Q: G3 Hard drive problems
This is a G3 Dual USB 500mhz iBook running Tiger. The problem started with "localised string not found" in Safari. I thought I'd restart the iBook to see if that helped, but I just got the flashing question mark and no restart. I tried putting in the install disk, and finding the startup disk, but the only options were the DVD, or a network startup. I Tried Disk Utility, which told me the Hard Drive was fine. Rather bizarrely it also told me the Mac HD was on a 2TB Fujitsu internal disk, on a 30GB partition. Not sure I believe that, never noticed it before (bought the iBook off ebay2 or 3 years ago). Have however bought a 2TB NAS a couple of months ago which the iBook was always connected to wirelessly for music.
I've reset the PRAM , and hopefully the PMU but not too sure about that.
I've tried to reinstall from the DVD but it will not give me a location to install to...
So Disk Utility says there is nothing that needs to be repaired, but attempts to erase the disk or repartition it fail, with the error "input output error", or the underlying task reported failure on exit. SMART shows the drive is Not Supported.
So I'm very confused, there must be something still working if DU says nothing needs to be repaired, but it can't be seen st startup, and it can't be erased or partitioned, and I can't reinstall.
I get the feeling my G3 is laughing at me for trying to use such an ancient piece of kit.
Anybody got any ideas??
Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), late 2006, 2.16GHz, 3GB RAM
Posted on Jan 13, 2012 4:31 PM