Replacing the harddrive in a 12.1PB

[starstreak]

Is it possible to replace the harddrive? If so, I got a few questions.
1) It has the slow 60gig 4200, will getting the 60gig 7200 be worth it? Or should I get a 5400 unit?
2) How badly will this cut into battery life? I still want to be able to play movies on this unit. Needs to last at least 2hours playing a dvd.
3) Is the Harddrive user replacable? Uses the standard laptop harddrives?

[jackieonasses]

Is it possible to replace the harddrive? If so, I got a few questions.
1) It has the slow 60gig 4200, will getting the 60gig 7200 be worth it? Or should I get a 5400 unit?
2) How badly will this cut into battery life? I still want to be able to play movies on this unit. Needs to last at least 2hours playing a dvd.
3) Is the Harddrive user replacable? Uses the standard laptop harddrives? I know the answer to 1 and 3

1) that speed difference (4600 to 7200) will be night and day.

3) it DOES use standard 1.8 inch (not sure) notebook hard drives.


kyle

[jeremy.king]

Unless you are a qualified Apple Service Center Tech, you will void any warranty by replacing the HD.

[wordmunger]

I've seen a lot of posts suggesting battery life is not affected at all: the HD spins for shorter time periods, and so uses just about the same amount of battery. The HD shouldn't spin much at all when watching a movie.

EDIT: I should add that I've replaced HDs in both a TiBook and an original iBook. ANYTHING would be easier than the iBook: I had parts (carefully labeled) laying all over my kitchen counter. Despite all that, I'd say the trickiest part is getting all your files copied to the new HD. Carbon Copy Cloner is probably the way to go, and you'll need an external Firewire enclosure as well. Others have done it using an iPod, which will work with CCC as well if you have the space -- but it requires you to copy the data twice!

EDIT2: As long as you're upgrading, why not bump the size up to 80 GB? They are definitely a pain to upgrade, so you may as well get the biggest availabe HD.

[marcsiry]

I've been thinking of doing the exact same thing to my 12". Is there a generally recommended 7200 RPM drive?

[oingoboingo]

Is it possible to replace the harddrive? If so, I got a few questions.
1) It has the slow 60gig 4200, will getting the 60gig 7200 be worth it? Or should I get a 5400 unit?
2) How badly will this cut into battery life? I still want to be able to play movies on this unit. Needs to last at least 2hours playing a dvd.
3) Is the Harddrive user replacable? Uses the standard laptop harddrives?

Just in case you haven't seen this walkthrough on how to replace the hard drive in a 12" PowerBook, here's the URL:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/powerbookG4_12in_HD_upgrade/PowebookG4_12in_HD_upgrade.htm#storytop

[CanadaRAM]

> 3) it DOES use standard 1.8 inch (not sure) notebook hard drives.

It uses the standard notebook hard drive which is 2.5" wide and 9mm thick.

The Hitachi 7200 RPM drive may be a bit pricey, and the jury is still out on the heat output in the iBook. The Seagate Momentus 5400 RPM is worth a look, it is almost as fast as the 7200 RPM http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20030813/index.html

Installing a hard drive in the iBook is a bear. Not describable as user replaceable at all.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

[starstreak]

well since I just got it and I want the warrenty, does anbody hayve an idea how much it would cost to get the apple store to swap my harddrive? I can probably get a good deal off the Hitach 7200rpm drive. But if I have 786mb, would I not be accessing the harddrive that much to make it worth it?
BUT
hs anaybody done a startup test with a 4200rpm vs the 7200rpm drive? As it is now, the PB takes as long as my pc laptop to boot and that one has the 7200rpm, and we know PCs should take longer to boot.

Then again, I suppose it would help with my WoW gaming. I can imagine the heat tho. N TOh epc, my harddrive gets over 100deg while in heavy use.

Man, I went from getting a $999 Ibook, to a $1599PB to a $1799 PB w/sd to $100 to upgrade ram another 512mb to a faster harddrive?? Sheesh, my wife is gonna kill me! She doesn't even know I got it yet and I'm upgrading it. I'm technically not even gonna be useing it all that much. ;)

[alphaq619]

The Apple Store WILL NOT put in the hard drive for you. They will only install products you buy from their store.

[starstreak]

So there is no way to upgrade my harddrive without first killing my warrenty?

Holy smokes! I saw the instructions on replacing the harddrive. Thats a pain in the butt!

