PowerBook will not load up OS X (blank grey screen)

I removed the hard drive of my girlfriends powerbook 12" (867) last night to run some diagnostics in another machine. When I replaced the hard drive again, (btw i used www.ifixit.com for a guide), it just displays the grey boot screen minus the apple sign or grey/coloured whizzy wheel. The hard drive engages, but then you cannot hear it loading the OS.
Does anyone know what could be the problem?
Any pointers? I didn't mess anything up with the change, and have done it with my 15" countless times.
Thanks for your help
Alex

Alex:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Removing the HDD and using it to run diagnoztics on another mac is a bit unconventional and very intrusive. Booting from the installer disk and running Disk Utility, or using a utility like Tech Tool Pro, Disk Warrior, or DriveGenius would be much safer and more effective. If you don't have either installer disks or the utilities mentioned, you could try starting up in Safe Mode or Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck. If you have utilities on another computer you want to use, Firewire Target Disk Mode will accomplish the same thing without the risk and invasiveness.
Please understand that it is not my intention to lecture after the fact, but to offer safer, less invasive, more effective options for future use.
Now to the problem at hand. If the HDD worked well before removal, and if you are sure that the re-installation process was done properly, check to be sure that you do not have a pinched HDD cable, make sure that everything is tight, including the HDD connector. Try booting the computer from the install disk and see if it starts up properly. If you are able to do that, go to the Utilities menu and launch Disk Utility. See if the HDD shows up in the sidebar. If it does, select the HDD (Manufacturer ID), click on the First Aid tab and run Repair Disk.
Please do post back with further questions or update.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

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