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#1 2006-05-14 10:27 am
- eabrill
- Member
- Registered: 2006-05-14
- Posts: 2
Help -- IBook won't recognize HD, Norton and Install Disk Will!
Help, please! My two year old IBook won't recognize its internal hard disk (which hasn't been backed up, of course). I can boot the machine with the Tiger Install CD and run Disk Utility, which recognizes the internal hard disk and lets me repair it (after running through all the Repair steps, it says no repairs are necessary). But when I try to install the Tiger system on the internal hard disk, the Install program doesn't recognize the internal hard disk. I can also run the Norton Systemworks 3.0 CD and use its Disk Doctor to recognize and repair the internal hard disk.
Is there some software I can buy to fix this? My wife (it's her computer) talked to some data recovery company, which estimated $500 - $3,000 to recover her data. (She hadn't told them any of the above information.) Or should I just tell a repair technician what I wrote in the first paragraph? Would they be able to fix it for much less if they knew that?
I'll appreciate any help. We've got irreplaceable photos and documents on that disk.
Thanks.
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#2 2006-05-14 10:32 am
- eabrill
- Member
- Registered: 2006-05-14
- Posts: 2
Re: Help -- IBook won't recognize HD, Norton and Install Disk Will!
A follow-up from the poster:
If I just boot up the IBook with no CD in it, I get a gray screen with the Apple logo. Then, after several minutes of the slowly spinning gray circle with the little spikes around the perimeter, the screen turns blue and nothing but a pointer appears. After a little while longer, some text message comes up. It identifies the IBook by mentioning my wife's name, and says something about "Darwin" (I can't remember the exact text). It asks the user to login, but I have no clue what an acceptable username or password is. Once I typed "Apple" in the username, which did seem to have some effect: it brought up a "Password:" prompt, but my response "Support" apparently wasn't what it was looking for.
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#3 2006-05-14 2:26 pm
- macnuke
- just a plano guy
- Moderator
- From: North Dallas 40
- Registered: 2004-05-16
- Posts: 6892
Re: Help -- IBook won't recognize HD, Norton and Install Disk Will!
eabrill wrote:
Help, please! My two year old IBook won't recognize its internal hard disk (which hasn't been backed up, of course). I can boot the machine with the Tiger Install CD and run Disk Utility, which recognizes the internal hard disk and lets me repair it (after running through all the Repair steps, it says no repairs are necessary). But when I try to install the Tiger system on the internal hard disk, the Install program doesn't recognize the internal hard disk. I can also run the Norton Systemworks 3.0 CD and use its Disk Doctor to recognize and repair the internal hard disk.
Is there some software I can buy to fix this? My wife (it's her computer) talked to some data recovery company, which estimated $500 - $3,000 to recover her data. (She hadn't told them any of the above information.) Or should I just tell a repair technician what I wrote in the first paragraph? Would they be able to fix it for much less if they knew that?
I'll appreciate any help. We've got irreplaceable photos and documents on that disk.
Thanks.
Norton... trash it.. it's caused more OS X problems than anything I know of.
it sounds like everything is really OK, it just won't complete the boot.
Diskwarrior can be your friend at times like this.
do yourself a favor.. lose, give away, shoot the Norton disks... all of them.
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#4 2006-05-14 2:44 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA
- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Help -- IBook won't recognize HD, Norton and Install Disk Will!
Norton isn't compatible with 10.4.
If all else fails, you can Archive and Install OS X - just make sure you select "Preserve Network and User Info". It will save everything, and make the computer bootable again.
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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