Upgrading Powerbook Hard Drive. How do I Install OS??

brent0saurus · Feb 28, 2009

So i've decided it's time to upgrade my three and a half year old powerbook's hard drive. I've found some great tutorials at ifixit on how to replace the hard drive, but what's the best way to install os x on the new hard drive and get all of my files on it?

I don't really have access to an enclosure without voiding the warranty on my current external so i don't want to take that route.

Can i just boot from the 10.4 disc once i install the new hard drive and install os x that way or does 10.0 need to be installed first or something?

thanks!!

sickmacdoc · Feb 28, 2009

OK well first off you are probably best off to not consider using your external anyway since chances are it will be a SATA drive inside while the internal Powerbook has an IDE/ATA type drive. By the way, just make sure when you purchase a replacement drive that it is indeed an IDE/ATA drive, not the much more common SATA drive!

That being said, the simplest way to do what you are wanting to do is to obtain another enclosure that has a firewire interface and is set up to work with 2.5" IDE/ATA drives. That way you could simply install your new drive, put the old drive in the enclosure and boot from it, then format your new internal and use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the old drive's contents onto the new internal.

The advantage to that is that when done your internal would be a dead on copy of the former drive and you then have the old drive in an enclosure to continue using for backing up your internal or just for additional storage.

Examples of an enclosure for an IDE drive with FireWire would be:
The first three listed here at

newegg.com
The one listed here at OWC

brent0saurus · Mar 1, 2009

sickmacdoc said:
OK well first off you are probably best off to not consider using your external anyway since chances are it will be a SATA drive inside while the internal Powerbook has an IDE/ATA type drive. By the way, just make sure when you purchase a replacement drive that it is indeed an IDE/ATA drive, not the much more common SATA drive!

That being said, the simplest way to do what you are wanting to do is to obtain another enclosure that has a firewire interface and is set up to work with 2.5" IDE/ATA drives. That way you could simply install your new drive, put the old drive in the enclosure and boot from it, then format your new internal and use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the old drive's contents onto the new internal.

The advantage to that is that when done your internal would be a dead on copy of the former drive and you then have the old drive in an enclosure to continue using for backing up your internal or just for additional storage.

Examples of an enclosure for an IDE drive with FireWire would be:
The first three listed here at

newegg.com
The one listed here at OWC

Great, thank you! But how do i format the drive? Just run disk utility or something? and THEN once i format it i use superduper to clone the drive?

also, why can't i format the drive and then just boot from the tiger disc and install tiger? I'd rather do this this way i can just buy a usb enclosure for a third of the price. i don't mind reinstalling everything that much.

sickmacdoc · Mar 1, 2009

brent0saurus said:
Great, thank you! But how do i format the drive? Just run disk utility or something? and THEN once i format it i use superduper to clone the drive?

also, why can't i format the drive and then just boot from the tiger disc and install tiger? I'd rather do this this way i can just buy a usb enclosure for a third of the price. i don't mind reinstalling everything that much.

For the first question yes- run Disk Utility and use the Partition tab so that you can use the "Options" button to set the correct "Apple Partition Map" in order to boot from your PowerPC based Mac. Then set the format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and press "Apply" to prepare the drive.

As to the second, yes you can boot from the Tiger Installer disk and use the Disk Utility on that disk to prepare the new disk at the beginning of the installation process before continuing with the actual installation process. Then you would need to reinstall anything else you needed.

Overall the advantage to doing it via clone to a FireWire enclosure is to just simply make an exact duplicate of your existing drive with no re-installation of anything necessary, as well as (just as importantly in my eyes) having a drive that can be immediately be booted from and used in case of a failure with your internal drive while you are getting a replacement- something you could not do with a $10 USB enclosure. On a PowerPC machine you cannot clone to a USB drive either, so you cannot do a simple clone for a backup to your external- and since you are using Tiger you don't have Time Machine for backup so another program (like Data Backup 3 from Prosoft Engineering) would need to be purchased for a full backup.

sgg222 · Mar 2, 2009

film photographer in digital hell

I recently cloned my old OS (10.2.8) using carbon copy cloner to a partitioned external hard drive. Afterwards, I performed an erase and install of Leopard (10.5.6). However, I'm having trouble booting the copied OS. I wonder if I've done something wrong? Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance for your time.

