boot failure after upgrade to OS X 10.5.6

[dizzybee23]

Hi -

My 17" G4 powerbook was running on 10.3.9. Yesterday I increased the ram to 2 BG then installed 10.5.6 and it seemed to work fine. Suddenly the computer froze. I could not get to "force quit" and ended up forcing a shut down. Now the computer won't reboot (I've tried safe mode and still just get the grey page with spinning circle). I tried to reinstall Leopard but the installer can't find a hard drive.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'd appreciate any help. Thanks,
-Karen

 

[Sun Baked]

If the drive is nearing the end of its life, the stress of continuously writing all the data to install an OS can basically end the drives life.

Basically, if you were having random freezes every now and then this could have been a sign of a dying drive, and if you decide to reinstall/upgrade the OS to fix the problem ...

 

[dizzybee23]

dying drives

So does an old drive mean that the computer is dead? I just put money into the RAM upgrade, and I'd hate that to go to waste.

 

[Sun Baked]

Replace it, if you are looking for a cheap 80GB Notebook ATA drive, might be $40 or less.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Se... Hard Disk Drive&Ntk=Primary&N=0&Ns=P_Price|0

Don't have to get it from a Mac shop, all you need from one of them is instructions on taking the machine apart. And a cheap laptop drive from Bob's Bargain Bin with a decent warranty.