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Hard Drive Died - Upgrade Question

Z

zcamann

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2004
18
0
The 80 gig hard drive on my PB 1.5 Ghz G4 died. I have the contents backed up :). I went to macservice.com and ordered the 250 gig western digital drive – which I am assuming will be shipped back to me blank.

Here is my question: How do I install Leopard on a blank unformatted hard drive? Can I stick in the DVD and start up holding the C key? Will the computer even start if the drive is blank? Thanks for you help.
 
What Eidorian said. Just stick your Leopard DVD in and it will pretty much take care of the rest for you. Do you know how to physically remove the old drive and install the new one? ifixit.com seems to be a good place for detailed instructions.
 
It's painfully easy on later model Aluminum PowerBooks. The earlier 15.4" models had a stupid latch next to the optical drive. They remove this on the later models and make the keyboard cable longer too.
 
Formatting

Ok, so the computer will be able to start even though there is nothing on the hard drive? I was just worried that I would hit the power button and it would just sit there dormant.

Is there a particular format to put it in? I do ot really know the difference between any of them or which should be used.
 
zcamann said:
Ok, so the computer will be able to start even though there is nothing on the hard drive? I was just worried that I would hit the power button and it would just sit there dormant.

Is there a particular format to put it in? I do ot really know the difference between any of them or which should be used.
Click to expand...
I've powered on computers without RAM or processors for testing. :p

You'd be fine booting without a hard drive at all.
 
keirnna said:
What Eidorian said. Just stick your Leopard DVD in and it will pretty much take care of the rest for you. Do you know how to physically remove the old drive and install the new one? ifixit.com seems to be a good place for detailed instructions.
Click to expand...

Too late, I already spent the money at macservice. I'd rather spend it and have it done right than mess it all up. I did manage to install ram by myself.
 
This is all very comforting to know. At least I will be able to fix it easy. I'm just a little clueless on the formatting issue. Do I use HFS+?
 
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