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stravinsky1911 · Feb 5, 2007, 05:14 PM

Hey everyone -

I have a first generation 800 mhz iBook G4 that has been having some serious problems. It all started with the flashing question mark upon startup - no system folder. So... here's what I have done so far:

1. Booted up from DiskWarrior and repaired the disk, then tried booting up. Flashing question mark for eternity.

2. Wiped the drive with Disk Utility and reinstalled 10.4. Computer booted up and froze within a couple of minutes. Mouse would move, but nothing else.

3. Booted up again from the 10.4 install CD and tried to wipe the drive - this time it did not list any drives at all.

3. Got out the Ubuntu 6.06 disk and booted from the CD - the partitioner under Ubuntu could see the drive and it was partitioned into 10 sections - 9 of which had 0 MB space allocated, and 1 of which was the entire drive. I let the partitioner put it all back together, and then installed Ubuntu on the drive. Ubuntu worked wonderfully, but did not have airport support (I know there are ways to fix this, but I really just want to install OS X on the machine. This is my sister-in-law's computer and I don't want to have to do Ubuntu tech support over the phone...)

4. After playing with Ubuntu for a couple of days, using sleep, suspend, reboot, and other normal computer use for a laptop, decided that the drive was reliable and the computer was operating normally. So, I booted from a Panther install CD and started installing there - but the drive doesn't show up yet again.

5. Wrote this post.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what is going on here? I would love for the drive to be at fault, but Linux installed and ran just fine. Is OS X more particular about disk errors or drive controllers? Could I have a power issue with the drive connectors (it's a stock Toshiba 30GB drive)?

I have replaced other iBook drives in the past - and would LOVE to not have to replace another one. I especially don't want to go to that trouble just to find out that there is something going on that I have misdiagnosed as being hard drive related.

Thanks everyone!