Tiger install not recognizing hard drive

G3 desktop/400MHz/512 MB RAM/20 GB Western Digital EIDE HD/ OS X 10.4 retail install DVD.
My friend gave me the aforementioned Mac, minus the HD which he kept, but with the 10.4 install disk. The computer was working fine before.
I had a blank NTFS-formatted HD to use in it, and from reading Mac forums I knew the Mac wouldn't recognize it, so I used a PC to format it in FAT32 before the install.
Install Steps:
1. Booted, holding down the C key.
2. Selected English as the language, but didn't click Continue.
3. Went straight to Disk Utility, and the only drive it shows is the DVD drive
and the DVD itself. System Profiler shows everything but the HD.
While installing the OS I reached the "Select a Destination Volume" step, and the HD is not listed. The "Options" button is greyed out as well.
I went to the Terminal option and typed in "df -k" as a friend suggested, then went back to the "Select a Destination Volume" step, but the drive is still not listed.
Thinking it could be the drive (which was Windows-formatted and found zero errors on) I popped in another drive, with the same results. I also replaced the IDE cable, to no avail.
All cables are seated properly and the HD is receiving power.
This is my first Mac since 8.1 and I had planned on using this one to refamiliarize myself with the platform before buying a high-end model, so I'm pretty much flying blind here.
Any ideas on how to get the HD recognized?

Okay, a bunch of things.
The Blue & White model comes in different flavors. The Rev. 1 is very conservative about hard drives it will accept. I believe it was known as the "Heartbreaker"
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-database=faq.fp3&-layout=FaqList&-re sponse=answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=34020&-search
B&W will probably need a firmware update before installing OSX
[Mac OS X: Available firmware updates for upgrading from OS9 to OSX|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117]
[Mac OS X and the Blue and White G3 Firmware Update Problem|http://lowendmac.com/lab/05/0301.html] - installing Firmware 1.1 on B&W without OS9 installed.
A drive needs to be Partitioned with Disk Utility to Apple Parittion Map and formatted to HFS+ extended (journaled) to install Tiger onto it.
[Formatting & Partitioning a Hard Drive in OS X - Tiger and Leopard|http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html]
[Journaling, Zeroing, Partitioning & OS 9 driver|http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=4084]
[Kappy's extensive hard drive formatting post|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8340551&#8340551]
[BDaqua's Formatting instructions|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8901255#890125 5]
If the drive isn't being seen at all then that's something fundamental since even a Windows drive should be seen in Disk Utility. Are the jumpers set correctly on the drive? You might need to take this particular question over to the hardware forum.

Similar Messages

  • Question re: MacBook not recognizing hard drive...

    Question: When a MacBook is not recognizing it's hard drive, what are the basic steps one can take to fix?
    Have been reading through the posts the past few hours, and do see information on this, but am wondering/hoping someone can simplify a bit for me? Am not very computer savvy...
    Would so greatly appreciate any help

    Boot from your Install DVD and go to Disk Utility and find the hard drive from there and repair it.
    If DU can't find the HD then it's probably defective.

  • PowerMac G4 MDD Dual 1.42 not recognizing hard drives

    I have a PowerMac G4 MDD Dual 1.42 GHz, and I just moved across country, and it was working before the move, now it won't start up. It goes right to a grey screen with a blinking question mark and finder icon. I have 2 hard drives in it. One with Leopard, and the other with Tiger, and it won't recognize either. I reset the PRAM, I checked all the connections inside, started it up holding the option key and it doesn't show either hard drive. I also started it up with the Leopard install disc and using Disk Utility it still couldn't find the drives! Next thing I am going to try is resetting the PMU and see if that works...otherwise both hard drives went bad or possibly the cable for both of them went bad??

    operati0n69er wrote:
    ... I checked all the connections inside...
    When you checked the cable connections, did you check both ends of all cables? For example, if the moving loosened the ATA cable at the logicboard/controller end, checking the drives' connectors won't reveal much.
    Do the drives spin up when you power the machine on (you may need to open the side panel and gently touch the drives while booting to test this)? If not, suspect a power cable connection issue. If they do, suspect an ATA cable connection issue.
    Best way to confirm a cable connection is sound is to undo it and redo it - they can look okay when they are not okay. Do this with the machine shut down, of course.

  • New Operating System Not Recognizing Hard Drive

    I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro's operating system to a OSX Maverisks and afterwards, my computer no longer recognized my Toshiba hard drive. Why is this and what can I do to fix it? Thanks!

