Hard Disk Disappeared!! Please Help!!!

[jb_lyndon]

I started up my eMac 800mHz 512 RAM w/ unpartitioned 60 Gb Maxtor and OS 10.2.6 and 9.2.2 found the flashing questionmark. Inserted OS X 10.2 install CD and booted to it. Once booted to the CD and in Disk Utility I find that "Macintosh HD" is nowhere to be found. I tried reseting PRAM and NVRAM but "Macintosh HD" is still missing... Tried to reinstall OSX but the installer can't find a Hard disk to install to.

Any suggestions?

The Maxtor 60 still shows up in Disk Utility so I'm wondering if I can Reformat it and Reinstall OSX???

Please Help!?!

[edX]

http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39078

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Try boothing from the install CD again, and when the first menu pops up (I think it's language selection), look for "Disk Utility" in the menus in the menubar at the top.

This utility will allow you to format your hard drive and prepare it for installation.

[bobw]

ElDiabloConCaca

Re-read the post;

Once booted to the CD and in Disk Utility I find that "Macintosh HD" is nowhere to be found.

[jb_lyndon]

Originally Posted by bobw

ElDiabloConCaca

Re-read the post;

Once booted to the CD and in Disk Utility I find that "Macintosh HD" is nowhere to be found.

Thanks bobw, but unfortunately I'm not quite feeling confident in using OpenFirmware and luckily I've recently done a backup so here's what I'm thinking... can you (or anybody else) please reassure me that I'm good to go?

"OSX 10.2 install CD's Disk Utility is able to see the internal hard drive, listing it by its brand name and capacity (55.90 GB Maxtor), but is not able to see the logical volume "Macintosh HD" where the software and data are stored. This seems to indicate that the hard drive is sound and properly connected physically, but that the volume has become lost or corrupted."
Since Disk Utility and Disk Warrior cannot see the volume, and so cannot repair it, and since I've done a recent backup I'm thinking of reformatting the hard drive and starting fresh...

What I'm wondering is, since previously I've only ever clean installed OSX to the now missing "Macintosh HD", will reformatting/reinitializing the "55.90 GB Maxtor" with OSX install CD's Disk Utility change it's name to "Macintosh HD" or will it create a new volume "Macintosh HD" on it (within it) to install OSX (&OS9)??

Again I'm not worried about data recovery as I've recently backed up and clean installed OSX. I just want to start clean and am hesitant as I don't know if I may run into or cause more problems.

[bobw]

If you reformat the drive, you can name it anything you want. Go ahead and reformat if you've backed everything up, and if you want to partition, do it also. As long as the drive is good, you won't have any problems.

But before you do this, disconnect everything you may have connected to the machine. Ethernet, ALL USB devices, including the keyboard and mouse, then reboot and see if the hard drive "Macintosh HD" appears. Just a thought. A friend called me over the weekend with a similar problem, he has 2 hard drives each with 2 partitions and he booted into a question mark constantly, couldn't even boot into single user mode. I had him disconnect all USB and the machine booted ok. Turned out to be a bad USB hub.

[jb_lyndon]

Originally Posted by bobw

disconnect everything you may have connected to the machine.

I tried disconnecting everything but unfortunately no luck.

I went ahead and reformatted the HD, but now OSX Disk Utility seems to be stuck on the "Setting up partion map" window w/ the moving 'candy stripe' bar.
It's been there for nearly an hour so I'm assuming something's wrong. How long does "Setting up partion map" usually take (60GB HD)??

Now I'm scared to force shutdown, so I'm just impatiently waiting.
What should I do?

[bobw]

If it's repairing the drive, it could take a good bit of Time. I, personally, would leave it run over night and see if it worked, especially if the stripe bar is moving.