Second internal hard drive not seen in Tiger.

Jimmy ~ Thanks for the quick response. Hubby removed the suspect SATA HD and took it to a computer repair shop. The tech connected it to a computer where he checked it out. He pronounced it fit and saw the data. We declined paying $65 to find out what it was. We did consider doing the swap you're suggesting but didn't think the computer would boot if an OS wasn't on the suspect HD placed in the top bay. Now that I know it doesn't make any difference, we'll give it a shot. I'll let you know what happens -- although my experience with MacFixIt tells me that you're right and we have -- oh joy -- cable problems. BTW, do you know what could cause this? Could something come loose in shipping or would it probably be something more long-term?

Thanks again ~ Karen

That's the point. If suddenly the computer won't boot, or boots to a different OS, then you know that there's something about that second slot. At which point you can either decide to just accept that it's busted and not worth fixing, or you can look into how to fix it. Strangely enough, I can't seem to find mention of the HDD power cable anywhere in the service manual for that model unit. The closest I can find is for replacing the data cable, and the HDDs, where it says to disconnect it. The good news is it doesn't look like it's part of the PSU, which would make the whole repair cost less. The bad news is that it would still be a giant PITA. Based on memory and some old fairly low res photos, I seem to recall there being some special 4-pin connectors in that general area of the logic board, which are probably custom SATA power cables.

Given this thing is circa 2005, I would make a decision fast, because it will quickly reach Apple's Vintage list, and then you can only get it fixed if you're in California. It's possible it's already made it to that list, in which case you may be out of luck.

As to why it happened in the first place... Could be a lot of different reasons. Cables just fail sometimes for no apparent reason. It could be some stress break inside the cable that happened during shipping. One other thing to check is that the cable didn't come loose at the logic board end. Fairly easy to check. Immediately under the HDDs is a metal shelf, and then if you go to the opposite side of that shelf, and follow it straight down to the logic board, you should see the SATA data cable connectors. You may need to remove an add-in card to really get at them. You should be able to just pull them both up and reseat them. If that doesn't fix it, we're back to my cable theory, or the new idea I just came up with of the SATA port on the logic board being bad/damaged.

Assuming you can still get the logic board, it would probably cost about as much as you paid for that thing, or a very sizable chunk at least. Most likely not cost effective, and I've pulled one of these board before, so trust me when I say you do NOT want to even attempt it. It requires a bunch of tools you almost certainly don't have, and there are these special connectors for the CPU assembly that are very easy to damage. The cables are likely worth the risk, but if new cables don't fix things, just cut your losses.

Hi Jimmy ~ Thank you so much for all the information and the confidence to really dig into this machine. It's fixed! When Hubby pulled out the second slot HD to do the test swap, he checked the power cable connection to the logic board (as you suggested). Lo and behold, it was completely disconnected. He reconnected the power cable to the logic board and then checked to make sure that the cable connections to the HD slots were secure. He replaced the second HD in the bottom slot, turned on the computer and Eureka -- when it booted up the second HD now appeared everywhere it was supposed to. Yea!! Hubby performed Disk Utility and no repairs were needed. He is now doing his happy dance.

You proved why MacFixIt is my go-to site when I'm in Mac trouble. Thank you for all the time and effort you put forth solving my problem and explaining it in such a clear manner that even I could understand.

You Rock ~ Karen

Good to hear. Those kinds of fixes are always the best kind. Not just cheap, but free, and easy to boot. The problem with "make sure it's plugged in" is that it's so basic it's easy to assume everyone's already done it.

I have no idea why that cable would be disconnected like that. It shouldn't have happened during shipping. I guess it will go down as one of those great unsolved mysteries. The answer is probably completely underwhelming anyway.