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What's wrong now?

Okay, so I took my PowerBook G4 (15" 1.5ghz) into the apple store after getting a question mark and a face icon flashing up on start up. The genuis's, at the genuis bar told me that my hard-drive was failing and I need a new one. Although they don't support Powerbook's anymore 😢 So I was hunting the internet trying to find one that would work. I came across this one HERE and bought it. It came today in the post, I found intrustions online on how to install the new hard-drive etc etc, I turn it on..and it still shows the exact same icons!! What's wrong now? Is this hard-drive no good either, or has my laptop just given up? Or do I need to re-install the installation discs (which I lost when I moved house) So much stress, all I want is my laptop back. Would I just be best taking it back into apple with the new hard-drive installed? Someone please help! 😕

PowerBook

Posted on Jun 8, 2012 10:40 AM

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6 replies

Jun 8, 2012 11:02 AM in response to Katrina_C

The flashing question mark just means the system can't find anything to boot from. While it can mean a hard drive issue, it can also mean it's just lost sight of where it should be booting from. This Apple note discusses that.


If I were you, I would return the refurbished disk drive, and buy a new one. A refurbished drive is one that has already broken once and has been repaired. Not what I want in my system. This Samsung drive would work, as would this Seagate drive.


When you put a new drive in your system, you need to boot off something else to bring up Disk Utility to intialize it. Did you do that with the drive you just put in?

Jun 8, 2012 1:38 PM in response to Katrina_C

If you have a bootable backup, you can use Disk Utility from that. Apple no longer sells the PowerBook reinstallation disks, so you'd have to go to the used market to find them.


If you still have your original drive, you could put that into an external case, attach it to your PowerBook via a Fire Wire cable (USB cable attachment isn't bootable) and if the drive is working, you could boot from that (boot holding the alt/option key down, then choose the external hard drive). Then bring up Disk Utility and partition the new drive, then use a program like SuperDuper! to copy the old drive back to your new drive (assuming it's still usable).

Jun 10, 2012 5:40 AM in response to Katrina_C

Before you can use your new hard disk, it has to be partitioned, or initialized. This is done by using the program Disk Utility. There are several ways you can do this:


1) Boot off the original OS X installation disks, which you don't have. You can try and buy a set in the used market, however, make sure any set you buy is for your model PowerBook. A set of gray-faced OS X disks for a MacBook, for example, won't work on your system.


2) Boot off an OS X 10.5 or prior retail DVD and run Disk Utility from it. You can buy a black-faced OS X retail operating system disks in the used market. OS X 10.5 is the last operating system the PowerBook can use. Avoid the black-faced OS X 10.5 upgrade disk, as that requires 10.4 to be on the system in order to work.


3) Boot off a backup external hard drive. I'm guessing you don't have an external backup? If you don't have an external hard drive backup and you don't have any installation disks, what are you planning on putting on your new hard drive?


4) Mount your old hard drive in an external case, and see if you can boot off of it. It would need to be connected from the external case to your PowerBook with a Firewire cable. With the external hard drive attached via a Firewire cable, boot holding the alt/option key down and choose the external drive to boot from. Bring up Disk Utility, and partition the new hard drive in the PowerBook.


If this still doesn't make sense, since the Apple store no longer provides PowerBook support, then you'll need to bring your PowerBook to an Apple Authorized Service Provider, who can do this for you. You can use this to find the closest one. Choose 'find service' and enter your city.

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