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help! new hard drive not recognized by comp

M

mantis15

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 23, 2007
3
0
Hi, i just installed a new hard drive on my g3 ibook. After finding out my hard drive was dead (due to the flashing question mark box!)

But now, it wont let me eject the cd and therefore i cant get into the disk utility and install osx onto my computer!

I have tried to manually put the cd in and hold down 'c' key at startup but still it has no effect. I know it is not recognizing the new hard drive as I even put in the previously defective hard drive and used the eject key which worked before crashing my comp!

is there anyway to bypass this flashing question mark and installing osx on my comp??

Any help would be greatfully appreciated!:confused:
 
Not sure that I understand your question-
Is it that you can't eject the CD? - if so, hold the mouse button as you're booting
Is it that the CD is in, but you can't get it to boot? If that's what's going on, then try zapping the PRAM- hold down apple-option-p-r on boot. Then you should be able to run from the CD.
A flashing question mark doesn't necessariliy mean that your HD is dead. It could also mean that there is no bootable system on it.
Try booting while holding down the D key- this performs a hardware check on everything that's on your iBook.
Let me know if any of this works.
 
there is a manual eject on the CD drive (little hole, stick in a paperclip).

I too am not clear on the problem exactly. Are you talking about the install CD (Panther?) If so, you will be wanting to boot from the CD (see above post on getting this to work). Holding down the option key on startup should also allow you to boot from the CD (after selecting that option at the blue screen). There is a disk utility available on the install CD, but performing a clean install will also reformant the new drive before installing the OS.
 
Hi guys

Hey guys thanks for replying to my thread. You see i cant get the cd to work at all, ive tried holding down 'c' and 'd' at startup but it doesnt seem to get passed the flashy question mark box. I also tried zapping the PRAM but it didnt seem to do anything different. Holding the option key also leads me to the screen with a button - arrow pointing right and a refresh button but ive tried clicking on these and they do nothing.

This is y i dont think my cd drive is working at all or i would have of been able to get into the install screen. But it doesnt seem to be working now.

Have you guys got any clue as to what is going on with my poor little mac...:confused:

thanks
 
will it boot into transfer mode (hold "T" on startup)? IF, you had another Mac, you could connect the two via firewire, start the iBook in T-mode, and see if you can acces the iBook HD. You could also install the system that way (common way to install 10.4 on non-DVD iBooks)
 
BSL4 Guy said:
will it boot into transfer mode (hold "T" on startup)? IF, you had another Mac, you could connect the two via firewire, start the iBook in T-mode, and see if you can acces the iBook HD. You could also install the system that way (common way to install 10.4 on non-DVD iBooks)
Click to expand...

That actually brings up a good question. Are you trying to install a 10.4 disk on an iBook with only a CD drive? Silly question, I know, but I thought I might ask.
This sounds like its a bigger issue than we thought. Zapping the PRAM, and holding the d key are system commands, which should work if you didn't have an HD or a CD-drive in the computer. Hate to sound pessimistic, but it sounds like the motherboard is simply not finding your peripherals. Bummer :(
 
Hey guys,

You see i can zap the pram and it does restart the system. but it doesnt seem to be recognizing the cd drive. -thats wot i reckon. And no its a dvd drive im sure. :) What does holding the 'd' key do cus that didnt really do anything.

I tried holding the 't' button on startup and all it does is keep the screen blank. But i guess thats wot its supposed to do if im trying to 'connect' 2 computers together.

i might try finding starting up in t-mode so fingers crossed
 
mantis15 said:
Hey guys,

You see i can zap the pram and it does restart the system. but it doesnt seem to be recognizing the cd drive. -thats wot i reckon. And no its a dvd drive im sure. :) What does holding the 'd' key do cus that didnt really do anything.

I tried holding the 't' button on startup and all it does is keep the screen blank. But i guess thats wot its supposed to do if im trying to 'connect' 2 computers together.

i might try finding starting up in t-mode so fingers crossed
Click to expand...

holding the "t" at startup is indeed transfer mode. You should see a blue screen with the firewire symbol.
 
Hi all, I just joined this forum because i have an exactly the same issue but on a Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz.

Description of the problem:
Well one of the days one of the Powerbook G4's decided to crap out and the DVD/CD drive stopped being recognized in the computer. This computer has a Toshiba 80 GB hard drive (there is a reason to why I said the hard drive type, I will tell you below ;) )

When I go to the System Profiler and look at Disc Burning it says "No burning device was found. If you are using an external device please make sure that it is connected and powered properly"

The CD drive will take CD/DvD's, they spin up and slow down, but will not eject them. Pressing the eject key in OS 10 doesn't do anything, not even if you press the mouse button on boot, pressing "c" on boot doesn't work, pressing the "option" key while booting doesn't find it either.

I have another 1.67Ghz Powerbook G4, it is a fully working one. This computer has a 60GB hard drive, I believe a Toshiba also.

What I did:
So I took both of the computer apart and took the Hard drive from laptop B, and put in in laptop A.

Start up the first laptop and the CD drive is being detected by OS 10. Fully working, ejects the CD on boot and in OS 10.

I take the hard drive from laptop A and put it in laptop B and the darnest thing happens, the CD drive doesn't work anymore!!!
I put in a Mac reinstall disc and try to boot from it, but the laptop doesn't recognize it, and I can't get the CD out.

So I unplug the hard drive from the computer and boot it up, since there is no hard drive it goes to boot from the CD and boots into the window were you can reinstall OS 10.

So whats going on?
It seems like this 80GB Toshiba hard drive is the reason the CD drive is not working! So just to make sure, I took the original 60GB hard drive and put it back, and the CD drive is working fine again.

I have another 60GB HD laying around, it's a HITACHI TravelStar, its a normal Windows HD, doesn't have any Mac logos like the other two had. I tried to use it. Had to format and install the OS via Firewire and still nothing!

So what my guess is, the working hard drive has some kind of special firmware on it, or some kind of a water mark that just lets it work. I guess it might be another way to keep people from installing new Hard Drives...


I hope mantis15 is having the same issue, so that we could hit 2 birds with one stone.

Please ask me questions or for details I will try to do my best to answer them or give you that information.
 
It really seems like the CD drive looses the power/connection when the hard drive is present. But when there is no hard drive, everything works like a charm.
 
Alright so here is more food for thought....

Here is the information about working and everything else (not working):

Compatible Hard Drive: Toshiba MK6025GAS, DC+5V 0.7A
Noncompatible Hard Drive: Toshiba MK8026GAX, DC+5v 1.0A

What does this mean? The non working drive eats up more power, so there is not enough power to the CD drive, this explains why it would work when the HD is not present.

But here is a thing that ruins that theory:
Seagate ST9100823A, +5v 0.46A

This thing is driving me nuts, I have gutted 2 15" powerbooks and one 17" powerbook and interchanged the parts and still nothing! I must say, I hate macs a good bit!
 
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