Help, Ibook does not recognize new Hard Drive

Hi guys,

I have an ibook g4 1.2 ghz 14 inch model with the 60 gig HD runnig Os X. One day, it start freezing up, and when I restart it, it would be fine. However, after a couple of day, it would not longer boot and I would get the folder with finder and question mark. I ran the hardware test on the CD, and it said I had a mass storage error. So, I went and bought a new hd and put it in. (another hitachi one, exactly the same). So i boot it up, run the hard ware test and it is fine. Then I go about installing os x and stuff, and everything is fine. However, on my first restart a couple of hours later, my computer no longer boots up again. I run disk utility, and it does not see any Hard drives, and when i reattempt to install my os x, it can not find a destination folder. What is going on? Also, I have the old HD from my ibook that I put in my external Hd case. If this thing is not actully broken, can I use it to boot through the usb 2.0 drive on my mac? I tried to plug it in, but for some reason no power goes to it, but if i plug it to my desktop, it powers up. (the light on the case)

Thanks for your help,

David

Thanks for the tips.

Damn i bought an external usb 2.0 drive because I didn't want to pay the extra 20 dollars lol. So lets say I got a firewire one. Would i be able to run my laptop off that drive exclusively?

has anyone have thsi problem before? Just a few minutes ago, after many restarts, I manage to get into my operating system. From there, I found that my old hard drive actually still works. However, after restarting, I am back to the same problem. Could this be an issue with the little orange cable failing? I really don't know what to do now. Please help.

Have you guys ever heard of the cable failing? Do I really need to take it to a technician? I have taken it apart to replace the HD, and manage to put it back together and it does run, very rarely though. If it is as simple as replacing the cable, given that I have replaced the HD, I can probaly do this on my own as well right? I know of this one site called ifixit.com where I buy my stuff, but they don't have the cable in stock. Where else can I buy this cable from?

thank you,
David