PowerBook G4 not recognizing new Hard Drive (SSD)

[Kwphoto]

Hello All,

About four years ago, a 2003 PowerBook g4 17" 1.0 GHz came into my possession after a family member decided that they had no use for it. Of course, this became my backup laptop as it ran photoshop as well as illustrator and indesign. Now while this was great, I knew that someday the IBM hard drive was going to fail and final (after 14 years) it failed. Now (of course) I wanted to save the computer, so I bought a new SSD and mirrored the hard drive of my smaller 12" PowerBook. Now this is where I came into an issue, because my PowerBook (17") does not seem to recognize the newly installed hard drive. Is there anyway I can fix this?

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Tell us about the SSD. Is it a model made typically for older IDE/ATA connections? What speed rating is it?

I ask as OWC (macsales.com) are Mac specialists and make Legacy Pro SSDs for old IDE/ATA PowerPC computers, which is what the PowerBook is. If it is the wrong type of drive take it back. Have a read of this:-

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Legacy_Pro

 

[pigoo3]

Great questions from Harry. I would also ask...since you mirrored the 12" Powerbook HD. What OS version was on the 12" Powerbook?

- Nick

p.s. Moved thread to better area.

 

[Kwphoto]

The SSD was a 64GB KingSpec 2.5-inch PATA/IDE SSD Solid State Disk. Also, it was running 10.5.8
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008RWKFYE/?tag=macforums0e4-20

 

[pigoo3]

Also, it was running 10.5.8

Thanks for that. Wanted to be sure the 12" Powerbook wasn't running an OS version the 17" couldn't run.

- Nick

 

[harryb2448]

Well it may be in the operating system that was mirrored. Are both machines using the bidentical operating system?

Do you have the system install discs that came with the PB? If not suggest you go looking at eBay and such for a full retail install version of OS X.5 Leopard, and never the silver grey discs that came with a different computer. Also consider when you changed the drive, the power cable would be extremely brittle and fragile, and well worth replacing.

 

[pigoo3]

Great point that Harry brings up. There was a time in "Apple History" when each computer model had a slightly different tailored version of the Mac OS installed on it (specific to that model). And that tailored OS version would only run on that model (or a very small group of models). The silver/grey disks that Harry is referring to is a perfect example of this.

Official retail OS install disks that we had to pay $$$ for...installs a more "universal" OS install. And this "universal" OS install was an install that (in most cases) could be run on almost all Apple computers capable of running that specific OS version.

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

I had never heard of any KingSpec drives and I wonder if some of these comments could be related to the problem:

More More Bad feedback about king spec SSD
https://kingspecssdreview.blogspot.ca




- Patrick
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[ferrarr]

I didn't notice, was the new SSD formatted before mirroring? Or was it cloned?

 

[pm-r]

I didn't notice, was the new SSD formatted before mirroring? Or was it cloned?

And the "Apple Partition Map" (APM) formatting (maybe a DU option choice) would have to have been used when formatting such an Ultra ATA/100 Interface (PATA) HDD for allowing booting with a powermac.





- Patrick
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[Kwphoto]

It was cloned, but I had to format it before the fact.

 

[pm-r]

It was cloned, but I had to format it before the fact.

OK, but was the "Apple Partition Map" (APM) formatting option used when formatting the drive and prior to installing/cloning the OS and user data etc.?

And what cloning application and version was used???






- Patrick
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[pigoo3]

To keep things simple. I would suggest a fresh install of the OS...via the proper retail install disk. This would at least insure that the SSD install was successful...and the SSD is working properly.

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

To keep things simple. I would suggest a fresh install of the OS...via the proper retail install disk. This would at least insure that the SSD install was successful...and the SSD is working properly.

- Nick

+!.

And maybe also add doing a proper fresh "Apple Partition Map" (APM) partition/formatting option with Disk Utility as well.






- Patrick
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