Laptops :: Erasing Hardrive On IBook Without Reinstallation / CD Drive Not Working?
May 14, 2010
I have an old iBook that I just want to completely wipe clean and install windows XP on (I know...blaspheme). Before people start questioning why I would do such a thing...it's only because I need the laptop for DJing in which I have an external sound card that only works with Windows. The main problem is that the CD drive doesn't work so I am uncertain how to go about erasing my hard drive and installing XP via USB.
View 1 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Jun 29, 2010
I have an old iBook G4 laptop and a newer iMac (OS 10.5.8). Since getting the iMac, I've neglected the laptop and so the info on it is old. I would like to synchronize these two computers and bring the laptop up to date with the iMac. Basically, I'd like to erase the laptop and then have it be a copy of the iMac. Given that I'm not very techie, how do I do this please?! And how long would it take? Thanks for any help.
View 13 Replies
View Related
Feb 2, 2010
I have a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 (1.2) version 10.4.11 ibook that was purchased in May or June of 2005. Lately, out of the blue, the power chord has stopped working.
The light that indicates the computer is charging goes on for a second and then promptly turns off and stays off; the laptop is then running on battery power; it is almost dead.
When it tries to connect (before turning off) it makes a sound like a lightbulb that is flickering and trying not to die.
This could be an outlet problem, I suppose (I will have my dorm check on that), but think it might have gotten fried when I was home for christmas because our house has ancient outlets and I usually have to use the two prong adapter there.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jan 8, 2011
I have a WD 2 TB My Book Home Edition external hard drive, I have had it for about a year... it worked fine I had a little over 1 TB of data on the hard drive and after coming home from vacation when I reconnected my hard drive it would not mount. The message was "Hard disk not recognized by this computer" so I properly disconnected the hard drive and replugged it in and reconnected to iMac and still same thing. I have tried everything in the book it feels like and nothing is working, and of course I did not have all the info backup with time machine (I REGRET and beat myself up for not) so I need to recover the data and I am not sure what to do. I did run Data Rescue 3 and it said that there was nothing on the hard drive to recover. Of course I am panicking and I have been told to send it off for Data recovery but that is going to cost up to 2,000 and I just want to make sure that this is my last resort or is it hopeless and should I just seek counseling for all the lost pictures of my kiddos...LOL I did try opening the case and inserting hard drive directly in a hard drive docking station
View 2 Replies
View Related
Apr 30, 2008
It looks like I have to reinstall my OS. Does anyone know if you 'must' erase your drive when reinstalling OSX? I don't even know if my drive is there still but want to know in case I can save all of my data that has not been backed up.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 18, 2009
I just got an iBook from a friend to use for school. its running Mac OS X Version 10.3.9 - 800 MHz PowerPC G3. It doesnt appear to have the same settings as my iMac. For example when I go into my system settings it shows my start up disks as a file "..TOSHIBA.." I know this computer has been refurbished, but is this something that could cause the CD/DVD drive to not work?
Is there someway I can fix this problem myself? I would really like to get my CD drive to work. On some CD's I can hear it trying to read it but then spits it out shortly after...some it wont do anything. But the eject button works just fine.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 10, 2010
I recently got an iBook from a friend. He didn't want it. I took it home and I used the Recovery CD. Everything was going well. I used an audio cd on the iBook, the CD icon appeared on the desktop and it played it. On the other hand, the DVD did not work. I inserted the DVD the icon did not appear on the desktop.
I went to the Application Folder and went to the DVD Player application and it gave me a nasty message: MAC OS X -DVD PLAYER ENCOUNTERED A SERIOUS ERROR. A VALID DVD DRIVE COULD NOT BE FOUND (-70012
View 5 Replies
View Related
Sep 7, 2014
I have an old iBook G4 that powers on, but then the screen just flashes on and off in grey then goes completely black. I would like to pull all the documents, pictures, and other files off the hard drive but I don't know if this is even an option.
Info:
iBook G4
View 7 Replies
View Related
Aug 11, 2009
I have an iBook (OSX 10.3.9)that's been great for the last couple of years. However the last week or so the screen goes dark for no apparent reason. You can still see through enough to fiddle around and hit shut down...and after it shuts down, and I restart it...it seems normal...that is until the next time. It's happened about 4 times in the last three days. A couple of times on battery and once plugged in I think. It's like it goes to sleep but you can't hit the space bar to wake up. Also seems like maybe an energy saving deal gone awry.
Now for info that may be pertinent: I dropped this laptop(in it's case) about a year ago. Holy crap..all docs would only read in magenta. No black no color only magenta and a "photograph negative" looking image for background or any graphic. I was sure it was dead duck and fried but kept trying it periodically. After about a month, after giving up...I turned it on and it was fine...as if nothing was wrong. Weirdest deal. It's been fine ever since.
