap the HD (the old drives were extremely loud) you can use a 50% shortcut which sounds very rude, but it is efficient.
After popping open the iBook, remove the RAM shield and the screws that are located in the lower left corner, the HD lies underneath. There is a speaker cable coming out from there which you can leave plugged it and disconnect only the other end near the speaker.
The plan is to bend the metal shield in that section upwardly (after carefully removing necessary screws, let the speaker cable slide throgh the hole) in order to get hold of the three screws holding the HD. Leave the HD cable connected to the logicboard, only disconnect the HD.

IBook crashes during hard drive boot after Panther is installed

I finally got Panther to install after using Disk Docter to check for and fix errors on 9.2.2 (I would never use with OSX) and also rebuilt the directory while booted from an OS 9 CD and running Disk Warrior from a floppy and taking out the airport card. The Panther CD told me to restart the computer after installation. During the OSX start up from the hard drive I see the the gray screen and dark gray Apple logo with the spinning gear then the computer crashes and a message appears that you need to restart your computer. After restart the same sequence of events happens again. I have tried to restart from the OSX CD and the computer also crashes and cannot start from the Disk Warrior CD either. I have also tried a Safe Mode start up and the iBook again crashed with the restart message again. When I restart in OS 9 the OS, airport and all the applications work fine. I did have Jaguar installed on this iBook until Nov. 05, but incounterred issues with it, see post "Blue sreen at start up" 10-26-05. I didn't reslove those issues then, but initialized the hard drive with OS 9 and waited until I bought 256 RAM to try to reinstall OSX. The 256 stick of RAM was bougth from ifixit (formerly pbfixit) and a guy there told me it sounds as though the logic board is bad. I explained that the iBook works fine in OS 9 but he explained that OSX is more demanding and 9 can get by with a less that perfect logic board. I even tried to reinstall the 128 MB RAM stick that was in the computer when Jaguar was installed and worked and that didn't help either. I have scoured the iBook and Panther OSX sections for any others having a similar problem, but no such luck. Maybe the guy from ifixit is right and I should be looking for a new logic board.
Thanks for any information or suggestions that you may have.
Greg

personally i hate buying new parts, especially a logic board. i usually dont express myself so well so i apologize in advance but i hope this helps. you indicate you have been inside the machine a few times. so i suggest you go back and clean up all the contacts youve touched. DO NOT USE ELECTRICAL CLEANER. it will dissolve the plastic. use a simple pencil eraser, a foam qtip [yes they have them -- try the ladies cosmetic sections at walmart]. maybe a paper towel and 99% isopropyl alchohol [97% is ok too]. be gentle and use the alchohol just a little bit on the qtip or paper towel. [just a drop]. use a magnifying glass and make sure the contacts on the memory card and where it inserts are clean enough and not bridged by dirt [or qtip or paper towel fibers either]. be careful of the ram shield not shorting the ribbon tape cables of the trackpad or keyboard. put a piece of scotch tape over the airport antenna cable end so it doesnt float around inside really shorting the board. GENTLY use the CLEAN pencil eraser on the logic board to remove any carbon tracks or dirt bridges. let it airdry, then fire it up. good luck. even if it doesnt work, at the least it will give you something to do until a new [used] logic board arrives.

Library on hard drive - dissapeared images...

Hey all
Have been using iphoto for some time and started to run out of space on my powerbook - so bought a portable hard drive and moved library on there.
Worked perfectly for 6 months, but a week ago created a second library on my powerbook for when i don't have the drive. Different name. Swapping between them using the option key on loading up - again perfect.
But in the last few days when i go to switch back to the hard drive version, I select the file - see that it is 40gb, click to open, BUT NONE OF THE PICTURES OR ALBUMS APPEAR...
I have a backup, but will have lost some current work in progress. Any ideas??
No error message, but it has said that thumbs needed updating which i said fine to...
Cheers
Ash

