iBook G3 Dual-USB HD

[#1 Rhapsody]

I found this topic discussing basically the same problem. Do you think that if I put in the new drive, then reset the computer it will work? I'm thinking about trying it if there is a good chance it will work (besides I have nothing better to do tonight ).

 

[djackmac]

Well my sleep light attachment broke and my front has nicks from the flat-head screwdriver, but it isn't that bad (my sleep light still works ).

Thats why we who do this for a living use these. There would be alot of ticked off people getting their ibook back all marred up.

 

[geraldj_dp]

Hello,
I am having the EXACT same problem with my iBook and a Toshiba 60 gb hard drive. Here is what I have narrowed it down to:
Incompatible IDE drive.
I know it sounds weird. I thought a 2.5" IDE was a 2.5" IDE, but, apparently Apple and this iBook think differently. One thing I did, that I didn't see you do, was to connect the drive externally through USB onto my Quicksilver. The drive mounts and reads properly. I then formatted it and re-installed it into the iBook. Still no joy! I even did a number of firmware commands (setenv) to try and force the iBook to boot only from the CD drive and ignore the hdd. This also failed. I began to think I had fried my Logic Board, so I re-installed the 20 gb hdd I took out, and, "VOILA!", it booted just fine.

Ergo:
INCOMPATIBILITY WITH HARD DRIVE!!!

Look for a western Digital or Maxtor 2.5" IDE to go into your iBook. These are the 2 companies that supplied the O.E. Apple hdds, and I suspect there will be no trouble putting them in there. I am going to be doing this today, so I will let you know my results.

 

[geraldj_dp]

That's what I would do IF Disk Utility could see the drive, but it doesn't. I tried booting from my internal CD drive but now it won't work either. Both the CD and HD drives spin up but I can't see either. For some reason the HD is causing the CD drive not to work either.

I found this topic discussing basically the same problem. Do you think that if I put in the new drive, then reset the computer it will work? I'm thinking about trying it if there is a good chance it will work (besides I have nothing better to do tonight ).

Nope. I reset the PRAM, PMU, NVRAM, and used firmware commands to verify the device tree, and set the boot-device. NOTHING WORKED!! It's the Toshiba drive that is giving you problems I am suspecting.

 

[geraldj_dp]

Nope. I reset the PRAM, PMU, NVRAM, and used firmware commands to verify the device tree, and set the boot-device. NOTHING WORKED!! It's the Toshiba drive that is giving you problems I am suspecting.

Affirmative!! I placed an Hitachi 40 gb in and everything went smooth as silk. The little iBook is doing it's system upgrades as I type; and, another Macintosh crisis is solved.

Toshiba and Samsung=2 companies that do not play nice with Apples.