I thought perhaps I was too lucky...and assume this may be a result of that fall.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Nov 13, 2009
my mother with her ibook g4. She lives next door in a side by side house and gets her internet from our dlink router. The signal seems to be working as my wife's laptop gets the internet in our house. My mother has a dlink booster in her house that seems to be getting the signal as its light is flickering which means it's working. Her ibook seems to be getting the signal as all bars on top are black. When trying safari or mail an error shows that the server can't be found.
View 12 Replies
View Related
Feb 17, 2010
Someone has suggested that I reformat my system to help eliminate problems with my version update. I have an ibook G3 128+512 mg ram 900 mhz white case 12' It had a Mac osX 2.8 verion. I updated to Mac OS X 3.9. I have had problems ever since with firefox versions not working and crashing. I have not been able to use flash or adobe flash because they won;t load. Flash or adobe flash won't load on Safari, either. How do I a reformat. Will this erase my hard drive. Is this the same as a clean install.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Apr 15, 2010
I've got an iBook G4, 1.2 GHz, OS 10.4.11, 125 gb HD, 1.2 GB RAM, usual 32 MB vram.Thing is, the video speed isn't quite what it used to be. YouTube vids used to run just fine, about 2-3 years ago. Now, of course, it's choppy at best. Ditto Hulu and pretty much any other online video.
I seem to recall something from years and years ago, back in the Classic days, of how you could let the graphics use regular RAM to supplement the vram, something like that - the end result being that it would play smoother than before, kind of a speed bump for the video.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 3, 2006
Hello. I am looking to sell my old iBook (for parts) but first want to wipe it clean. Unfortunately, part of the reason I want to get rid of it is because the cd player doesn't work anymore. Therefore, I am unable to 'c' boot from the original OS X disk and erase the hard drive. Is there another way to wipe all personal info from my computer, leaving only the operating system?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jan 16, 2009
I'm trying to fix the blank screen but I don't want to use any heat. I found this method. This is the only one I found that didn't use a blow torch or such. [URL] Do any of you know where I can get a heatsink like that or if just the fins are available anywhere? I'm not sure what to search for when I do it online and I tried different variations but all the heatsinks I find have fans. I don't want to spend more than I have to since I don't need the fan. I also don't really want to buy online unless I can't find it in a retailer.
View 6 Replies
View Related
May 15, 2009
I have an iBook G4 (14-inch screen, 1.42 Ghz.) and it has a cracked screen. I also have a PowerBook G3 PDQ (14-inch screen, 233Mhz.) with a good screen. Question: Can you swap the screens even if they were made 7ish years apart?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jan 7, 2010
My ibook G4 turned itself off and when I tried to power it up the fan turns vigorously while the screen stays black. Thats it.
Prior to this I was doing some pretty heavy music importing and during that time the fan was going nuts (I then stopped importing)...also while it was charging it the past few nights the light on the connector would go out and it stopped charging while it was still plugged in. This was the first time it happened and it happened 2-3 times.
Like for most people my entire life is on that computer along with a very important document that I need to access ASAP. What could be the issue...not the logic board!
View 3 Replies
View Related
Mar 16, 2010
I have an old iBook graphite SE (466MHz G3 320RAM), which I haven't used for quite a while. I have loaded 10.3.9 on to it and it's working fine.
The only problem I have is that the screen wont display the the full width of a page when I am using Safari (1.3.1), I have to scroll from left to right to see everything, (screen set to 800X600). Other applications seem to be ok. I realise that it's all pretty old stuff but can it be fixed?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 23, 2010
I recently changed providers and started DSL. I have a modem with built-in wireless capabilities. Set it up for my desktop (wired) and all worked well. My son has an iBook G4 running 10.4.11 - same as my desktop. It has an Airport card in it so we figured he should be able to connect to the modem wirelessly. Set it up and it worked well for one day. Following day it would not connect.
I set up the wireless connection with WPA-PSK selected and channel 9 selected. Made sure the iBook was set the same. When prompted for the password we get an error message stating there is an "error" connecting to the modem. Using the set up assistant for the Airport card yielded no change.
Today we turned off the WPA-PSK and he can connect with no problem. I'm not entirely comfortable with WPA shut off. I read something that implied the password needs to be a certain length to work for some settings - notably WEP. I used an 8 character password for the PSK.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Jun 25, 2010
I just had a quick power interruption for about a second while I was using my laptop. The laptop shut down and will not boot up. The screen is black. Any ideas on what is the problem?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Dec 8, 2010
my ibook wont turn on ?Sometimes it does, often not.Is it the switch on the top panel as when it does start-up it works fine
View 13 Replies
View Related
Nov 23, 2009
Does not boot, I hear chimes, fan spins black screen.
Tried to reboot with OSX disc holding c. I'm lucky I got my disk out?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Sep 11, 2010
1st time posting to this forum. My iBook G4's (1.2 Ghz) screen flashes grey/white for a brief second upon startup and then remains black. No ghosting at all... simply black screen though computer is running fine. Later, I decided to connect it to my desktop Mac and restart it in Target mode, and was surprised to see the standard blue screen with moving Firewire logo screensaver on my iBook's screen - no different than anytime before when I've booted in Target Mode.
