Macbook HDD Sata into PowerBook G4 IDE

MACannibalLectR said:

So, ive seen many forums saying that using a Macbook HD in a powerbook isnt possible. Well it is.Im currently using a macbook sata hd in my powerbook g4.

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Nice. I've toyed with this idea myself. But your information doesn't really help anyone else because we don't know which Powerbook G4 you are using.

In the 12" Powerbooks, there doesn't seem to be enough room to squeeze in the IDE to SATA laptop hard drive adapter. Which Powerbook are you doing this with?

MACannibalLectR said:

its been two months or so and havent had any problems yet.

Im currently bidding on a 250 gb sata .hope i win.

Cheers.

-cant imagine paying for a 500 GB IDE hd :/ -

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P.S. they don't make an IDE 500 GB laptop hard drive, but agree with you, it will be more expensive should WD make one.

Give us your specs on your computer and maybe some links to the type of SATA to IDE adapter?

I got a 12" G4 PowerBook that I love and I wanted to upgrade the HDD but the choices are preety bad so I want to adapt my PB for use with SATA. I've torn this machine down once before (hdd upgrade many years ago) and an adapter crossed my mind and it looked like it had space? I wont know until I take it apart, but I can get a 500GB 7200RPM SATA drive for 100 bucks, with IDE the best I can do is a 320GB 5200RPM for the same price. I want a faster drive to compensate for the caching, but my dream mod is to either somehow solder in a 1GB RAM chip over the included 256MB (unlikely) or have some sort of dedicated secondary flash chip for the cache.

I found this adapter on eBay which seems like the best cause it's small, but because there might be issues I'd love to know exactly what you're using and maybe if i can get it cheaper!!!

Heres a pic of the internals of the PB G4 12 that i'm working with.

It doesnt look likely i could expand the tray to fit the actual adapter but there is definetely space over parts of the motherboard but it would need extra cables because i need to go from the SATA HDD --> chip somewhere in the case --> IDE and the included thin IDE ribbon cable doesnt look very useful, so i would need a very small SATA ribbon cable (to replace the IDE one that slides under the drive), then potentially some sort of normal SATA cable to route it to the adapter chip, then an ATA cable to go from the adapter chip to the motherboard? I'd like to avoid any cutting/soldering but I'd rather do that then find out i dont have the proper parts to do the mod once its halfway done

edit: Can you also please clarify the method you developed for installing the adapter without cutting? You mentioned a 44 pin ide to 7 + 15 sata ribbon, what are we talking about here exactly?

IDE to SATA

I have a 1.5ghz 17" Powerbook I plan to upgrade to a SATA drive, anybody have a picture of the adapter I am supposed to be purchasing? There are broken links to some of the ebay items.

Have a G4 PB Hi-Res 17 inch

Hello,

This is really interesting!! Can someone tell me if its possible for my powerbook to put in this IDE TO SATA adapter? This would save me a lot of money if I decided to get a REAL SSD drive and not the ssd legacy pata drive.

However, I will pay someone to do it as I only am familiar with taking apart desktop macs and pcs.. never worked on laptops..

The mod to get cache memory is also a good interesting topic. So, what ide-sata adapter can someone recommend for me with a 17 inch 9970 PowerBook G4 Hi-res DDR2 model?

Powerbook G4 1.67... sata?

Which adapter would be best to try to fit into my old powerbook g4 15" to convert from ide to sata? I have a 100gb 7200rpm IDE drive im running. But i need more hdd space and wanna save a little money instead of investing in a slower IDE drive.

TechPunk14 said:

Which adapter would be best to try to fit into my old powerbook g4 15" to convert from ide to sata? I have a 100gb 7200rpm IDE drive im running. But i need more hdd space and wanna save a little money instead of investing in a slower IDE drive.

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None of existing adapters will fit in PB unless you'll use 1.8" drive.

666sheep said:

None of existing adapters will fit in PB unless you'll use 1.8" drive.

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Wrong, this one fit (with minor dremel work) in my 15" 1ghz powerbook...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150612955594&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Going to do the same mod in my A1138 1.67ghz 15" and my A1139 17" In the 1ghz A1046, i needed to cut a bit into the casing with a dremel. I needed like 1-2cm more of space and that did the trick. On the 1.33Ghz and up powerbooks, no cutting is needed, it fits right in ...tight, but it fits and works fine. On the 17" models, 1ghz and up, i dont think any cutting will be needed at all, and i can't speak on the 12" as i have none to look at.

MACannibalLectR said:

So, ive seen many forums saying that using a Macbook HD in a powerbook isnt possible. Well it is.Im currently using a macbook sata hd in my powerbook g4.
why use a macbook hd in a non macbook? price.oddly for a 120gb fujitsu 5400 rpm sata hd cost anywhere from 18-28 dollars, a eqaul performing IDE hd cost twice if not three times this amount. I picked up my 120gb sata for 23 usd free shipping.

the trick is over in the techno world in asia,hong kong makes a 44 pin ide to 2.5 sata hd converter. they are fairly cheap i actually got mine for 5 dollars. only mod i did was cut alittle from they HD bay to compensate for the adapter. i developed another way to do this conversion using a 44 pin ide to 7 + 15 sata ribbon connector,this way involes no cutting and these ribbons go for 3 bucks.i found the adapter to be alittle cleaner.
so all together youd spend 30-35 for a sata conversion.

its been two months or so and havent had any problems yet.

Im currently bidding on a 250 gb sata .hope i win.

Cheers.

-cant imagine paying for a 500 GB IDE hd :/ -

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Hi,

I was wondering if you could help with this issue. I would like to install a SATA hard drive to my powerbook g4 1.5 GZ 17 inch, but I have got problem to get the right adapter to connect SATA to 44 pin IDE.

I have just bought a SATA WD 160 gb 7200 rpm, but the connector I have bought from ebay is compatible but I have got problem to screw the hard drive caddy to HD because of the adapter which is vertical and touch with the caddy. I have attached a link from ebay so you could check which connector I bought it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160881289257?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

I was considering getting the next one from ebay but I don not know if that will be ok

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120984786206?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649


Please could you help me with this issue, if you could tell me what adapter you bought from internet.


Thanks a lot,


Angel