[geekgirl87]

So, I have an old iBook G4, and it has been my companion for the past 4 years. Last night it took a horrible trip off the counter about 3.5 feet up onto a hardwoodfloor and the top casesplit. The screen still appeares to work, but I'm getting a gray screen that makes me believe it is no longer booting. The split is in the bottom left hand corner of the casing on the lid.

There are mac stores about an hour away from me, and I was wondering if anyone might have a suggestion as o what I could do about it- I want my data, and maybe keeping the computer a little longer if possible- any suggestions?

Thanks for your imput!

 

[fjnmusic]

I'd take advantage of the Mac-to-school promotion, which would give you a free iPod Touch and printer as well as about $100 off (educational discount). At the Apple Store, they can try to retrieve any data from your old Mac for free, if it's retrievable. This is a good time to mention why it's important to back up all your stuff. Good luck.

 

[chas_m]

Sorry to hear about this. I second fjnmusic's suggestion very much.

If Apple can't repair the drive, data recovery is an option but a mighty expensive one. Assuming you had a 40 or 80GB in there, I'd say you're looking at $700-1500 for recovery (if it comes to that).

I normally suggest DriveSavers for this sort of thing, but I'm told there are good-quality data-recovery companies in Canada that can do the work (and are probably less expensive).

 

[Zoiks]

Sorry to hear about this. I second fjnmusic's suggestion very much.

If you have access to another Mac, you could boot it into target disk mode (search the apple site for this) and get your data off the iBook that way.

I did this with an iBook my brother had with no real difficulty. He's a Karaoke host, and a customer spilt beer all over his work laptop. It wouldn't boot, but I was able to see the drive and pull files through target disk mode no problems.


Cheers

 

[chas_m]

If you have access to another Mac, you could boot it into target disk mode (search the apple site for this) and get your data off the iBook that way.

A good suggestion, but you forgot to add "possibly" to it. The OP's laptop has been dropped, the hard drive may very well be physically damaged (as I recall, the iBook did not have the "sudden motion detector" that MacBooks do).

It's certainly worth a try if he has access to another Mac, though.

 

[HowEver]

There is a good chance that the hard drive is fine. The grey screen may be related to a video problem, especially since this is an iBook G4. Target mode is definitely worth a try, but if there are connections knocked out or loose, it may just require a take-apart, and popping the hard drive into an enclosure or adapter.

Take-apart instructions:
G4 12" iBook - iFixit: iPod, iBook, & PowerBook Parts and Accessories

Installing iBook G4 12" 800 MHz-1.2 GHz Hard Drive Replacement
or
Installing iBook G4 12" 1.33 GHz Hard Drive Replacement

This isn't easy, but you may not be worried about putting things back together. The parts that still work might be worth selling.

Oh, also: try hooking up a monitor! If it's just an internal video problem, an external monitor will work, make the device useable for now, help you get your info off it, etc.