Hitachi-IBM Travelstar 7K60 7200RPM HD for Powerbook

[pixelsmudge]

Hi everyone,
I have a 550Mhz Titanium Powerbook and yesterday the hard drive crapped out on me. Really lound clicking started while I was surfing the web and I just got enough time to backup my essential files before it crashed a died. R.I.P.
So, question.... I’m looking at the Hitachi-IBM Travelstar 7K60, 60Gb or 80Gb 7200 RPM Hard Drive but being the complete noob that I am, I can't figure out if it has to be a mac compatible version or can I buy any 2.5inch HD and format it as Mac? I can see plenty for sale online but none say mac compatible.
Sorry if this is a really dumb question but it's really confusing!

Thanks in advance

Pixelsmudge

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....the Powerbooks use standard 2.5" laptop drives....you can reformat them to Apple's HFS+ file system after you install it. The only thing you may want to double check is the thickness of the drive - some of Apple's laptops (and other PC ones too) require a "superslim" 9.5mm thick drive and not the 12.5mm ones...I can't recall off hand if the PB 550 is one of those though....perhaps have a read through some of the articles at xlr8yourmac - there is probably something there for drive replacement in a PB550....oh yeah!

edit - just had a quick look - those 7K60 drives are superslim....

 

[spaceballl]

The hitachi is definitely on 9.5mm high so you're in luck. I put that hard drive in my iBook and it yielded great performance increases. As long as you have to replace the drive... you might as well get a good one like the hitachi. Avoid the toshiba for now as they are having overheating problems.
-Kevin