replacing HD in Powerbook 867MHz

[sparksymusic]

Hi all,
I have an old powerbook and after 8 years, the 40GB HD died (no surprises there). I bought a new 160GB this week (the smalles on sale), replaced it but the OS won't see it to install. I tried taking the drive out and testing it (external USB) on another machine and it sees it fine - I partitioned it into x1 40GB and left the remainder as the 2nd partition. put it all back together and still nothing. Does anybody know if the Powerbook won't see this size drive or think I may have damaged something? I have replaced a few of these in my day (other machines) and never broken anything....
Kind regards,
James

 

[snaky69]

Hi all,
I have an old powerbook and after 8 years, the 40GB HD died (no surprises there). I bought a new 160GB this week (the smalles on sale), replaced it but the OS won't see it to install. I tried taking the drive out and testing it (external USB) on another machine and it sees it fine - I partitioned it into x1 40GB and left the remainder as the 2nd partition. put it all back together and still nothing. Does anybody know if the Powerbook won't see this size drive or think I may have damaged something? I have replaced a few of these in my day (other machines) and never broken anything....
Kind regards,
James

I seem to recall the powerbooks not being able to read such a large hard drive, its hardware limitation, though I don't know what the maximum is.

 

[sparksymusic]

I fear that is correct. I remember the same limitation with a G4 tower I repaired for a friend (max was 120GB I think) however it saw and used a 200GB drive as if it were a 120 - wish this was the same. I think I'm really up a certain creek without a certain instrument here as 160BGB is the smallest they sell now....

 

[pol0001]

You can still find 80GB and 120GB IDE HDD at Amazon.

 

[TDM21]

Have you checked the partition map? Most hard drives come with their partition map set to master boot record (for Windows). While you can format the drive and create a HFS volume on the drive, OS X will not install or boot from it. To resolve the issue you will change the partition map to Apple Partition Map. You can do this in Disk Utility on a Mac with 10.4.6+ and higher or a Leopard DVD. Select the drive, click on the Partition tab, and click the Options button.

 

[sparksymusic]

Hmmmmm......
I have tried the new HD with a few different install discs (10.2, 10.3, & 10.4.?). I'll hve to check exactly which 10.4 release I have and check that out - thanks.

I put the old HD in and it booted (no hardware damage) but still had its old probs of course. Unfortunately, buying from Amazon is not that viable in Australia - not for such an old machine. Thanks for the info though.

 

[sparksymusic]

OK - new info:
Since my last post I have found that I only have a 10.4.1 install disc (my latest) so I can't try the above Idea :-(. So, someone at work suggeted I try a compact flash drive with an IDE-CF converter which will fit in the drive slot and would essentially be an SSD drive. Before buying the parts for this, I found another 40GB samsung drive lying around and tried this - INCREDIBLY the powerbook won't see this either with any of my install discs. I put the original 40GB back in and it boots OK - any other drive and it's like it doesn't exist!!!

Any Ideas???

Also, If I connect any of these drives via external USB the OS sees them just fine (but of course won't install to external USB).......

 

[maxb]

Hi have a Powerbook G4 with the exact same problem lying around, I thought that the problem was the logic board, hope there's something we don't know that will resurrect our old laptop

 

[sparksymusic]

Same problem eh? Well, I'm still trying different things so I'll keep positng what I try and maybe it'll be seen by someone who knows a solution. A few of the people I work with are very 'cluey' about this old hardware so I'll be dragging them into it too. I'm just not ready to give up on it yet.

May I ask how many drives you tried and if they were new? If new, did you try formatting the drive with another machine?

 

[maxb]

I've tried with a brand new 5200 rpm 80gb WD and a used but good condition 60gb drive from another laptop.

I'd like to know if it's something commun on the Powerbooks???

 

[sparksymusic]

I asked an ex mac tech this morning and he said that he didn't know of any known issue with these models (though he is very 'pro' mac and is always very defensive about the apple products).

Mine is an 867MHz with a gen 1 Wireless card installed running 512MB ram (x2 256). it had issues for a while with the monitor going very dark and the DVD spitting out discs. at that time the previous owner also replaced the keyboard cable/ribbon (?). I realised that the power supply that came with it (2nd hand) was for another model and there was one spec that was about 0.01 off. getting a matched power supply resolved all issues at the time and I do not believe that it would have any bearing on the current issue.........

James