Powerbook g4 not detecting newly installed combo drive, no icon on desktop

most likely is hard drive. may need to be replaced.

Boot from the 10.3 disc by holding the C key down. When
you see the Installer window, go up to the Installer Menu to
Disk Utility and use that to reformat the drive.


thank you for using fixya,

your's caringly,
shoeb

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Your mac cannot find an operating system. Re-install the operating system using the 2 discs Apple gave you. If that don't work, then you need a new hard drive. 2.5" 120 GB laptop hard drive IDE/ATA are the specs you need. If it says SATA, then you got the wrong hard drive.

STart up your G4 using the OS disc for leopard, but instead of reinstalling the system, go to the menu at the top of the screen and Launch Disk Utility.
You may need to remount your hard drive. The disk utitliy can do this for you. Then it should appear in the disk utillity window. Then you should be able to install the OS and away you go!

You need to replace the optical drive. Go to web site of Other World Computing and order a CD/DVD super drive which will burn/play discs and even burn on dual layer discs. Cost about $80 US plus your free labor to install the thing.

Use the install discs that came with the machine. Insert the disc 1, shut down the machine, turn it back on and press and hold the option key until the DVD icon shows. Then click on the icon and then click on the right arrow. When the disc boots you need to go to the top and find the disc utility folder. Then select reset password. Then choose restart.

Your PB can't find the system. Most likely you hard drive is no longer working. To check that this is the case, start up from the discs that came with your computer.You will need to replace the hard drive then re-install the operating system off those discs. I hope you had a backup of your data!

Suchisart,
If you want a stand alone backup solution, you can download a free program called "Carbon Copy Cloner" and purchase a USB 2.0 external hard drive. You can use the CCC software to backup the entire contents of your Powerbook's hard drive or just selected files to the external USB hard drive.

If your Powerbook is unable to boot into OS X and you need to recover the files that are on the internal hard drive, you can boot the Powerbook into "Target Disk Mode" and transfer the files via firewire cable to another Mac. To do this do the following.

1. With both Macs off connect them with a firewire cable.
2. Turn on the Powerbook and hold down the "T" during startup.
3. Once the large icon shows up on screen your in "TDM".
4. Turn on the other Mac and login to your account.
5. The Powerbook's hard drive should mount on your desktop.
6. You'll be able to transfer your files from the Powerbook's hard drive just like you would an external hard drive, thumb drive, etc.

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1. Obtain a Mac OSX install disc (buy one from apple or try Ebay) 2. Insert the disc then click on the "Install Mac OS" icon. Then click the restart button. 3. DONT INSTALL! Just click through enough of the windows to get to the regular set of choices on the menu bar. One of those choices is UTILITIES and one of the choices there is RESET PASSWORD.
Simple, but you should know that anyone with a Mac OSX install disc can gain access to your computer.

PowerBook G4 is at least a five-year-old machine at this point. A DVD drive can **** in lots of dust in five years. Try hooking up to an external DVD drive. If it plays the same discs with no problem, you need a cleaning or replacement. Frankly, an external DVD drive is cheaper than replacing your internal drive.