I have a Powermac G4 here running 10.3.9. I go to try to use it today and it doesn't boot. I will turn on the power, get the "chime" and then after a little while it will have a small folder with a flashing "?" on it. I should also note that some loud (as in louder than normal) clicking sounds come from the hard disk during this boot process, followed by the hard disk spinning down.
So realizing that this will end up in some manner with some kind of mass data-erasure, I try to hook it up to a PM G5 via firewire target disk mode. So I connect the cable up, and turn on the power to the dead G4 while holding down "T". It boots, I get the chime again but then about 10 seconds later, instead of seeing the firewire logo on the screen, the computer just shuts off.
Does this mean that the computer is not capable of target disk mode (unlikely because it's a PM G4 with built-in firewire) or is it that the HD is physically bad so it won't engage target disk mode, or that the disk is too corrupted to even mount in target disk mode?
I should also mention that I ran the apple hardware test CD's "extended test" and surprisingly it reported no problems with the computer!?! Clearly not the case as it doesn't work and I suspect hardware failure of the hard disk to be the cause. Why didn't Hardware Test pick it up though? Could it be that since the hard disk is spun down at this point (see above) it skips or bypasses the "mass storage" portion of the hardware test?
Ruahrc
P.S.- since I believe I will eventually be getting a new HD for this computer, how does one go about finding out what size of hard disk is compatible with a given PowerMac? It's a Dual G4 500MHz computer w/built in firewire so that might help you "date" the computer. Will it have trouble (i.e. unable to see or format the entire drive) if I get a new say 100+GB hard disk to put in it?
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