-sgg222

OrangeSVTguy · Mar 2, 2009

brent0saurus said:
So i've decided it's time to upgrade my three and a half year old powerbook's hard drive. I've found some great tutorials at ifixit on how to replace the hard drive, but what's the best way to install os x on the new hard drive and get all of my files on it?

I don't really have access to an enclosure without voiding the warranty on my current external so i don't want to take that route.

Can i just boot from the 10.4 disc once i install the new hard drive and install os x that way or does 10.0 need to be installed first or something?

thanks!!

If you haven't already, I'd purchase this $20/shipped Firewire enclosure. It's great, has never given me any problems and runs cool.

Install your new drive in there. Format for APM(Apple Partition Map) using the disc utility when booted from the OS CD. Boot up with your OS CD and do a fresh install on your external drive. Once that is installed, you can now boot from your freshly installed external hard drive via Firewire(USB won't boot on PPC). It will ask you to migrate all your settings/apps during the install process, choose your internal drive.

Then check to make sure everything transfered correctly and all your settings are correct. After you confirm that, you can the swap drive in your external enclosure for the one that's in your Powerbook using the iFixit.com guide.

sickmacdoc · Mar 2, 2009

sgg222 said:
I recently cloned my old OS (10.2.8) using carbon copy cloner to a partitioned external hard drive. Afterwards, I performed an erase and install of Leopard (10.5.6). However, I'm having trouble booting the copied OS. I wonder if I've done something wrong? Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks in advance for your time.

-sgg222

Well several things could be wrong, but in order to offer help we need to know what model Mac you ave first. It does make a difference in troubleshooting these issues.

sascha h-k · Mar 2, 2009

i have done a backup with SUPERDUPER on the new hdd (extern case), then opened the mbp and exchanged the hdd's.

started and everything was perfect !

sgg222 · Mar 2, 2009

Thanks for your response sickmacdoc. I realize I posted in the midst of a thread when I probably should have started a new one. Anyway, I'm using a PowerBook G4, 1Ghz processor and 1 gig of RAM. Anything else?

sickmacdoc · Mar 2, 2009

sgg222 said:
Thanks for your response sickmacdoc. I realize I posted in the midst of a thread when I probably should have started a new one. Anyway, I'm using a PowerBook G4, 1Ghz processor and 1 gig of RAM. Anything else?

Well the main thing there is whether or not your external drive was formatted using an Apple Partition Map as your PowerPC based Mac needs for it to be a bootable drive. You can find that out by going into Disk Utility and clicking on the upper line of info about your drive in the left window, then looking at the info presented at the bottom of the screen (where it says "Partition Map Scheme:"). If the entry there says anything but APM (or perhaps Apple Partition Map) your drive will not be bootable on your Mac.

Also from what I understand you must have run an older version of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone from 10.2.8- and if so, I remember that the older versions had some option you needed to check to make the resulting drive bootable. The Tiger and Leopard versions of CCC make it bootable automatically, so I wonder about that setting on the version you used.

sgg222 · Mar 3, 2009

sickmacdoc said:
Well the main thing there is whether or not your external drive was formatted using an Apple Partition Map as your PowerPC based Mac needs for it to be a bootable drive. You can find that out by going into Disk Utility and clicking on the upper line of info about your drive in the left window, then looking at the info presented at the bottom of the screen (where it says "Partition Map Scheme:"). If the entry there says anything but APM (or perhaps Apple Partition Map) your drive will not be bootable on your Mac.

Yes, Partition Map Scheme seems to be in order. When checking the Info at top of page for the partition containing the OS, it tells me that the drive is bootable. This feels like good news. I don't know what version of CCC I used nor do I know how to find out. Thanks again for taking the time.

-sgg222

brent0saurus · Mar 5, 2009

thank you so much everyone for your responses!

i'm torn between getting the western digital scorpio and the seagate momentus. both 5400 rpm, 160 gb.
i realized yesterday that an external hard drive i got from macsales actually has the western digital (i think) that i want. it says wd1600beve and at the top says wd scorpio. i'm not positive it's ata, though. it doesn't say sata anywhere and does say "Enhanced IDE Hard Drive" so i would think that would be it, right?

If so, i figure i'll do a clean install on it and boot from it and then migrate all the settings (thank you svtguy. and how is that enclosure SO cheap???) and then use my 80 gb internal as an external drive.

anyway, do you guys think it's the same drive? and would you go with seagate or WD? i thought wd had a bad reputation but some reading online has lead me to believe otherwise.

thanks again!