I ran Diskwarrior on my iBook's HD from my Mac desktop and all was clean so not a HD problem. Btw, I used SuperDuper to copy my iBook's HD to Disk Image for backup.
With some semi-calculated guessing on my part, I had come to the conclusion - prior to seeing the Target Mode screensaver on my laptop's screen - that the LCD screen had gone bad. As a result of what may have been flawed reasoning on my part, I purchased a used replacement screen off eBay from a reputable seller. I will be getting that replacement screen in a few days (including working inverter board).
My question here is can the LCD screen actually be bad and need replacing IF the Target Mode screensaver works beautifully on it? And the follow-up question is if it's not a bad LCD screen, what might the more likely problem be? It doesn't seem like it would be a backlight problem because moving yellow/orange Firewire logo of the screensaver looks fine.
A couple of things probably worth noting here:
Earlier before first experiencing my black screen issue, the power cord was accidentally jerked by a passing foot when laptop was on floor. It was enough of a jerking motion to move the laptop's position on the carpet but I didn't think it was that bad at the time... now wondering if something may have been pulled loose inside.
As those familiar with the iBook will know, the power connector light is orange when computer is turned off and it's also orange when laptop is in Target Mode (with the screen seeming to work correctly). However, when not in Target Mode and turned on with screen black, the power connector light is green as it normally would be. Is it possible the screen is powered via Firewire port when in Target Mode and therefore bypassing some screen power situation via the power connector? Obviously the power connector must be working if i'm able to power up the iBook without the battery installed.
Now for the other bit of info which seems important to me and I'm embarrassed to even admit to here.. Just prior to experiencing my black screen problem, i was plugging my power connector into an electrical outlet near where I was going to use my iBook... In the past, I have always done that PRIOR to plugging the power cord into my iBook. Regrettably, that time I already had the power connector plugged into my iBook. While attempting to plug the connector into the electrical outlet, the prongs did not easily slide into the outlet and I heard some popping sounds which didn't seem too bad at the time. But it was immediately after that when my iBook's screen failed to start up.
Thanking anyone in advance who may be able to offer up some expertise regarding my situation. Also I should say that I am running OS 10.5.8 on my iBook. I realize the easiest thing for me to do to get this matter resolved would be to simply take the unit into a local service center for repair... but the value of the iBook at this point wouldn't be worth spending a large sum of money for repairs I likely can do on my on. Over the years, I've learned how to follow direction pretty well when it comes to replacing defective items inside my desktop computers, so I'm not terrified of doing same with my iBook.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Aug 14, 2009
have an iBook 12" the screen and the screen is very grainy, disintergrated image and text?Loads up perfectly and functions are all good , just hard to read the vague image.Any clues?Supposedly it has had the motherboard replaced by the dealer who said it is the screen. But not sure if i can believe this.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Nov 3, 2007
In the effort to use Time Machine, I want to partition my external drive. I have 500 gig external, and would like to have one partition of 480 and one around 20. This way, Time Machine will only back up onto the smaller partition, not endlessly backing up until all 500 gigs are used. The reason I need to partition without erasing is my 170 gig iTunes library. Its too large to transfer to my internal HD, and I have no other drive to store it on.
View 20 Replies
View Related
Mar 22, 2012
I have royally screwed up! I want to erase the hard drive on my Power Mac G4 to prepare it to go to my son. I thought I was doing it right, but had forgotten to put the energy saver on "never turn off" so the screen dims when I try to continue with the erasing. Tried to start over with an install disk in the tray. Now can't access the original disk.
View 14 Replies
View Related
Mar 24, 2012
I have a WD external drive that was set up as my time machine backup disc with Leopard. I want to erase the disc, but when I try to erase it using disc utility, it tells me "Disk Erase failed with the error: Unable to write to the last block of the device".
Info:
iMac, Related to an external drive
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 13, 2010
I have a G3 iBook and just the other day the display stopped working. There were no signs of the display going bad, it's just went. Am I able to boot the iBook via Target Disk Mode on my PowerBook and run the iBook Hardware Test CD on it? Also, can I reboot my PowerBook and choose the iBook as the startup volume?
I know how to do Target Disk Mode but the latter I'm not sure about.
View 19 Replies
View Related
Apr 10, 2006
Im really close, well just about done on selling my powerbook and I want to erase my HD so I can give it to the buyer by "factory settings", especially by erasing all my keychain passwords.
View 24 Replies
View Related
Jun 20, 2009
I was doing a 7-Pass Erase of a hard drive that I had switched out of my MBP. During the process, the USB cable connecting my hard drive to my MBP got disconnected. Now, whenever I connect this external drive to my MBP, it doesn't show up in the desktop or under disk utiltiy. How can I can continue the process of erasing and formatting the drive? What do I have to do in order for OS X to recognize it?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Mar 31, 2012
I have a 2007 white MacBook that I am going to be selling. I want to erase the hard drive. I have gone into utilities but it won't let me erase the h ard drive completely.
Info:
iPad, iOS 5.0.1
View 6 Replies
View Related
