Powerbook Hard Drive Replacement?

Joeytpg · Mar 21, 2005

hi guys, i'm in need of a new Hard Drive, i was thinking about buying an external drive (120 - 160 gb) but i started thinking.....can i replace my powerbook 60gb internal hard drive?.....for a bigger/faster drive?

if so, where can i get it?...how much would it cost?

What do you recommend?...to keep the original drive and buy an external for storage ?

thank you.

-Joey-

deebster · Mar 21, 2005

What Powerbook do you have?

The 12" model is slightly more difficult (read: scary) to open up, but it is still doable.

The hard drive is just a basic 2.5" laptop drive, so there are plenty of choices as to where to buy them, and many manufacturers to choose from.

The maximum capacity of laptop drives has just hit 100 GB, so if you were thinking of being able to put a 'bigger' drive than that in then you are out of luck mate.

Also, bear in mind that drives come in different speeds (4,200 - 5,400 - 7,200 rpm) so if you are getting a new one then don't waste your time and money with 4,200 rpm. Current powerbooks all have 5,400 rpm ones, but many users report that 7,2000 works fine also. The choice is of course yours.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com has a database of user reports and also many links to online guides for opening and working on the internals of 'books.

Joeytpg · Mar 22, 2005

thanks you very much dude.......

i'll start looking, if it's only 100 gb then i think an external would suit me better..........'cause i'll have 60 gb (the origianl h.d. in my powerbook) and 120 + extra gb from the external.

by the way i have a 15" pbook, rev c. 1.33ghz, 768 ram, 4,200 rpm drive. I'd love to have 7,200, because i've heard they work a lot faster, but i guess i'd complement that when i buy my 1gb stick of ram and have 1.5gb

anyways, thanks a a lot

anyone else?

another suggestion?

Lacero · Mar 22, 2005

My PB HD just crashed so I am also looking at getting a new HD for my PB? Still under warranty. Do you think I can get Apple to replace my HD with a bigger and faster model?

aricher · Mar 22, 2005

I doubt that they would replace it with a bigger/faster model free of charge. is your PB under AppleCare/ Usually they will just replace it with a comparable hard drive to what the original drive is. Also, if you install a new HD yourself you will void your AppleCare. If you have AC you should buy a new drive online and then take it into an authorized Apple service specialist for installation. If your PB isn't under AppleCare anymore you can either install yourself or take it into a service specialist for installation.

YS2003 · Oct 22, 2005

replacing an internal HD for 550 MHz Ti PB

My old Ti PB has a 20 GB (more like a 18 GB when formatted). I would like to put in 80 GB or 100 GB internal HD. I heard any 2.5 inch notebook/internal HD should fit for PB (Ti, Al) and iBook as long as HD's height is 9.5 mm. I am interested in getting a Seagate 100 GB at 5200 RPM; its spec says its width is 2.75 inch and its height is 9.5 mm.

Some of the PB repair web sites showed their replacment internal HD's width is 2.5 inch. Does 2.75 inch fit in the Ti PB?

DickArmAndHarT · Oct 22, 2005

Lacero said:
My PB HD just crashed so I am also looking at getting a new HD for my PB? Still under warranty. Do you think I can get Apple to replace my HD with a bigger and faster model?

Nope, but they will give you the same model

Or if it gets around 6 repairs, and they dont fix your issues and you yell and scream, they give you a new one

My hopefully now 1.67 from 1ghz model is on the way, or the older but beter 1.5 ghz would be just dandy !!!

zap2 · Oct 22, 2005

deebster said:
What Powerbook do you have?

The maximum capacity of laptop drives has just hit 100 GB, so if you were thinking of being able to put a 'bigger' drive than that in then you are out of luck mate.

Then How does Apple have a 120GB in there 17'' laptop??

CanadaRAM · Oct 22, 2005

YS2003 said:
My old Ti PB has a 20 GB (more like a 18 GB when formatted). I would like to put in 80 GB or 100 GB internal HD. I heard any 2.5 inch notebook/internal HD should fit for PB (Ti, Al) and iBook as long as HD's height is 9.5 mm. I am interested in getting a Seagate 100 GB at 5200 RPM; its spec says its width is 2.75 inch and its height is 9.5 mm.

