Help! My Mac Is Dead!

K

kingpin803

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I have a G4 Powermac that is currently out of commision and I don't want to spend a ton money if it's just a simple problem.

It started when my computer was constantly crashing on me. I decided to back all my files up and just erase the hard drive and re-install OSX. I was able to erase the hard drive using DISK WARRIOR but during the installation process for OSX I would get an error and it would quit the install. I assumed that my hard drive is bad so I went out and bought another one - Western Digital 160GB EIDE. I installed the new hard drive and booted the system with the OSX install disk in the cd-drive. The install window came up but when it came to the screen to select a destination volume...nothing was listed! Yes, I have all the cables hooked up right. Just for kicks I put my old hard drive back in and tried installing OSX again. When the screen to select a destination volume comes up...nothing is there again! Can anyone give me some advice on what I'm doing wrong or what I should do.
 
Before you can install on a new drive you have to select the menu option to format the drive. (If you already did this, you failed to say so).
 
If you are booted off the install CD, there is a menu item that will allow you to run the Disk Utility and reformat the drive.

Just for kicks, put your old drive back in, reformat it with the option to write zeros to the drive. This gives Disk Utility the chance to "write out" bad blocks. That is, once the drive controller has a list of bad blocks to work with, it can prevent applications/installers/what-have-you from writing to those blocks.
If you are feeling adventurous, it might be worth a try. If it works, you have two disks to use. If it fails, you still have the new drive.

just a thought...
 
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