    Hi, Mark:
    Is your new hard drive being recognized in the BIOS? 
    If not, none of the info you posted matters. There are no drivers needed for the BIOS to recognize that a hard drive is installed.
    If you are trying to install windows vista or windows 7 using microsoft OEM DVD's, again, there are no drivers to install as they are included with the installation disk.
    If you are trying to install W7 with a set of HP recovery disks, you may need this patch:
    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-80183-1&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en
    If you are installing windows XP, the information you posted applies. XP does not have the SATA drivers necessary to install the operating system.
    If you are installing XP, I will send you the link to the SATA ACHI drivers you need.
    Paul

  • After unsuccessfully updating to Yosemite, back on Mavericks. But now my Timemachine or system not recognizing hard drive.

    After unsuccessfully updating to Yosemite, back on Mavericks. But now my Timemachine or system not recognizing the hard drive. Is there any way to manually locate or find the hard drive?

    Hi kruione,
    If you are having an issue with an external drive not being detected by your iMac, I would suggest resetting the computer's parameter RAM. See this article for how -
    OS X Mavericks: Reset your computer's PRAM - Apple
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Best,
    Brett L 

  • Disk Utility Not Recognizing Hard Drive - PLEASE HELP!!

    So, I just bought this Power Mac G4 from a friend to run my Digidesign hardware. I turned it on this afternoon to install the Apple software for the wireless mighty mouse. When I turned the computer on, the second hard drive was not present in Finder, and I could not locate it in Disk Utility.
    I have two hard drives present in the computer ... the 120gb main hard drive and this 2nd internal 80gb hard drive. I'm not very "tech savvy" with the comptuer outside of running protools ...
    Does anyone know what the problem could be? Or is it likely that the hard drive just fried??
    Thanks,
    Justin

    When two hard drives are attached to the same data ribbon cable, connected to the same IDE controller, one drive must be configured as "master," and the other drive configured as "slave." This is accomplished by placing a plastic jumper (sometimes two jumpers) across a specific pair (or pairs) of pins on the back end of the drive. If the manufacturer didn't apply a label to the drive with jumper designations, the user manual or manufacturer's web site will have the info needed for that specific hard drive. The drive connected at the end of the ribbon cable should be configured as master, and the drive connected to the middle connector as slave. If the 80 GB drive isn't mounting, it's probably configured the same as the 120 GB, so check both drives.

  • I have just installed a new hard drive in my imac intel 20" (2006) and now the hard drive does not show up in the 'select destinations' folder of the install program.

    I have just installed a new hard drive in my imac intel 20" (2006) and upgraded the memory and now the hard drive does not show up in the 'select destinations' folder of the install program. I can see the hard drive in the disk utilities window however it wont let me do anything.
    It is a seagate 1TB SATA II drive however it is displaying it as a 7.3 TB.
    If anyone has any suggestions I would be happy to hear them.
    I have tried to erase and partition and get the same error message each time, 'Input/Output error'.
    I have tried starting the thing with the install disk which is Mac OS X (Tiger?) which came with the computer. No good.
    Anyone?

    Thats correct. I can see it in the list however when I attempt to erase it or partition it it's like it's not being found or recognised and it throws up the input/output error message. I am pretty sure that the sensor it attached correctly and it is a SATA drive. I can see all the infor regarding the drive when disk utility is open and it all looks good but I cant access it or do anything with it. It's taunting me!
    The install disk is in the drive and the install program runs right up to the point where you have to select the location for the install and there is just nothing in the box where you have to select the hard drive icon.
    I have my suspiscions about the drive but any help would be appreciated.

  • Installing Mac OS X Tiger on an external hard drive

    I was wondering how to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on an external hard drive. I have a 40GB USB/Firewire LaCie Mobile Hard Drive.
    I've tried using disk utility to convert it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but when I attempt install Mac OS Tiger from the system disc after restarting the computer, it shows the available disks that Tiger can be installed on and the ones it can't be installed on, and my external drive shows up as one that it can't be installed on for some reason.
    I don't really want to clone my internal hard drive to the external one, but instead want to just be able to use my external hard drive as a mobile startup disk where I can work on files using other Mac computers when I'm away from home.
    Any suggestions?
    Apple Mac mini (late 2005)   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   PowerMac10,2: 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, BT/AE...

