What brand HDD do Powerbooks have?

coolbreeze · Jan 22, 2003

I'm new to Apple and have seen several eBay auctions for Powerbook Hard Drives. The only issue I have is they are IBM Travelstar brand....umm, are all HDD's in Powerbooks IBM brand? I sure hope not (their reputation for Hard Drive quality was so bad the sold their Hard Drive business to another company).

The reason for my concern is I just bought an 800mhz G4 Powerbook on eBay and it is presetly making it's way to me on a UPS truck. Does this model have an IBM in it?

Just curious...

alex_ant · Jan 22, 2003

The problems with IBM drives you're referring to apply only to some of their desktop models. Their notebook models are all exempt from this. IBM didn't sell their drive business because of quality problems, they sold it because of profitability problems. My 13-month old PowerBook has a 30GB TravelStar with fluid bearings and I've had no problems with it. You have nothing to worry about.

Jays · Jan 22, 2003

most likely it does have a IBM travel star, unless the owner has changed it.

I heard of the problems too, I think it was with one specific model.

So far i have had no problems with mine, 30GB on a PB 550Mhz.

AmbitiousLemon · Jan 22, 2003

IBM travelstar hard dirves are the best hard drives produced. the 48 and 60 GB drives are travelstars. apple uses the travelstars because they are the highest quality had drives available and because they are faster 5400rpms vs 4200rpm) than all other 2.5" hard drives on market. the smaller drives that are only 4200rpms (like common 2.5" drives) can be produced by either ibm or toshiba.

coolbreeze · Jan 22, 2003

Thanks for the replies. I feel more comfortable now.

GeneR · Jan 23, 2003

Will IBM TravelStars be replaceable with new ones?

In the future when IBM continues to increase the size of the HDD, will we be able to insert them into our PB/iBooks to increase our HDD?

For example: I'm dying for the day you can have a 120GB HDD in your PB. Actually, 200GB would be great. But I'd love 120GB to edit a great deal of material in the future. Any thoughts on this? It would be great if you could get a 17" PB now and put a bigger HDD later on, huh?

sparkleytone · Jan 23, 2003

the new powerbooks (867/1GHz all models) do not use IBM drives anymore. I believe its Fujitsu that makes the drives, and they are actually lower rated in RPM than earlier revs.

This is balanced out by the fact that the data density on the hard drive plates is much higher on the new drives, and therefore they still offer the same as and sometimes better performance than the IBM drives.

TyleRomeo · Jan 23, 2003

Re: Will IBM TravelStars be replaceable with new ones?

Originally posted by GeneR
In the future when IBM continues to increase the size of the HDD, will we be able to insert them into our PB/iBooks to increase our HDD?

For example: I'm dying for the day you can have a 120GB HDD in your PB. Actually, 200GB would be great. But I'd love 120GB to edit a great deal of material in the future. Any thoughts on this? It would be great if you could get a 17" PB now and put a bigger HDD later on, huh?

just for the record, IBM has released an 80GB 2.5 drive with their pixie dust technology. I'm sure this will be the standard drive in the top of the line PB coming out later this year.

Tyler

benixau · Jan 23, 2003

watch fujitsu. if i remeber correctly they ceased desktop production to concentrate on >=2.5" disks.

ibm and fujitsu are the notebook players at the moment. everyone else is following them.

same as everyone seems to follow maxtor right now on the desktop.

technocoy · Jan 23, 2003

7200?

isn't there supposed to be a 7200rpm hard drive for the powerbook coming soon?? i think i heard IBM... That's what i want for my precious!!

blogo · Jan 24, 2003

Re: 7200?

Originally posted by technocoy
isn't there supposed to be a 7200rpm hard drive for the powerbook coming soon?? i think i heard IBM... That's what i want for my precious!!

I read somewhere that the 7200 rpm Laptop-HD were about 10% slower than the 5400rpm version.

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What brand HDD do Powerbooks have?

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