Ash
Why might that have happened in the first place?
A damaged database file occurs when the app is interrupted while writing to the db. A crash, a force quit, minor hard disk issues... any of these can cause the problem.
Is it alright having two libraries?
Perfectly, iPhoto Library Manager makes managing this very easy - including moving pics/albums/events between the Libraries.
do you personally use Aperture - as the reason behind all of this is that i am currently swapping between the two programs.
I use Aperture, but my family prefer iPhoto for the simplicity. So I process my own RAW's in Aperture then output the jpegs for the iPhoto Library.
Were it not for the others in the house I would have migrated over completely by now. Aperture can do everything that Aperture can, and then a whole lot more.
I have a backup from 2 weeks ago, but have done at least 15 shoots since then - if i take the file to overwrite from the backup - what will happen to the images from this period?
If you overwrite the db file then iPhoto will simply not know about those other shoots. So drag the event folders from the iPhoto Package File to the desktop and re-import them.
If I take the opportunity now to migrate everything to Aperture - can i do that whilst keeping all the originals and modified intact
Yes, use the Import iPhoto Library command.
Regards
TD

Hard Drive Dissapeared

I have a dual 867 with a 60 GB and a 160 GB hard drive. The 160GB had OS9 and OSX both. I was in OS9 today and was working on getting my DSL working. When I restarted, the computer booted up in OSX on the 60GB hard drive and the other one never showed up on the desktop. I can see the drive in Disk First Aid but no volumes and I can do anything but reformat the drive. I ran the Drive Genius Demo and there are no bad sectors. I also ran the Data Rescue II and it seems like all my files are still there. Please help. I am not going to pay $100 for a program to recover my disk but I don't want to reformat it unless I ablsolutely have to.

Hi-
Welcome to Discussions!
It's not exactly clear what you are saying, but, I assume you want to select the 160gb drive for start up?
Also, you can see the drive in disk repair, but you can or can't repair it?
For now, stop messing around with demos and such. If you can't select the drive, demos and data recovery won't help, and could make things worse.
Check your System Preferences/Startup Disk, and see if the desired drive can be selected.
Also, on restart, hold down the option key, and select the drive from the options.
If the above fail to select your disk, in the following order:
-Try a different User account
-Startup in Safe Mode, and run Disk Utility
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
-Startup from your OS install disk, and run Disk Utility
If you can't start in safe mode, or from install disk,
-Startup in single user mode, and run fsck:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
If those don't help, and your data is worth more than $100, buy DiskWarrior.
If not,.........post back, please.
G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

Ibook 800mhz hard drive recovery

I have a Ibook that is gone, long story but it got a martini bath, anyway - is there any devices that would allow me to plug the extracted ibook hardrive in as a USB or firewire drive? Like an external box i can plug the Ibook drive into and then plug it into another Imac? I want the data on the old drive. thanks for your time.
ibook g3 800, G5 imac, FTP imac, Pbook 15" Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Yes, you'll need an enclosure for a 2.5" drive. You can use either USB or Firewire, but if you want to be able to boot from it, go with Firewire (or a combination enclosure).
Here's an example: Macally 2.5" enclosure
USB-only enclosures are a little cheaper.
Obviously check the HD before you transfer it to make sure it's free of martini...
Matt

IBook crash - no hard drive found while trying to reinstall

My iBook crashed overnight, and after running a hardward test, which seemed fine, I went to reinstall OS X. Sadly, there is no destination volume showing up, as if the harddrive is not there. When I ran the hardware test, the harddrive did seem to show up. Any ideas or help greatly appreciated.

Hi Matt,
see wether resetting the PRAM/NVRAM solves your issue:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
-Petra

Hard drives dissapearing on Airport

Somewhat out of the blue, I received a warning when Airport Utility said I had a drive that was showing errors and advised me to connect directly to repair it.
I have done as suggested but now my 1TB drive - which is partitioned into 3, all of which I want to be visible on the network - is only showing 1 partition on the network.
Here's what's showing in Airpot setup:
http://is.gd/6IUv
Yet if I connect the drive directly, all of them show up OK:
http://is.gd/6IUB
I ran disk utility - chose repair at disk and partition level. First time a problem was reported but fixed. Now Disk Utility is showing no issues:
http://is.gd/6IUE
Finally here's a Get Info on all three drive when connected directly. Not sure what this will show, but to me all looks OK:
http://is.gd/6IUN
So, what should I do to get these drives visible on the Airport Extreme base station? I kinda feel that I should remove and start again ... but I'm not sure I know how to do this...
Any ideas?