    I've tried using disk utility to convert it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but when I attempt install Mac OS Tiger from the system disc after restarting the computer, it shows the available disks that Tiger can be installed on and the ones it can't be installed on, and my external drive shows up as one that it can't be installed on for some reason.
    What did you do in DU? Erase? Partition? and what was it before? or just to enable journaling? What is on the LaCie now and does it have adequate space?
    Do you have an upgrade Tiger disk?
    And why not just clone the system using CCC and skipping /Users and other directories you want to skip?
    One last thing: click on the volume and do a Get Info and make sure that Ignore Ownership is not selected.

  • I sent my 17inch mac pro to apple to install a new hard drive and my mountain lion was not on it when i got it back, using the same apple id i tried to re download it but it says i have to pay

    i sent my 17inch mac pro to apple to install a new hard drive and my mountain lion was not on it when i got it back, using the same apple id i tried to re download it but it says i have to pay

    never mind i got it by going into my account and veiwing hidden items and there it was

  • Please could somebody help me I have an iMac which came with Tiger 10.4.10 installed I have lost my disks and I need to re-install after a hard drive failure. Where can I find this? I will upgrade to Snow Leopard after but I cannot go straight to SL

    Please could somebody help me I have an iMac which came with Tiger 10.4.10 installed I have lost my disks and I need to re-install after a hard drive failure. Where can I find this? I will upgrade to Snow Leopard after but I cannot go straight to SL

    You can go strait to SL, all you need is a retail SL DVD available from Apple for $20. The US online store has them at:
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

  • I want to install a new hard drive on my 2008 MacBook but do not have the instillation discs that came with my computer.  Can I use instillation discs from a 2009 or 2010 MacBook?

    I want to install a new hard drive on my 2008 MacBook but do not have the instillation discs that came with my computer.  Can I use instillation discs from a 2009 or 2010 MacBook?  The hard drive I am planning to install is a WD Scorpio Black 500GB SATA 2.5'' internal hard drive.

    Sometimes they do work - i've done it before.  I have a late 2008 Macbook Uni and used the install dvd of my 2009 Macbook White and it worked.
    Why not just clone your hard drive?  It'll save you a lot of time doing a clone rather than doing a clean install.
    Unless you're having issues with your old set up or  your old hard drive is dead.
    You can download Carbon Copy Cloner - install your new hard drive in a external usb enclosure (around $10) and clone fromt here then test it before you install it in your Macbook.
    Once you've done the swap, you can install your old hard drive in the USB enclosure and use it as a backup drive.
    Good luck

  • MacBook Pro 2010: Flashing folder w/? on not responding to startup keys & I'm trying to install a new hard drive, can anyone help?

    MacBook Pro 2010: Flashing folder w/? on not responding to startup keys & I'm trying to install a new hard drive, can anyone help?

    Thanks. It started up com that disk but when I went to install it had an error message (didn't get to write out what it said). So I attempted to restore from time machine but it said there was no space, even though it's a new (replacement under warranty) HGST 1TB HD,  so I did what  I think was right and tried to partition the disk but it now says 'Partition faild...POSIX report...cannot allocate memory'.  im not sure what to do, and I'm trying to remember how the previous hd was installed and formatted for use but that was over a year ago now. Should have erased the hd first or something?

  • Keep getting a "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" when I insert my printer cord into either USB port.  Recently installed a portable hard drive for back up purposes.  Related?

    Keep getting a "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" when I insert my printer cord into either USB port.  Recently installed a portable hard drive for back up purposes.  Related?

    Does your printer have a slot for an SD card?  Is there are card in the slot?  If so, the computer is trying to mount that card as an external device.  It might be corrupted so that it can't be read.

  • Installing Tiger on a new hard drive

    I recently intsalled a 300gb hard drive in my computor and I got disk utility to recognize the full capacity by installing Speedtools ATA hi-cap support driver. But when I try to install the OS, it won't let me. So then I tried the option "erase and install" and Tiger installed just fine but now reads the hard drive as 128gb total. I've tried everything I can think of to get around this obstacle, but I'm obviously doing something wrong. please help this is very frustrating.

    thanks for your reply, but I don't know if thats the problem. The capacity shows 279.5gb but the available space is only 122.9gb. I know this can't be correct because the only thing I've installed on the hard drive is OSX Tiger. how do I allow the full capacity to be used? I tried patitioning it but that erased OSX.

  • Trouble installing itunes: install to ext. hard drive not C

    I can not install itunes as it tries to install to external hard drive not internal drive C. I have followed recommendations in troubleshooting on website but no avail. Any suggestions?

    Thanks for reply. I have cleaned everything itunes off system. Have run windows install clean up but no itunes there. Still gives me error message that drive k is invalid. Drive k is my external hard drive which I have disconnected. I want it to install on c drive.

Maybe you are looking for