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How to upgrade the harddrive on an iBook?

S

sethwerkheiser

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 22, 2003
147
0
Brooklyn, NY
My current iBook was a gift from my parents, so I didn't get to chime in about the size of the Harddrive. Sooo... I got this measly 30GB HD now, and since I got my iPod now (20GB) I need some space! hehe...

Sooooo...

How do I upgrade? Does it get done through Apple? How much does it cost usually? I haven't seen any info on this really.. so I thought i'd ask...
 
Its a lot of work to replace the hdd. That said, i've done it and would recomend you do it as well :)

Search google for something along the lines of iBook teardown or something like that and you will find what your looking for. Also when your doing this a digital camera is your friend. Take pics of everything and have seperate containers for screws (theres a hell of a lot of screws in there) and that will make things easier to go back together.
 
Ok sweety, don't do this one at home. It really has the capacity to get quite nasty. I chucked my iBook at my local Apple reseller geek who gladly swapped my 30g for an 80g at just AU$30 over the HD cost (probably about US$20). They do these things all the time so it only took him about 20 minutes and I just got to play with their PMs while I waited. Well worth it in my opinion.
 
mad jew said:
Ok sweety, don't do this one at home. It really has the capacity to get quite nasty. I chucked my iBook at my local Apple reseller geek who gladly swapped my 30g for an 80g at just AU$30 over the HD cost (probably about US$20). They do these things all the time so it only took him about 20 minutes and I just got to play with their PMs while I waited. Well worth it in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Can you bring them a hard drive bought from elsewhere, and just pay to have them install it?
 
If your iBook is less than a year old (still under warranty) or you are thinking about getting AppleCare soon, I wouldn't attempt to upgrade the hard drive yourself. At least check how much Apple would charge to do it--if it's not too much, you should probably just have them do it so you don't void the warranty.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Be careful if you try it on your own. You may violate the Apple Warranty.
Click to expand...
You will void the warranty.

It is a complex procedure on the iBooks. I wouldn't want to do this myself.
You need a 2.5" ATA hard drive. Apple techs can do this for you without voiding the warranty. That's a good thing. And you know that they won't break anything (if they do, new iBook for you!). If you break something, tough luck.

I'd pay for an Apple tech to do it. Unless it is out of warranty (aka, G3 or early G4)
 
nichos said:
Can you bring them a hard drive bought from elsewhere, and just pay to have them install it?
Click to expand...

I'm from Aus so it wasn't an actual Apple store but merely a reseller. I happenned to get the HD from them at cost (80g = AU$260) so they didn't make any money from the parts. I suppose it depends on the technician, but I don't see why they wouldn't install something you bring from home.

Just remember to be really polite.
 
sethwerkheiser said:
My current iBook was a gift from my parents, so I didn't get to chime in about the size of the Harddrive. Sooo... I got this measly 30GB HD now, and since I got my iPod now (20GB) I need some space! hehe...

Sooooo...

How do I upgrade? Does it get done through Apple? How much does it cost usually? I haven't seen any info on this really.. so I thought i'd ask...
Click to expand...

I asked this question a while back and "ftaok" kindly supplied this link http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/files/iBook500HDRev1.2.pdf
It seems to be a good step by step guide but I've not tried it yet as I replaced the iBook with an Imac and haven't gotten round to reviving the laptop.
let us know how it goes if you try it.
 
nichos said:
Can you bring them a hard drive bought from elsewhere, and just pay to have them install it?
Click to expand...

You won't be able to if they are a real Apple Store . and even reseller won't do it since they probably make a profit on the drive too .
 
sethwerkheiser said:
My current iBook was a gift from my parents, so I didn't get to chime in about the size of the Harddrive. Sooo... I got this measly 30GB HD now, and since I got my iPod now (20GB) I need some space! hehe...

Sooooo...

How do I upgrade? Does it get done through Apple? How much does it cost usually? I haven't seen any info on this really.. so I thought i'd ask...
Click to expand...


Hi,

Have you considered getting an external drive instead? For the price of upgrading internally, it may be worth it to get an even larger external drive.

s.
 
Mertzen said:
You won't be able to if they are a real Apple Store . and even reseller won't do it since they probably make a profit on the drive too .
Click to expand...

Actually that depends on the reseller. On of the locals I called up will put in a drive that you bring in. The issue becomes the added expense if that drive needs to be replaced during the drives warranty period. If you buy it from them they will do the reinstall at N/C, otherwise you are looking at another $125 to $200 (on a PB) install fee.
 
wow - thanks everyone for the replies!

mr.steevo said:
Hi,

Have you considered getting an external drive instead? For the price of upgrading internally, it may be worth it to get an even larger external drive.

s.
Click to expand...

I have thought of that; but will iTunes see that some of my music is on an external drive, and some on the computers own HD? I didn't think this would be possible...

but really, I want to carry all my music with me though... I write reviews, and having the music I need on my iBook is a real help....

but thanks for all your replies. For the record I will NOT be trying to do this myself! haha... the computer is still covered on Applecare so if I do this it'll be with them! heh....
 
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