Replaced HDD now I have a problem

[AlphaTeam]

A friend has a 12" iBook G4 that the HDD was dying on. I'm not familiar with Mac hardware, but have been working with the PC side of things for a long time. She asked if I could replace it. I've torn apart MANY laptops before, and while I've never done a Mac I found very detailed step by step instructions and it didn't seem like it would be too difficult. So another friend of mine, who has been doing this for even longer, helped. We got it in and out without a problem. (or so I thought). I power on the laptop and get a folder with a "?" in the center. She didn't provide a restore disc. So I bring it to work where I have a 10.1 restore disc and power it up while holding "C". Still get the "?". Try an OS 9 iBook disc...same thing. The replacement HDD is just a regular IDE laptop HDD. Toshiba 80.GB 5400rpm 8MB cache.

Again I apologize that I know almost zero about the Mac, I'm trying I do have a Mini I've been playing with, so don't assume I did anything that I didn't write.

I've found a lot of great help here. It is really hard to "unlearn what I have learned" from the PC side, but it really is fun.

Thanks
Adam

 

[Father Jack]

As far as i am aware, you will need the original disks supplied with the computer or a full retail version of "Tiger" or which ever OS is needed.

 

[AlphaTeam]

Ok I have original discs, that came with ibooks we have at work. I'm not sure what exact model these are for, but they are official Apple discs that say "iBook Mac OS X Install" and "iBook Mac OS 9 Install", neither will boot to the disc with the internal or an external USB CD-Rom drive.
She didn't provide her discs I was just trying what I had on had to test it.

So it is possible that it won't even boot if the discs are for the exact model? It wouldn't give me an error of some sort?

 

[AlphaTeam]

What does that folder with the "?" mean anyway, it flashes that then the folder with the little profile of the heads and back again.

 

[Father Jack]

It means that it cannot find the OS ..

 

[AlphaTeam]

So it is saying it can't find the OS on the HDD? Which would mean that it finds the HDD, just no OS? I'm partially worried that I didn't install the drive properly, but I'm frustrated that I can't get the OS installed.

 

[yippy]

The question mark just means that it can't find an OS on the hard drive. Chances are you installed the drive correctly.

As for restore disks. It will only boot to either the restore disks for the EXACT model of iBook (there were many models not just G3 or G4) or to a retail OS disk that is newer than the iBook. Eg, if the iBook shipped with Mac OS 10.3 only a Mac OS 10.3 retail disk or newer (10.4, and now 10.5) will work. 10.1 or 10.2 would not in this case.

 

[crzdmniac]

The biggest thing is to get it to boot your OS cd, and once in there use the disk utility to format it. If you've been working on PCs for a while I'm sure you installed it correctly.

 

[AlphaTeam]

Thanks for all your help!
So I'll have her dig up her discs and try it then.

 

[smadder]

What I did...

I had a similar experience doing an upgrade on an out-of-warranty MB and an older iBook. Back when there were still G3 & G4 processor-based macs the boot disks used to be interchangeable (you could boot a mini same as you could boot and iBook from the same restore disks) more often than not, and I got away with a lot because of that . But, since everything went intel, I can't cross-boot.

What you can do though (and this is what I use now to help friends and family out with HD upgrades), is buy a Tiger or Leopard disk (Tiger is REALLY cheap right now, and Leopard won't work on the iBook anyway) from an academic discount place, if you can, and boot from it to do a clean install. It won't have the "goodies" like the full iLife suite, but it will have iTunes, and a lot of other aps that simply come with Tiger.

 

[AlphaTeam]

I am a school employee. So that might work.
Is there any place that you can suggest getting it from?