new internal HD not showing up

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catwomannj

Registered
I just replaced the internal hard drive on my G4 iBook. My problem is the drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, the system install disk, or when I have the iBook in target mode and connected to my tower.

I believe the old drive had died. When I ran the Hardware Test on it, I received an error code on Mass Storage. After installing the new drive and running the Hardware Test, the Mass Storage passed. I take that as a good sign.?

Before cracking the iBook back open, I was wanting to find out what all the problem may be and what things to check while I have it open since that is not that quick of an operation. I'm already assuming to check the connections on the drive. But if they weren't secure, would it still pass the Hardware Test?

Thanks,
Stephanie
 
Did you format the drive for MacOS Extended or just leave the drive at it's default NTFS?
 
I can't format the drive since it's not showing up in any of the programs and utilities.

I'm cracking the case back open this afternoon. Hopefully the drive will work this time. Fingers crossed.
 
Well, the more times you open an iBook, the faster it goes. That's the only good news.

Since I have some anal tendencies, I bought a USB enclosure for the drive to be able to connect it to my tower to see if the drive shows up there before reassembling the iBook. So I have the drive attached to my tower and I can feel the drive spinning. Definitely can't hear it until I put my ear on top of the drive, but do feel a vibration when I connected the USB to power the enclosure. It is not showing up in Disk Utility or TechTool.

So is this just a bad drive?
 
What kind of computer are you attaching the enclosure to? Is it a Windows computer? IF so, then you'll need some third party software to read the Mac volume since Windows doesn't support anything other than NTFS and FAT/FAT32 volumes natively. Here's one that is well known:

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
 
I was attaching the external enclosure to a G4 Mac. I also had my husband attach it to his Windows laptop. His computer saw the drive, but that's all of course since it is unformatted. I did put it back into the iBook, but still nothing.

I've had enough of this today, will contact OWC tech support tomorrow.

It did occur to me that possibly they had shipped me an SATA instead of an IDE/ATA drive. I went to the Seagate website, but could not find a way to verify which it is by the various model #'s etc.
 
An SATA drive has a completely different set of connectors, and cannot connect to a IDE bus. You would already know if you have an SATA drive, as you wouldn't have been able to attach the IDE cable.
 
catwomannj said:
I was attaching the external enclosure to a G4 Mac. I also had my husband attach it to his Windows laptop. His computer saw the drive, but that's all of course since it is unformatted. I did put it back into the iBook, but still nothing.

I've had enough of this today, will contact OWC tech support tomorrow.

It did occur to me that possibly they had shipped me an SATA instead of an IDE/ATA drive. I went to the Seagate website, but could not find a way to verify which it is by the various model #'s etc.
Click to expand...

They have a completely different layout.


IDE (but only for laptops)

http://www.kb-computer.com/images/wd/wd800beve.jpg


SATA (identical for laptops and desktops).

http://www.kb-computer.com/images/wd/wd3200bevt.jpg


Now you can see the difference (i hope).


Good luck, Kees
 
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