[spaceballl]

I upgraded my iBook harddrive from the previous drive to a 60gb hitachi 7200 rpm drive. Performance startup and boot time was WAY better. Applications started quicker too. Once an app was open, the speed isn't that much different as everything is in RAM. But you could tell the HD/RAM transfer times were much lower as the system was more responsive. You have a faster system than I did so I think the speed of the hard drive might be a little more visible. As far as the rec to get a 5400 rpm drive, my drive swap was a kinda difficult procedure. If you're going to do it, go all the way and get the faster drive. It was a great upgrade for me.
-Kevin

[oingoboingo]

So there is no way to upgrade my harddrive without first killing my warrenty?

Holy smokes! I saw the instructions on replacing the harddrive. Thats a pain in the butt!

As far as I know, unless you chose the 5400rpm BTO upgrade at the time you ordered, there isn't any way to upgrade the hard drive without blowing your warranty. Yeah, the upgrade procedure is tedious and difficult...the hard drive clearly wasn't designed to be a user-serviceable part. This is unlike some other notebooks I have used or owned, where removing a single screw on a side panel allows you to slide out the 2.5" drive on a carrier sled and easily replace it (that was on a Dell Inspiron 4100).

There's only one way to find out for sure I suppose...give Apple a call and ask them directly! If you talk to them, post your response here...I'm sure a lot of people would be interested to know Apple's policy on this kind of thing, but I'd suspect Apple isn't going to be terribly cooperative on the issue.

[Mark James]

So there is no way to upgrade my harddrive without first killing my warrenty?
Correct.

[ifjake]

man, i was going to get the Apple Store to put in my 7200RPM drive in my powerbook after it arrived tuesday so that i wouldn't void the warrantee. i assumed i'd have to pay them a little something to do it, which is expected. but this totally stinks. maybe they're trying not to take business away from their Authorized Technicians, but nothing stopped them from taking business away from their Authorized Retailers. this alters slightly my opinion of Apple's great customer service.

[saabmp3]

As it is now, the PB takes as long as my pc laptop to boot and that one has the 7200rpm, and we know PCs should take longer to boot.

Why? Unix and *nix's are notorious for taking a long time to boot. I had a config of linux which took nearly 10 minutes for a full proper boot. The power and beauty of *nix is that it doesn't have to be booted often (I booted that linux box maybe 10 times in multiple years).

Then again, I suppose it would help with my WoW gaming. I can imagine the heat tho. N TOh epc, my harddrive gets over 100deg while in heavy use.

Yeah, the faster it spins, the more heat it's gonna generate. The 7200's are built to deal with this heat and the PB can deal with it just fine too.


man, i was going to get the Apple Store to put in my 7200RPM drive in my powerbook after it arrived tuesday so that i wouldn't void the warrantee. i assumed i'd have to pay them a little something to do it, which is expected. but this totally stinks. maybe they're trying not to take business away from their Authorized Technicians, but nothing stopped them from taking business away from their Authorized Retailers. this alters slightly my opinion of Apple's great customer service.

Yeah, I think that's true. They do want you to go to an authorized service center for this.

BEN

[starstreak]

I installed the new harddrive. still formatting and installing OSx so I cant tell you if its any faster.

BUT for anybody thinking of doing it...DON'T. I learned 3 things that made me cry.
1) Removing keys can be nerve wrecking. So very thin plastics holding them down. None broken.
2) I put a small scratch on the case with the screwdriver. I wanted to yell. THat is real minor marks in teh plastic where you had to pry up the unit. I do not know how Apple will open up yur case to do work with out causing damage.
3) The two clips holding down the left front of the casing. I spent 30 mins trying to figure out how to get it open. I got it open but thats how the screwdriver slip and scratched.

I hope this was worth it.

[starstreak]

Ok here are my un scientific on speed increase.
I had a 60gig 4200rpm (anybody want to buy it?) and installed a 60gig 7200rpm drive.

From turn-on to the apple logo 15sec vs 13sec
To the OSX screen 46sec vs 33sec
To a loaded desktop 56sec vs 46sec

So OSX took about 10 seconds faster to load. Thats a good jump. Still thinking if it was worth the small scratch I put on the case..

Oh for those playing Wow
to the sign in page 22sec vs 14sec
Thats not bad.

[CaptainCaveMann]

I upgraded my iBook harddrive from the previous drive to a 60gb hitachi 7200 rpm drive. Performance startup and boot time was WAY better. Applications started quicker too. Once an app was open, the speed isn't that much different as everything is in RAM. But you could tell the HD/RAM transfer times were much lower as the system was more responsive. You have a faster system than I did so I think the speed of the hard drive might be a little more visible. As far as the rec to get a 5400 rpm drive, my drive swap was a kinda difficult procedure. If you're going to do it, go all the way and get the faster drive. It was a great upgrade for me.
-KevinLink to the instructions please

[maya]

I've seen a lot of posts suggesting battery life is not affected at all: the HD spins for shorter time periods, and so uses just about the same amount of battery. The HD shouldn't spin much at all when watching a movie.

