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Dropped ibook-no destination volume on reboot

brobson

brobson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2004
512
6
Dallas
I dropped the ibook. No visible damage but a tiny crack in the screen case.
When I turn it on there is a blinking folder/question mark.
Tried to do an install w/ OSX disc in the drive (holding down C) and when the install disk gets to Select a Destination there's no icon.

I tried the utilities repair on the disk but again no volume comes up.

Tried resetting pram. No dice.

What am I dealing with here boys?
My ibook only cost $500 I don't know if it's worth repairing if it's outrageous.

Please, please help:(
 
hmmm

I would say if you don't have a warranty and don't mind opening it up yourself... I would say check to see if physically your hard-drive became unplugged from the board (which I kinda doubt) otherwise it is a dead hard drive. You could order a new one and install it yourself. It might cost you 2-300 in apple repair probably. So you would save some cash-ola.
This happened to my now dead for other reasons g4 powerbook. at least your logic board etc sounds like it's in good shape.
I would say though see if anyone else reiterates my response... seek a second opinion. ;-)
all the best
~bv:apple:
 
Looks like two possibilities.

1) As was already mentioned, you might have totally crashed your hard drive. This seems a little unlikely to me, but it is possible. If that's the case, your data is gone, but it's not too hard to fix (see below).

2) You may have jarred a connection loose. This, too, isn't too hard to fix, but I'd be leery of a hard drive that's taken a fall like that. It may well die at some point soon, in any event.

In either case, you can simply buy a new hard drive and either have someone else install it (if you're shy about such things), or install it yourself. There are plenty of good, step-by-step instructions about how to do that around on the web.

If it is just a loose cable, you might consider getting an external enclosure and putting your old hard drive in that. Then you can use it as a back-up drive, or something. The reduced usage of not having it as your primary volume could significantly increase its life.

Hope this helps!
 
thanks

AAh I feel so stupid for dropping it. Thankfully I have an imac


Does anyone have a good (inexpensive) recommendation for a new HD? It's a G4 white ibook. I am brave enough to try to install it.

Thanks so much for the quick reply
 
Before you buy anything or pop the iBook open, I would try booting in Target Disk Mode (TDM). Hold down "T" when booting to get into TDM.

If you have a 6-pin Firewire cable, and if the iBook boots up in TDM, you could at least copy over any files you really need onto the iMac.

One thing to listen for. When you try booting, can you hear the HDD spin up? If not, it might be really dead.
 
ftaok said:
Before you buy anything or pop the iBook open, I would try booting in Target Disk Mode (TDM). Hold down "T" when booting to get into TDM.

If you have a 6-pin Firewire cable, and if the iBook boots up in TDM, you could at least copy over any files you really need onto the iMac.

One thing to listen for. When you try booting, can you hear the HDD spin up? If not, it might be really dead.
Click to expand...

It did work but there is nothing on the screen.
It just shows the floating T and battery life. Cursor doesn't appear

I do hear the hardrive spinning but after I got the keyboard airport removed I decided I am out of my league here I guess I'll take it in
 
brobson said:
It did work but there is nothing on the screen.
It just shows the floating T and battery life. Cursor doesn't appear

I do hear the hardrive spinning but after I got the keyboard airport removed I decided I am out of my league here I guess I'll take it in
Click to expand...

Floating "T" meaning like the Firewire symbol? If so, then TDM worked. Now what you do is connect the iBook to your iMac using a Firewire cable and you'll be able to use the iBook as if it were an external HDD.

You can then grab files off of the iBook's HDD if you need.

ft
 
Rats

I bought a new harddrive and installed it and it still doesn't detect it.
Any suggestions as to what it might be now?

I do see it in my disk utility on the startup disk.
Brenda
 
No one has a suggestion?

I don't know whether to take it in or get a new one. Apple wanted $500 to put in a new HD and I know a 3rd party would be cheaper but the new hardrive I put in didn't work.
 
brobson said:
I bought a new harddrive and installed it and it still doesn't detect it.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by "installed it"? Did you open up the iBook and put in the new hard drive?

