iBook G4 12" 768MB RAM error: hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

[Peter Garrett]

Googling this error makes me suspect that my drive is dying...

The error repeated endlessly is:

hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown

Am I right in thinking that this Toshiba / Mac 30 Gig hard drive is
dead?

Situation: Attempts to install either Ubuntu or Debian PPC conk out at
the partitioning stage ( it stops at 33%)

Gparted also fails to format the ' / ' partition ( /dev/hda3).
I would append the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda , but fdisk apparently
can't see the drive...

It's possible to boot from a Live Ubuntu CD, but it boots very slowly.
During attempted installs and updates the load average has been as high
as 13, with nothing else running but GNOME and X ...

Various utilities also fail - for example attempts to
tail -f /var/log/syslog

Looking for advice, or confirmation of my tentative diagnosis... I'm not
a hardware person.

 :(

-- 
Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au>
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