EDIT: I should add that I've replaced HDs in both a TiBook and an original iBook. ANYTHING would be easier than the iBook: I had parts (carefully labeled) laying all over my kitchen counter. Despite all that, I'd say the trickiest part is getting all your files copied to the new HD. Carbon Copy Cloner is probably the way to go, and you'll need an external Firewire enclosure as well. Others have done it using an iPod, which will work with CCC as well if you have the space -- but it requires you to copy the data twice!

EDIT2: As long as you're upgrading, why not bump the size up to 80 GB? They are definitely a pain to upgrade, so you may as well get the biggest availabe HD.

Actually if you do not have enough RAM and the system has to access virtual memory off the HDD the faster HDD, will not only generate more heat and noise however it will drain your battery much faster. If you have ample ram and not doing any intense work the batter life, heat and noise should be fine. :)

I would not recommend a 80GB yet 100Gb are around the corner and the 80GB will drop in price as the 60Gb will drop even more.

wait till the 100GB HDD's are out then do the upgrade if you can wait. :)

[starstreak]

I still say there is nor way you can open this case without putting some sort of mark on it. The surrounding plastic is bound to get dents in it while you pry the case open.
And the casing won't seal as good as factory. You'll notice a little gap between parts. I dunno why as most screws for the case is to hold the parts together, not to hold them from moving.

[spaceballl]

Actually if you do not have enough RAM and the system has to access virtual memory off the HDD the faster HDD, will not only generate more heat and noise however it will drain your battery much faster. If you have ample ram and not doing any intense work the batter life, heat and noise should be fine. :)
Well, actually the Hitachi harddrive has special fluid bearings and many other performance enhancing features that keep its power consumption low. Granted, a larger RAMDISK obviously decreases overall cache to harddrive and can surely increase battery life. That being said, the drive is just a much more modern piece of technology. It's faster and uses less power. Slightly more heat. I had a 4200 rpm harddrive and did the upgrade and ran some before/after tests. Think of the new iPod... there isn't a bigger battery in there, but it has a better processor than the 3G iPod, and it still ends up going for longer on the same charge.

Link to the instructions please
I actually didn't use any... HOWEVER, I think that www.lowendmac.com had some instructions for the G3 version of the iBook. I'm not sure if teh G4 is different or not. You have to search around that site for a while. It's not very well organized... I hope that's the place! Let me know if you don't find it.

-Kevin

[MemphisSoulStew]

I still say there is nor way you can open this case without putting some sort of mark on it. The surrounding plastic is bound to get dents in it while you pry the case open.

Apple use a nylon screwdriver for prying apart laptop cases. There's a - not very good - picture of the tool here (http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Apple_Black_Nylon_Flat_Probe_Tool_NEW-p-16585.html)

[Snowy_River]

So there is no way to upgrade my harddrive without first killing my warrenty?

Holy smokes! I saw the instructions on replacing the harddrive. Thats a pain in the butt!

Well, I just replaced my 12" HD, not because I wanted to, but because I had to (the 40GB drive that came with it - a year and a half ago, so out of warranty - crashed... hard). It wasn't too terrible, but, then, I've stripped several models of PBs down to component parts and put them back together again. My case fits together just as well as it always did, no gaps. I did put a small dent in one spot on the plastic lip, but that's really no big deal.

As to the question about upgrading without voiding your warranty, of course you can. The Apple Store may not be willing to install your new hard drive, but there are other stores that will. I can name two for you, and I wouldn't be at all surprized if they'd be willing to do it mail-order if you can't find one near you (and these aren't near you). They are The Mac Store (http://www.macstoresnw.com/) in the Pacific NW, and Simutek (http://www.ecartdeluxe.com/simutek/default.php?ref=) in Tucson, AZ. Great people at either place. And they are Apple Authorized techs, so any work they do on your computer will not void the warranty.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

wait till the 100GB HDD's are out then do the upgrade if you can wait. :)

I'm actually wondering if my year old iBook G4 should get a 100GB Seagate Momentus 5400.2 (http://www.seagate.com/products/discfamily/momentus/index.html) for Christmas. I think it's been such a good little computer all year ;), and my iTunes collection now hogs more then half the HD, and it just needs more space.

On my former laptop, a pismo, changing the HD was pretty straigh forward, but I think I gonna let the pro's do it this time. The service manual I found on this site (http://fileshare.eshop.bg/service_manual/datasheets_a_600.html) convinced me that it's worth paying for someone to do this job...