New internal drive in powerbook not recognized

[zeeple]

Hi All,

I am hoping someone here recognizes this phenomenon. I recently went through the very arduous process of replacing the harddrive in my aluminum G4 12" PowerBook. The process was a complete pain in the rear, and I ended up ripping a socket off the motherboard.

I got the socket soldered back on and the internal hard drive replaced, but when I go through the install procedure, the new hard drive is not recognized. The first thought, of course, is that the brand new drive is not compatible with Macs. I do not believe this to be the case, it is a WD Scorpio drive, this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ES84BK

Is it possible this drive really is not compatible with Macs?

Is there something else I have to do to it before I try to install OSX on it? Format it somehow, for example?

Thanks!

 

[bartelby]

Formatting would probably be a good idea.

When you've started up from the install disk you can launch Disk Utility. From there you can format the drive.

 

[notengolegs]

Did you solder it back on yourself?

 

[zeeple]

Did you solder it back on yourself?

Yes I did. It was my first experience with a soldering iron and it took me the better part of two hours to figure out how to go about it. Part of the problem was that what I ripped off the logic board was the socket where you plug in the wires that lead back to the power button. Which, if there were another way to turn the pbook on, I would have left dangling no problem. Unfortunately there is no other way to turn it on. Also complicating matters is that socket has two distinct leads connecting to the LB, which must be soldered separately, and which must not be connected (except by the power button when you push it). It was quite difficult to work in that tiny space, I assure you.

 

[davinche]

Hi All,

I am hoping someone here recognizes this phenomenon. I recently went through the very arduous process of replacing the harddrive in my aluminum G4 12" PowerBook. The process was a complete pain in the rear, and I ended up ripping a socket off the motherboard.

I got the socket soldered back on and the internal hard drive replaced, but when I go through the install procedure, the new hard drive is not recognized. The first thought, of course, is that the brand new drive is not compatible with Macs. I do not believe this to be the case, it is a WD Scorpio drive, this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ES84BK

Is it possible this drive really is not compatible with Macs?

Is there something else I have to do to it before I try to install OSX on it? Format it somehow, for example?

Thanks!

You must have damaged something else on the motherboard as their is no reason that drive wouldn't run in that Powerbook. It is under 137GB so you are not hitting the 137GB limitation of some chipsets. There are no different ide specs that could be causing your problem. The only thing I can think of is that maybe there is a jumper on the drive causing the issue. Have you tried connecting the drive to something else to make sure you don't have a dead drive?

 

[zeeple]

Thanks Davinche for the suggestion. I have not tried connecting it to anything else yet. To do so would require that I once again dismantle the intricate puzzle that is the 12" powerbook. I am loathe to do so, but if the disk utility doesn't help me then I recognize that I might have to...

 

[davinche]

Thanks Davinche for the suggestion. I have not tried connecting it to anything else yet. To do so would require that I once again dismantle the intricate puzzle that is the 12" powerbook. I am loathe to do so, but if the disk utility doesn't help me then I recognize that I might have to...

It might work for you but I know when I've installed new disks in my Apple laptops I've never had to format beforehand using Disk Utility. The drives were recognized by the OS Installer Disc and it would format during the install.

 

[zeeple]

I went into the disk utility and the disk was seen there. I created a volume and when I went back to the installer, the volume I create was recognized but it had a red exclamation point on it and said:

"you cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. You cannot start up your computer using this volume."

 

[yippy]

What format did you make the volume? And it might matter what boot scheme you choose (if it gives you a choice).

 

[joekix]

you need to reformat in apple partition map

 

[zeeple]

What format did you make the volume? And it might matter what boot scheme you choose (if it gives you a choice).

I chose Mac OS Extended the first time and Mac OS Extended with Journaling the second time, both with the same results. I did not get the choice of boot scheme.

 

[zeeple]

you need to reformat in apple partition map

How does one do that?

 

[joekix]

How does one do that?

disk utility/ partition/ options/ choose apple partition map

 

[zeeple]

disk utility/ partition/ options/ choose apple partition map

Huh. No Options. Do you think it could be something else? Would I be better off picking up a copy of Leopard? I am using the 10.3 disks that the pbook came with.

 

[yippy]

Oh, only Leopard I believe has the boot options. Panther doesn't and if those were the original install disks that came with the computer they should definatly work.

Are you saying that when you get to the step where you pick the volume to install to, nothing shows up? If you really did format it (I suggest not using the partition section but just the erase section) to Mac OS Extended there is no reason it shouldn't work.

Try this:
Put in the original grey install disk. Restart the computer holding the option key. After a little while you should be able to choose the Apple Hardware Test option and start into that. Run the test and see if there are any problems with the hard drive.

 

[zeeple]

Thanks for the advice. I was able to get the drive to be recognized simply by formating it in the Mac Extended Journaled format, but when I did it as one large partition the installation routine would not let me select it. When I created the same formated partition but only made it a 55 gig partition, then I was able to install Panther on it. Since then I have also quintipled the RAM and upgraded to Leopard. I'm likin' it. In fact I am typing on it now.