In a fix (folowup)

[hart at nasw.org]

I just got off the phone with AppleCare on this issue. Diagnosis: bad 
hard drive, or more likely, a bad hard-drive controller. (Possibly in 
addition to some corruption of the database storing user information.)

The way we got to that was to try all the usual fixes, then try to 
reinstall OS 10.2 with an Archive and Install option. But the installer 
couldn't see the hard drive (though Disk Utility could see the drive 
and repair). Then we tried an erase with Disk Utility. It could not 
unmount the hard drive. The reason to think it's not the drive itself 
is that the the drive was replaced last September with similar symptoms.

Fortunately we have AppleCare and I can see the drive when the iBook is 
started up in FireWire target mode.

I love this iBook, and my son loves it, but it has been into the shop 
three times for hinge repairs and now twice for hard drive problems, 
all since late sumer 2001.

Stephen Hart
http://eugraph.com