Harddrive icon does not appear on the desktop on my iBook G4, 6.5.

Could be the hard drive is defective; or perhaps a cable may contribute to an failed state.

An Apple Hardware Test could be performed (detailed instructions for older mac with

OS X install restore disc can be found online, or in older archived instruction) to check.

And an externally enclosed hard drive (enclosure would need boot-capable chipset to

run the Mac) and formatted for HFS+ is a place to start. The enclosure should be self-

powered with its own external power source; you could run the Mac from a Clone.

So assume the original HDD and/or cable has failed and would need replaced, to test.

If you already have a suitable prepared hard drive with FireWire connections and its

own power supply, with almost any period Mac OS X clone, that may be worth trying.

Ones specific to PPC Mac are necessary, because a clone of Intel-based Mac won't work.

And the hardware for use of PPC boot-capable clone has by nature a niche for just this.

An optical combo drive (internal) or external combo/superdrive with 'oxford chipset'

is another possibility to try & boot a correct system install DVD and see if that locates

the hard drive. A failed hard disk drive &/or bad cable could exhibit what you've found.

You may be able to find suitable external enclosures for use with hard drives from such

places as macsales/owc that can be used to run older Mac OS X via clone/copy. This

kind of active backup can be helpful to troubleshoot older Macs with PowerPC hardware.

Certain archives on how to do these vintage tests & repairs can still be found online. As

I have several older Macs, and no time to re-consider what I'd done decades ago, I'll leave

this at that.

Both hardware and software needs to be troubleshooted. To include known-good replacement.

For hard drive replacements, the rotational OEM hardware is at best very rare & may be found only in 'used' state.

A problem with these models (iBook white G3/G4) is their hard drives and internal parts can be problematic to

remove and replace, without secondary issues - damages - to otherwise OK wires, parts, etc. This is main problem.

An upgrade to SSD (ATA-IDE legacy part available from macsale/OWC) would be near ideal; if you could test prior

to take-apart and see about making correct installation of Tiger 10.4 or Leopard 10.5 OS X. And to use original DVD

for the model iBook series or newer would be workable.

120GB Mercury Legacy Pro 2.5-inch 9.5mm IDE/ATA Solid-State Drive

OWC Mercury Optical iBook G4 internal Super-Multidrive Upgrade for all iBook G4 12"/14" Laptops

(Sometimes a mac hard drive which has no correct format will not appear on the desktop.)

NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter USB Bare Drive Adapter

(won't work with FireWire -clone- but maybe USB could work otherwise to set up new HDD)

Their site is searchable and offers replacement optical drive for iBook G4. Other vendors may have parts, owc will

guarantee theirs have been tested in the devices so intended; and have been fair toward serviceability & value.

You may have seen a few of the online guides to repair or replace parts, some fix-it and other powerbook medic

etc and may be familiar with internal issues. My iBook G4 (mid-2005) still works OK, with original 40GB 4500 RPM

HDD and Combo optical drive. A newer battery from owc a few years ago still works; I've recalibrated it a few times.

Also have a first edition macbook1.1 13-inch 1.83GHz coreduo; been using TenFourFox-G3 as browser. It works OK.

At this time cannot attest or suggest other actions; you may need a suitable external enclosure to set up and test

the replacement HDD or an SSD, and run the mac from there. A boot-capable enclosure may be inquired of from

the owc customer service & could be a source for vintage/obsolete information. (As you need not buy to get.)