New hard drive arrived today. Did manage to pick up screwdriver
set at Radio Shack last night (for Torx screws). Two different sets
of instructions said I'd need two Torx screwdrivers. One said T-8
and T-9; the other said T-8 and T-6. There were only two Torx screws
involved, both T-6. (Glad I didn't just get the multi-tool with
T-8/9/10/11 bits on it!) Took me just under an hour. No screws left
over. No funny gaps in the case (except ones that were already there
from when the strap on my laptop bag broke). Nothing rattles. So far,
so good. Powering it up, I get a grey screen with a folder icon in
the middle that alternates between a question mark and a Finder logo
inside it, which is what I was expecting to see. Significantly, I'm
not getting a black screen with panic messages from the
boot loader. Just the "Dude, Where's My OS?" sign.
So now I just need an OS.
I'm still not sure whether the old drive is Entirely kaput, or
just trashed enough that the OS can't load. If I manage to stick
it into a USB enclosure, maybe I can see whether there's anything
readable on it or not.
Hoping to borrow Leopard installation media tonight.