start up does not recognize hard drive

hey evrybdy, I have a serious problem with my mac and I was wondering if anyone else has faced a similiar situation. When I start up my G4 powerbook running tiger , the disk drive struggles and clicks, then the screen blinks, and then a light blue screen is displayed with a question mark alternating with a mac icon. I love my mac, and am a little ashamed to admit that I have no clue what to do about this. Any and all advice will be greatly valued and appreciated. I have looked thru the forum and have found some info. regarding an external hard drive hooked up via firewire, but I don't really know how to do this as far as my mac communicating with the external drive, as my mac will not even turn on. My mac is sick and needs help bad, again any advice would be greatly valued. thank you for your time.

My guess you have a corrupted system. Due to the fact that you are alternating between the Mac icon and the question mark.

What version of the OS are you running?

I'm running Tiger that I installed myself (if that matters at all). but I'd be happy to just go back to the factory installed OS. or do whatever my options are at this point other than getting a new computer. Thank you for the response.

Does anybody plz have any other ideas or could sombdy plz guide me thru the process of fixing this prblm

When your hard drive starts making odd noises, it's usually an indication that it's either very ill, or dead already. You'll probably need a new one in order to get your system working again.

I'd suggest trying to boot from a CD, and if you can access the disk - back up as much of your data as you can. Then head over to your local Apple Store to get a replacement.

J

i got that very same problem, but its because am using xp and Mac and there is an issue with tiger.

^^ Are you saying there's an incompatibly with Tiger and Boot Camp? Or is the XP partition somehow effecting the OSX side?

Could any1 estimate how much a new harddrive +installation would cost?

You can probably pick up a decent sized one for about $100US. As for installation - I wouldn't even begin to hazard a guess what an Apple store may charge, but most local computer shops would probably charge you around $50 or so... Unless they have to install the OS, configure the system, etc.

J

Edit: Here's one for about $120US that says it works with PowerBook G4s.. http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MS160GX&Category_Code=STORLTHDINT&Product_Count=10

And if you want to save a few bucks, and you're feeling daring today, you can probably try doing it yourself with the help of this site: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/powerbook_g4/PB_G4_HD_upgrade/pb_g4_hd_upgrade.html

Thank you very much for the info, it has been very useful. I think I am feeling brave and am going to attempt the install myself. I've built pc's with my cousin so hopefully I can get it done myself. thanks again