OrangeSVTguy · Mar 5, 2009

Yep. EIDE is what you need for your PB.

I think WD is a good reliable brand. Only ones that failed on me were partially my fault because of a faulty enclosure killed the PCB boards on them. Just swapped the board from a good identical one and worked great.

Just remember that you need Firewire to boot off of. The one I mentioned works great and I never had any issues with. Looks cool too.

brent0saurus · Mar 5, 2009

OrangeSVTguy said:
Yep. EIDE is what you need for your PB.

I think WD is a good reliable brand. Only ones that failed on me were partially my fault because of a faulty enclosure killed the PCB boards on them. Just swapped the board from a good identical one and worked great.

Just remember that you need Firewire to boot off of. The one I mentioned works great and I never had any issues with. Looks cool too.

Great! Yeah i can't believe that enlcosure. i've never seen a firewire enclosure for that cheap. What i might do is just use the enclosure i have now. Basically put my internal drive into the enclosure, and take the wd out of the enclosure and put it in my powerbook. The only thing i'm worried about is the drive seems to have a lot of vibration. like i never feel my powerbook vibrate when the drive is working. maybe it's just the enclosure, though..? i only notice it when i touch it. not liek it shakes the table or anything.

Willis · Mar 5, 2009

brent0saurus said:
thank you so much everyone for your responses!

i'm torn between getting the western digital scorpio and the seagate momentus. both 5400 rpm, 160 gb.

I bought a Seagate momentus for my Macbook when I upped it from 80 to 160gb.

My process of cloning was putting the new drive into a USB enclosure (formatted correctly), using Carbon Copy to clone the old drive onto it, then when it was done, swap the drives round.

Nice and easy set up

Good luck!

cherrybomb · Mar 5, 2009

Wow!

What a great thread! Although I'm saving for a new macbook, my powerbook has helped me through some great times for so many years, I wouldn't want to desert it!

What is the largest size hard drive, that can be put in a G4 15 inch Powerbook?
I wanted to go up to 320GB, as my one provided by apple is humming a bit too much now, and I want to replace, before anything happens.

Thanks again guys for such a great thread!

California · Mar 5, 2009

hey "cherrybomb" (great song)

250gb Western Digital is the largest drive made for G4 laptops, PATA IDE format. Also much faster than the 160gb drives.

OrangeSVTguy · Mar 5, 2009

Western Digital actually makes a 320gb hard drive too.

Not bad for $100 shipped!

Just checked and it now have reviews! 2 so far and they are all 4 or 5 stars!

Lesser Evets · Mar 5, 2009

OrangeSVTguy said:
Western Digital actually makes a 320gb hard drive too. Not bad for $100 shipped!

Just checked and it now have reviews! 2 so far and they are all 4 or 5 stars!

Pain in the ASSSSssss.....

I just received a drive half that size for $90. -_-;
Man, I would have loved a huge drive, but it isn't that necessary.

Using iFixit I got it installed and am working up the OS and programs at the moment. Seems to work well enough.

cherrybomb · Mar 9, 2009

OrangeSVTguy said:
Western Digital actually makes a 320gb hard drive too. Not bad for $100 shipped!

Just checked and it now have reviews! 2 so far and they are all 4 or 5 stars!

So it is available, and could possibly work? Has anyone on here already installed a 320GB drive in their PowerBook? Just curious 

Also a bit of advice needed, I only have 1GB RAM currentley. Would upping to 2 make a difference much, or should I just leave it?

Thanks once again mac rumors members

OrangeSVTguy · Mar 9, 2009

cherrybomb said:
So it is available, and could possibly work? Has anyone on here already installed a 320GB drive in their PowerBook? Just curious 

Also a bit of advice needed, I only have 1GB RAM currentley. Would upping to 2 make a difference much, or should I just leave it?

Thanks once again mac rumors members

If you typicall run more than 1 or 2 apps at a time, you will definitely see a difference in the performance of your PB. You won't have as much slow down or beach balls

. On the old G4's I always recommend running the max(2gb), especially if you're running Leopard OS-X.

cherrybomb · Mar 10, 2009

Ok, cool with the advice from you guys/girls, I think I'll finally go for a 250GB Western Digital drive and max out my RAM too! Me and this PowerBook ain't finished just yet!

Does anyone have some good uk websites where I could by the hard drive from? Or if failing that, a US site that doesn't sting the tail with overpriced shipping?

Thanks one again for all the information provided, it is really appreciated 

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