Powerbook won't load desktop.

[twister]

I recently gave my Powerbook 667 to my wife and last night it had issues. At 9 I went to put it to sleep and the mouse would move but I couldn't select anything. The clock said 7:45 so it had been frozen for a while. I just shut it down and went to bed. Today, when I start it up, the desktop won't load at all.

It does start up, does the chime, I see the grey apple screen, goes blue, has the round progress spinner and then stops. I end on a blue screen with the mouse. Mouse moves, nothing to do though.

I've tied hooking it up to my iMac and running disk utility and it found nothing wrong. I tried booting into classic but it never takes. I tried booting into safe mode but it either doesn't take or I have the same issue.

I'm not sure what to try next.

Any ideas would be great.

Thanks

[twister]

Update: I realized that I had TechTool Deluxe, since I just got AppleCare for my new iMac, so I started off the CD and here is what I found out.

Random Read: Failed
Random Write: Failed
Linear Read: Failed
Linear Write: Failed
Read Buffer: Failed
Write Buffer: Failed

Is that software issues or hardware issues? I'm thinking hardware. Could an erase/restore fix it?

[fryke]

It certainly _sounds_ like the harddrive is gone. Can you mount it in target-mode? Make a backup. Then reinstall. That's what I'd do at this moment...

[twister]

By harddrive is gone, do you mean software or hardware?

I can mount in Target Disk Mode. Most backup was already done as I just moved to my new iMac.

I also have four partitions. Maybe I'll just install OSX on another one to see what happens.

My poor wife is going to think Macs suck after this. I told her how good they were and she's having nothing but issues.

[twister]

Here is the latest update. I got the hard drives to show up in target disk mode so I backed everything up I could. I then restarted the laptop via the Tiger install disk and it didn't mount any hard drives.

I ran disk first aid and everything was fine (or so it said) but I can't even erase the hard drive.

So I'm guessing my hard drive is crap. How hard are they to replace? What do I do next?

[Satcomer]

Watch the installation video and decide on buying a new one from OWC.

[fryke]

Hm. If you boot from the OS 9 installation CD, can you install _that_ on the internal drive? I'd forget about the partitions, though, and try to create just one. (btw.: Don't PM me about answering a thread, I'll do it if I have the time and info to help - if I don't answer, it means I'm either asleep, not around or don't have anything helpful to say...)

[twister]

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Watch the installation video and decide on buying a new one from OWC.

Thanks, that looks like a great tutorial!!

fryke sorry about the PM. However, if I can't get anything to erase, I highly doubt OS 9 will install.