If you bought an external hard drive, hopefully, you bought one with Firewire. Try connecting it via Firewire and you'll be able to install the system on it.

But first things first. Did you try TDM with the iBook and successfully connect it to the iMac? You might be able to see just how damaged the iBook is.

It sounds like the hard drive still works, but maybe something is wrong on the logic board, which would be bad.

Any suggestions as to what it might be now?

I do see it in my disk utility on the startup disk.
Brenda
Click to expand...
Try the stuff I listed above.

Maybe list out everything that you've tried with more explicit explanations. It makes it easier to diagnose the problem.

Good Luck

ft
 
ftaok said:
What do you mean by "installed it"? Did you open up the iBook and put in the new hard drive?

If you bought an external hard drive, hopefully, you bought one with Firewire. Try connecting it via Firewire and you'll be able to install the system on it.

But first things first. Did you try TDM with the iBook and successfully connect it to the iMac? You might be able to see just how damaged the iBook is.

It sounds like the hard drive still works, but maybe something is wrong on the logic board, which would be bad.

Try the stuff I listed above.

Maybe list out everything that you've tried with more explicit explanations. It makes it easier to diagnose the problem.

Good Luck

ft
Click to expand...


I have done everything I stated above. Used the firewire and restarted on T and only got floating t's I could not see a volume on my good computer,tried resetting the pram, finally I replaced the HD.
It still doesn't show up.
I am at the Disk Utility part of my software install and I can see the hd there.

I see in the left hand side the HD (74.5 GB MATSHITACD-R)
I can Get info about it
First Aid does nothing
Erase
Partition
RAID (I can drag it here but don't know what to do)
Restore
What exactly do I do now?
 
brobson said:
I have done everything I stated above. Used the firewire and restarted on T and only got floating t's I could not see a volume on my good computer,tried resetting the pram, finally I replaced the HD.
It still doesn't show up.
I am at the Disk Utility part of my software install and I can see the hd there.

I see in the left hand side the HD (74.5 GB MATSHITACD-R)
I can Get info about it
First Aid does nothing
Erase
Partition
RAID (I can drag it here but don't know what to do)
Restore
What exactly do I do now?
Click to expand...
if you have a new HD installed, can you reinstall the OS onto it?

I'm really confused now because you said ...

1. You've done TDM and the iBook has the floating T's, but your good computer (I'm assuming the iMac) doesn't see it. Have you connected the iBook to the iMac using a Firewire cable?

2. You've installed a new HDD into the iBook and you can see it in Disk Utility, but nothing else. What does this mean? Have you installed OS X on the new HDD?

3. What did you do with the old HDD? I know that you probably don't want to spend any more money, but you might want to get a nice 2.5" IDE external hard drive enclosure. For maximum flexibilty, get one with Firewire and USB2. You'll be able to use the original iBook HDD as a back-up drive, assuming it's not damaged. Also, you can boot from the external drive by holding Option when starting up.

It's really hard to figure this out. Maybe I'm just dense. I really want to help, but some of the terminology seems to be getting in the way.

ft
 
You will never believe this!!

It all boiled down to not knowing I had to format the new HD.
After that it was a piece of cake.

You will never believe this!!

I transferred all I needed and unhooked my G5 from the firewire and my G5 went into a kernal panic.
3 times!

I have had trouble with it and thank goodness there was a few days left of my warranty.

They've replaced the hd and logic board 2 times!

I am taking it in today unless you have any suggestions.

I would have lost EVERYTHING! I am buying an external hd today
 
New Dilemma

The airport only works when I am right beside the router.
Any suggestions as to why this might be and what I can do?
You guys have been lifesavers so far.
Brenda
 
brobson said:
The airport only works when I am right beside the router.
Any suggestions as to why this might be and what I can do?
You guys have been lifesavers so far.
Brenda
Click to expand...

When you popped open the iBook to replace the HDD, you needed to unplug the Airport antenna cable.

Any chance you forgot to reattach the Airport antenna cable?

On my iBook, the Airport card and cable are under the keyboard.

ft
 
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