Giving this a nudge as I haven't seen any replies yet. Wuld really appreciate a hand with this.

Is it feasible to install a 6 GB hard drive in my iBook?

I'll 'fess up to not being the the sharpest pencil in the box, and I probably made a fatal financial mistake.
I'm poor, and just spent my tax refund on an iBook with an AirPort card & 160 MB of memory. I do some freelance writing, & planned to use the public library's wireless internet network to email manuscripts to magazine editors. I need word processing software that can be read by PCs (I have AppleWorks 6) but I don't have enough memory to install modern software packages.
I called up the Apple Store, and then an authorized Apple repair shop. I was told that at one time Apple had 6 GB hard drives for iBooks. If I obtained this hard drive from a 3rd party I could have it installed for $60 or $70.
My gut instinct is that if I can find someone willing to part with an iBook 6 GB hard drive it will be expensive and/or at the end of it's life span. But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know about computers, I only know I can't spend hundreds of dollars unless I'm sure I'll end up with a laptop that will allow me to email manuscripts.
Should I cut my losses now, or try and find a 6 GB hard drive for my iBook?

Karen:
The average life of a laptop HDD is 3 to 5 years. Because of the architecture of the drive it begins failing with age, and performance degrades. 6 GB is too small, 10 GB is too small. The minimum HDD I would install is 20 GB, but I think you should aim for something closer to 100 GB. You seem to have the earliest iBook introduced in July 1999 and has the 300 MHz processor. It will support a drive up to 120 GB. Here is a 120 GB HDD that will serve you well for a long time.
I realize that you are anxious to get going with your project. However, I suggest that you take time to research well or you may find yourself making costly mistakes.
Good luck.
cornelius

Bad iBook G4 WiFi reception after hard-drive swap

I just replaced the hard drive in my iBook G4 with a larger one. Everything works fine except that the WiFi only works in close proximity to our Airport Extreme Router. Our other 2 current Macs and our 2 iPhones continue to have good WiFi connections. The iBook G4 had good WiFi reception before I changed out the hard drive. The stock Airport Extreme antenna connector is well-seated, and the plug and jack look fine. I disassembled the iBook and traced the antenna wiring to see I could spot any anaomolies.

Thanks, Ronda!
I just swapped the Apple M8881LL/A AirPort Extreme Card in my Power Mac G5 and my iBook G4. Both cards work perfectly in the G5. The "new" card works a little better in the iBook G4, but not anywhere near its performance in the G5 or the original AirPort card in the iBook before the hard-drive swap.
The antenna was treated with great care in the disassemblies, so I don't think it was damaged from that. What does the antenna connect to inside the iBook? Could it be that it's not making contact on one of the shields?
Any help is much appreciated!

12" 1.33Ghz iBook Hard Drive speed?

hey all,
i'm curious to know if any of you have ended up w/ 5400rpm drives in your 12" 1.33Ghz iBooks. i know of a couple ppl on a diff forum who got stock iBooks and for whatever reason they got 5400rpm 40GB drives. offhand i know there's very little price difference between the 4200 and 5400 drives, so maybe apple is just streamlining their supply line? i'm just wondering if this drive speed is common for the latest revision of the 12" iBooks even tho it isn't something they advertise on the iBook page.
thanks

The hard drive is not a user-installable part. You would void your warranty or AppleCare Protection Plan to open the iBook and install a drive yourself. Since you can't buy a bare hard drive from Apple, they won't install one you've purchased somewhere else. An Apple Authorized Service Provider could install a new hard drive for you, though, without voiding your warranty.
Apple buys hard drives on the open market. If the 4,200RPM drives become constrained, they may find some 5,400RPM drives for a good price and install those for a while. Since the hard drive speed is not specified at the online Apple store, the included component can vary.
I would ask you why, exactly, you would consider the increased cost to upgrade a hard drive like this? I can edit DV and author DVDs with the 80GB 4,200RPM drive in my 1GHz G4 PowerBook. I've NEVER had an issue with my hard drive doing these kinds of operations. You should have a very good user experience with your 4,200RPM hard drive.
-Doug

IBook G4 800MHz, Hard Drive dissapears

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for