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Tru2Chevy · Aug 18, 2006, 04:04 AM

I recently had the 60 GB hard drive in my powerbook die on me, so I purchased a new Western Digital 80 GB 5400rpm drive (this one: Western Digital Scorpio WD800VE 80GB Ultra ATA 2.5in 5400RPM at ZipZoomFly) as an upgrade/replacement.

I installed it last night using iFixit's guide, however when I went to install Tiger on it tonight, the OS wouldn't recognize the hard drive at all. I took it all apart again to make sure that the drive was connected properly (it was) and then reassembled it and attempted the install again. Still no luck. I can hear and feel the drive spinning up, but do you think that it could be a dead drive? Anything else that I may be overlooking?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give me....

- Justin

Jens Peter · Aug 18, 2006, 05:30 AM

Did you formate the drive? I don't know if that could be a solution, but if the drive spins, it dosen't appear to be dead...

Tru2Chevy · Aug 18, 2006, 11:48 AM

Well, that's the problem. When I open up the disk utility to format the drive, the only disk listed is the install CD.

Since I'm still new to Macs, here's what I'm doing to try and install Tiger and format the drive.

- Boot the machine with the CD in, so it comes up to the screen where you choose a language.
- Choose English, then get to the next screen (Introduction to the installation)
- Go to the utilities menu, and open Disk Utility.
- Once Disk Utility opens, the only disk listed is the install CD.

I've never formatted a Mac HDD before, so is there something that I'm missing?

- Justin

ibook_steve · Aug 18, 2006, 01:23 PM

That's not promising. Can you hear the disk spinning when you power on? If not, try powering on with the top case off. If it's still not spinning, you could have a lemon drive. Other than that, if you've confirmed the drive cable plugged in on both ends and no bent pins, the drive is probably bad. You could try resetting the PMU (search...), but I doubt that would do anything. Good luck!

Steve

Tru2Chevy · Aug 18, 2006, 02:08 PM

I can feel the drive spinning up (tested that before I put everything back together the second time). I tried resetting the PMU, but there was no change.

I guess I'll just make arrangements to get a new drive.

Thanks for the advice.....

- Justin

analogika · Aug 18, 2006, 03:16 PM

You *may* have botched the HD/optical drive cable while replacing the drive. That can happen fairly easily.

Can you organize an external 2.5" enclosure (Firewire or USB) and see whether it will work in there?

ibook_steve · Aug 18, 2006, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

You *may* have botched the HD/optical drive cable while replacing the drive. That can happen fairly easily.

Can you organize an external 2.5" enclosure (Firewire or USB) and see whether it will work in there?

The optical and hard drive cables in the 12" are separate, but this is a good idea.

Steve

jamil5454 · Aug 18, 2006, 05:52 PM

I just put the exact same drive into my iBook a few weeks ago, so it's not a question of some weird Mac incompatibility. Did you check the jumper settings on the drive to make sure they're set to master? IIRC I had to change the jumper to master when installing the drive in my iBook.

ibook_steve · Aug 18, 2006, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

I just put the exact same drive into my iBook a few weeks ago, so it's not a question of some weird Mac incompatibility. Did you check the jumper settings on the drive to make sure they're set to master? IIRC I had to change the jumper to master when installing the drive in my iBook.

Huh? Portable hard drives do not have jumpers, or if they do, they should not be used here. The master/slave setting is done over the cable on the PCB. If you do have a jumper on any pins for some reason, remove it.

Steve

Tru2Chevy · Aug 31, 2006, 09:27 AM

After I pulled the machine apart the second time, the new 80GB hard drive was no longer spinning up. I reinstalled the original hard drive again to make sure that I hadn't damaged the powerbook itself in the process, and the machine booted normally (just slow). I RMAed the new drive, and I'm just waiting for the new one from ZipZoomFly.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

- Justin

Tuoder · Aug 31, 2006, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Huh? Portable hard drives do not have jumpers, or if they do, they should not be used here. The master/slave setting is done over the cable on the PCB. If you do have a jumper on any pins for some reason, remove it.

Steve

I put a 2.5" drive in n enclosure a few weeks ago and it had a jumper. I had to set it to master for it to work with the enclosure.

ibook_steve · Aug 31, 2006, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by Tuoder

I put a 2.5" drive in n enclosure a few weeks ago and it had a jumper. I had to set it to master for it to work with the enclosure.

Yeah, that must have been for the enclosure. PATA drives in iBooks and Powerbooks get jumpered by the board through the cable. However, I do have an old Firewire 2.5" enclosure that did not have jumpers. Does your enclosure have room for two drives? That's the only reason I can think of as to why you would need to jumper the drive.

Steve

Tuoder · Aug 31, 2006, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Yeah, that must have been for the enclosure. PATA drives in iBooks and Powerbooks get jumpered by the board through the cable. However, I do have an old Firewire 2.5" enclosure that did not have jumpers. Does your enclosure have room for two drives? That's the only reason I can think of as to why you would need to jumper the drive.

Steve

Nah, it just has room for the one. I haven't messed with a whole lot of 2.5" HDDs. There was the 20GB pulled out of a Compaq that looked like it had been used for a hockey puck, and the one in my PBG3. I haven't really looked at the G3's. It seems to me that there isn't much reason to have jumpers on laptop HDDs, except for use in RAID systems. Even then, I would be willing to bet that most modern drives use cable selection, making a jumper block not completely useless, but potentially unneccessary.