iBook G4 Ssd issue

There used to be sources for ATA-IDE SSD build versions for use with PATA

older G4 Mac and some similar hardware was used in PC builds too.

I'd held back when available due to take-apart issues/damages ~ & time.

More recently when checked, I asked OWC because they'd stocked these.

Leads on those specific hardware products, may still be available; while

the US OWC has none, suggested where to look in an email reply:

"We don't carry the IDE (SSD) drives anymore, only options we sell are

SATA drives with IDE conversion kits on them that will not work in your

current setup. You could check to see if one of our resellers might have

an IDE version still - although that is not overly likely:

https://www.owcdigital.com/reseller/resellers#reseller

..I would steer you more towards eBay or other such sellers online since

they are going to have the largest selection of parts. Possibly somewhere

like iFixit, though eBay may be more flexible with shipping to AK. I have

no doubt that you can find the parts, we just no longer carry them I am

sorry to say. .." ~ tech experience - owc, email reply

..seeking a(n)other source of SSD for iBookG4..? | Apple Community

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250965899?answerId=251907461022#251907461022

With bigger fish to fry, my near perfect iBook G4 last 12-in. 'online store' apple refurbished

sample, remains nearly as-shipped; with brown box carton, install DVDs + accessories.

Glad it worked. FYI, I usually used a nylon stick to pry the connector loose from the drive so I don't risk breaking or separating pins on the cable end. Some of those connectors can be very tight and hard to loosen from the drive.

You need a known good IDE hard drive for testing to be sure the rest of the laptop is fine.

SSDs may be incompatible with the laptop. Even later Intel Macs can sometimes have issues working properly with some SSDs (usually to due SATA link speed negotiation issues). IDE hard drives also used a 512B sector size, but an SSD may only support 4k blocks. Even if you can get the SSD to work OSX at the time didn't understand how to properly support an SSD since SSDs didn't exist at the time. An SSD needs to be partitioned on 4k boundaries in order with the first partition starting at the 1MB position to work & perform properly.

Yes it is possible the cable was damaged since they can be somewhat tight and difficult to loosen & disconnect from the drive. Also double-check to make sure the pins on the hard drive connector are all straight.

Good luck.

You can physically install the new drive first, but the new drive will need to be formatted using Disk Utility before you can install OSX on it or restore from a backup. Disk Utility is included in the OSX installer.

Hi joe,

What ports does your iBook have?

Maybe try one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/USB-2-0-SATA-Converter-Cable/dp/B0188GPYS0