iBook's Hard Drive Not Displaying

[SLCentral]

Hey guys,

My friend dropped off her laptop at my house today for me to fix, and there seems to be a pretty major problem. She told me that she was using her iBook, and it froze, so she had to press the button down to turn it off. When she turned it back on, she got the folder/question mark error when booting up.

So, I loaded the OS X Install CD, hoping to either change the startup disk (as it maybe got mixed up), or do an Archive and Install. However, the startup disk is not even visable in Disk Utility. It's pretty much saying there is no HD in the computer!

I just tried resetting the PRAM, with no luck. Any ideas?

How much does this cost for Apple to fix this?


Accidently put this in Software...if a Mod could move it, that would be great.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Hi, just to make sure I'm reading this right the HDD icon is not visible nor is the install disc? I have seen this once and only once from school. The HDD went bad and had to be replaced but that maybe a total diff. event than what has happened here.
You did try to start up with the install cd more than once and got the same thing both times? Also did you try to use the FW mode to see if you could get any files (just incase the drive was bad this might help you to make sure either way). Other than that I really can't help much more, good luck.

 

[me_94501]

Hey guys,

My friend dropped off her laptop at my house today for me to fix, and there seems to be a pretty major problem. She told me that she was using her iBook, and it froze, so she had to press the button down to turn it off. When she turned it back on, she got the folder/question mark error when booting up.

So, I loaded the OS X Install CD, hoping to either change the startup disk (as it maybe got mixed up), or do an Archive and Install. However, the startup disk is not even visable in Disk Utility. It's pretty much saying there is no HD in the computer!

I just tried resetting the PRAM, with no luck. Any ideas?

How much does this cost for Apple to fix this?


Accidently put this in Software...if a Mod could move it, that would be great.

Sounds like the hard drive to me. Same thing happened to my G3 iBook.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Does it appear in Disk Utility? (Installer Menu->Disk Utility)

It might be the installer CANNOT install onto the drive, so it isn't showing, but you can repair/wipe it in Disk Utility.

 

[SLCentral]

Does it appear in Disk Utility? (Installer Menu->Disk Utility)

It might be the installer CANNOT install onto the drive, so it isn't showing, but you can repair/wipe it in Disk Utility.

Nope, not in Disk Utility.

Apparently Apple charges $700 to replace the HD, while CompUSA charges just $160 + HD cost. What a ripoff.

 

[ricebag]

Same problem

If I understand you right, I had the same problem. My (relatively) new Powerbook G4 (12") restarted to a kernel panic. I booted from the original CD and checked out Disk Utility, and while the drive showed up the volume was grayed out. I had to wipe the drive and reinstall, losing some files. Since then, I've been pretty good about backing things up...