Some of the PB repair web sites showed their replacment internal HD's width is 2.5 inch. Does 2.75 inch fit in the Ti PB?

2.5" is a standardized size, there are no 2.7" drives. That must be a typo.

Seagate - Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9100823A - Hard drive - 100 GB - internal - 2.5" - ATA-100 - 44 pin IDC - 5400 rpm - buffer: 8 MB

It is an excellent policy to have an external Firewire drive no matter what you decide to do with the internal. It can be a backup, a stay-at-home storage when you want to travel light, a bootable drive for repairs/disasters, and because the firewire drive is a less expensive, faster 3.5" drive, you get more for the money. So if you are considering a 120 Gb internal laptop drive for $mucho.00 , get an 80 Gb internal instead and a 160 Gb external Firewire.

YS2003 · Oct 22, 2005

Seagate 100 GB 5400 rpm

I just put in the Seagate 100 GB in my Ti PB, following the steps shown on PBFixIt website. So far, I was able to take out the old IBM Travelmate 20 GB hard drive and put in this new Seagate. I securely put in the orange connector to this Seagate and click the other end of the connector to the mother board.

As I boot up from OS DVD to install the OS, the installer does not show the hard drive. "Select a Destination" window in the installation process does not show any hard drive.

Can someone tell me how to make this new Seagate HD recognized by this Ti PB?

CanadaRAM · Oct 22, 2005

YS2003 said:
I just put in the Seagate 100 GB in my Ti PB, following the steps shown on PBFixIt website. So far, I was able to take out the old IBM Travelmate 20 GB hard drive and put in this new Seagate. I securely put in the orange connector to this Seagate and click the other end of the connector to the mother board.

As I boot up from OS DVD to install the OS, the installer does not show the hard drive. "Select a Destination" window in the installation process does not show any hard drive.

Can someone tell me how to make this new Seagate HD recognized by this Ti PB?

You need to Erase the hard drive (format it) with Disk Utility first. Boot from your OS CD and choose Disk Utility from the menu.

YS2003 · Oct 22, 2005

CanadaRAM said:
You need to Erase the hard drive (format it) with Disk Utility first. Boot from your OS CD and choose Disk Utility from the menu.

Thank you, CanadaRam. I will do that. Before I saw your post, out of desparation, I pulled out the old Apple Hardware Test CD (which came with my Ti originally) to give it a quick test (of course, hardware passed the test).

Heb1228 · Oct 22, 2005

deebster said:
The maximum capacity of laptop drives has just hit 100 GB, so if you were thinking of being able to put a 'bigger' drive than that in then you are out of luck mate.

I just upgraded the HD in my PB to a 120GB Seagate 5400 rpm drive. I cost around $240 or so from newegg.com. I didn't think the installation was too bad, I'd say medium level difficulty.

CanadaRAM is right about it being a good idea to also have an external drive.

If you're having to upgrade from a 60GB drive, you'll probably run out of space again quickly with 80GB. I'd say a 100GB drive is he minimum you should think of and if you can afford it, go ahead and get the 120. You can never have too much HD space.

YS2003 · Oct 22, 2005

I am now installing OS on this new Seagate 100 GB hard drive in my Ti PB. I bought Norwood Micros' white enclosure so that I can use Ti's old 20 GB for an external storage. I already have Maxtor 250 GB, Lacie 250 GB, Lacie 160 GB, Lacie Mobile 100 GB, Acom 160 GB. So, I am currently having more than enough storage capacity.

Over Achiever · Oct 23, 2005

I just wanted to add my input as to replacing the hard drive using pbfixit's website, and it was much easier than I expected. One think you should remember is to reconnect the keyboard/trackpad connector at the bottom of the laptop, that is a little tricky!

Otherwise the whole procedure is very straight forward, if it doesn't recognize the HD you should format and erase it. Usually they come initialized already, but not always the case.

Applecare will not replace your HD with a bigger and better model, they will match the current stock HD. If they happen to not have the correct speed, they will bump up the speed, but that is doubtful.

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