[iBook] Hard drive problems

[Eric Richardson]

I have been having problems with my G4 iBook, 60 gig, 640 MB, using 
Panther lately. The problem is that it will just freeze up on me and 
when I reboot it can't find the system folder on the hard drive. I 
think the hard drive is whirring for a couple of seconds, but it 
doesn't see the drive and I get the flashing question mark file 
folder icon that says it can't find the system. I was thinking that 
maybe it was a heat issue, if I shut it down for a half hour or so it 
would reboot okay... until yesterday.

The internal hard drive checks out okay with disk utility including 
the SMART verification and techtools pro from AppleCare and 
DiskWarrior, when the system is up. But when the system is down on 
the internal drive, I can boot up from an emergency CD I made, from a 
firewire external drive that I have, from the installation disk that 
came with the iBook, etc, and none of them will see the internal hard 
drive to check it out when the internal system won't boot.

I was thinking I would take it in to the Apple Store soon, and ask 
them about it. But yesterday, it froze up and wouldn't reboot and 
couldn't see the system... for the last 30 some hours. I have to 
leave town tomorrow and not having the iBook with me would be a 
problem, but I was preparing to take it in today anyway (what else 
could I do?), and spent a couple of hours booted off the external 
drive taking care of business that needed to be done before I 
could... and shut it down, and went to start it up one more time. Lo 
and behold, after multiple retries and starting up with all those 
other disks, it finally saw the internal hard drive system again.

Since not having it with me will be a problem, I have decided to hold 
off taking the iBook to the repair until later, and will spend the 
evening backing up some things that I realized today I would regret 
losing. If whatever it is doesn't happen again before I can.

Anyway, does anyone have any insight on what the problem is here? or 
suggestions? Part of the problem of course is that when it does boot 
up fine, then it will appear to the Apple tech folks that it has no 
problem, since none of the repair programs see any problem. And when 
it is down, you can't see it the disk at all. And then it will 
randomly just start acting okay again. As it stands now, I can make 
the two hour trek to the Apple store and say it isn't working and 
then have it boot up fine. Or not, but then have it sit waiting for 
the tech guy to boot... and then it will boot up fine.

Eric in Seoul (on his way to England)