Bronze powerbook won't recognize hard drive

[jeffisme]

I just bought a used bronze powerbook. When I turn it on with the g3 disk in the drive, it recognizes only the cd (os 8.6), not the hard drive, which has osx on it. If I start the powerbook without the cd in the drive, I get only the blinking file folder. I tried disk first aid, but it doesn't see the hard drive either.

The odd thing is the first time I turned the computer, it did recognize the hard drive, and it did one other time as well.

I removed the drive and checked it on my blue and white G3, and it's fine. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,

jeff

 

[awulf]

I assume you don't see the HD either when you boot up from the CD so this is pretty odd.

It could be a problem with the logic board, maybe the Hard disk isn't receiving enough power, maybe it is something wrong wrong with the HD it self or it could be the Firmware or Parameter RAM has some corrupted settings. Try resetting the PRAM (hold down Command-Option-P-R as soon as you turn it on, for 3 chimes).
To reset the NVRAM hold down Command-Option-O-F when you turn on the computer, then you will see a command prompt, type in 'rest-NVRAM' enter and then type in 'reset-all' enter.

Don't know what else you could do.