G4 sometimes doesn't see internal HD... what could that mean?

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Everyone:

I have a PowerBook G4 I'm planning to give to a family member. I have re-installed fresh Tiger on it. Twice, now, it has powered up and not located the internal hard disk. For example, when I just booted from the Tiger CD, there was no "Macintosh HD" option to choose to install the OS on.

This has started very recently, and I have no idea what it might mean. I don't live near an Apple Store, so I can't just waltz into one and ask these questions.

Can we brainstorm some ideas about what might cause this behavior? It's sporadic so far.

Thanks!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
Go to  About this mac > then "More Info"

In system Profiler Choose ATA and look at the details for the hard disk. Does it say Verified next to the SMART entry?

Also make sure the start-up drive is selected in System Preferences > Start-up Disk

If you cannot start of the internal disk - start up of the tiger install disk. When you get to the installer choose Utilities from the top menu and run disk Utility (repair disk and repair permissions)
 
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Go to  About this mac > then "More Info"

In system Profiler Choose ATA and look at the details for the hard disk. Does it say Verified next to the SMART entry?

Also make sure the start-up drive is selected in System Preferences > Start-up Disk

If you cannot start of the internal disk - start up of the tiger install disk. When you get to the installer choose Utilities from the top menu and run disk Utility (repair disk and repair permissions)

The problem was/is deeper than that. When I upgraded to 10.4.11, the partition disappeared. I couldn't choose the internal Hard Disk to install Tiger to from the Tiger install CD. I have managed to re-partition and start re-installing. I plan to upgrade to 10.4.11 and see what happens.

But let's assume that the same thing happens: I install 10.4.11, then I somehow lose the partition. What might that mean? Does it mean a replacement hard disk, or would that even help?

Thanks.
 

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