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New Powerbook users or buyers- read THIS (FW800 info)

B

Bhennies

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 20, 2004
435
0
NYC & Baltimore
For all you Powerbook users or future Powerbook users out there- this will give you an enormous increase in speed and available power for your machines. I posted this on digidesign's website, but I thought I'd post it here as well because it is SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN SPEED! This will come in especially handy for video editors, 3-D graphics, and Digital Audio apps.

From my Digi post:

"I just hooked up my 1.33 ghz Powerbook to my 002 rack with an external firewire 800 drive for audio files and I was pretty dissapointed at first- the system was slow and unresponsive. However, I cloned my boot disk onto another firewire 800 drive and booted from that and then...this thing smokes! The 4500 RPM harddrive really slows this thing down- if you get an external firewire 800 7200 rpm HD for a boot disk- you will not be unhappy. judging by the CPU register- it's about 3 times more powerful than my dual 500 mhz g4 tower. That's a lot faster if you ask me.

I'm very satisfied (BTW- I tried out a 32 track session with tons of sends and Waves plugs like tap delays and true-verb- still had over 2/3 CPU meter headroom)"

For my external Hd's, I chose Seagate 120 gig 8MB cache 7200 RPM Hard drives in OWC firewire 800 enclosures- about 250 dollars for each complete kit.

To download Carbon Copy Cloner- check here:

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Good luck all, and man this Powerbook is not as slow as I anticipated once I got the FW800 drive up and running!
 
you can also install an internal 7200rpm HD but you are limited to 60GB.

people majorly underrate the importence of a fast HD it makes all the difference
 
Hector said:
you can also install an internal 7200rpm HD but you are limited to 60GB.

people majorly underrate the importence of a fast HD it makes all the difference
Click to expand...

Does this follow suit with an external FW400 drive? I have a WD FW/USB2 drive that should be 7200rpm. I could always make this the boot drive when I am at home when I need the speed.

But how do i easily make my internal PB 12" rev. B HDD up to date with the files when I need to go on the road.....
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Does this follow suit with an external FW400 drive? I have a WD FW/USB2 drive that should be 7200rpm. I could always make this the boot drive when I am at home when I need the speed.

But how do i easily make my internal PB 12" rev. B HDD up to date with the files when I need to go on the road.....
Click to expand...
It should work as well. FW800 would be better of course. You can always throw that Western Digital into a new enclosure.

As for keeping the files updated, you can always set Carbon Copy Cloner to routinely back up your HD onto another HD (you can choose the target and source disks).
 
Hector said:
you can also install an internal 7200rpm HD but you are limited to 60GB.
Click to expand...
Very true, but there goes your warranty and applecare :(. apple should really offer a 7200 RPM upgrade- even 5400 is pathetic.
 
Bhennies said:
It should work as well. FW800 would be better of course. You can always throw that Western Digital into a new enclosure.

As for keeping the files updated, you can always set Carbon Copy Cloner to routinely back up your HD onto another HD (you can choose the target and source disks).
Click to expand...

Keep in mind my PB 1"only has FW400....
 
Bhennies said:
Aha! My fault. Anyway, you should still see a speed increase. The program is free so you might as well try it.
Click to expand...

Program? I thought we were talking about booting off an external 7200RPM HD.

Is an HD user installable like RAM (except a little harder, obviously) in the TiBooks? Or is it messy? Also, how much would a 7200 RPM HD lower my battery life. I was planning on *maybe* putting a 5400 or 7200 RPM HD into my PowerBook in place of the 4200 RPM one (later, after my warranty is gone). What do you think? How easy is it? I would only do it if it is user-installable.
 
titaniumducky said:
Program? I thought we were talking about booting off an external 7200RPM HD.

Is an HD user installable like RAM (except a little harder, obviously) in the TiBooks? Or is it messy? Also, how much would a 7200 RPM HD lower my battery life. I was planning on *maybe* putting a 5400 or 7200 RPM HD into my PowerBook in place of the 4200 RPM one (later, after my warranty is gone). What do you think? How easy is it? I would only do it if it is user-installable.
Click to expand...
sorry, i was referring to Carbon Copy cloner- the program that I use to clone my boot disk.
 
titaniumducky said:
Program? I thought we were talking about booting off an external 7200RPM HD.

Is an HD user installable like RAM (except a little harder, obviously) in the TiBooks? Or is it messy? Also, how much would a 7200 RPM HD lower my battery life. I was planning on *maybe* putting a 5400 or 7200 RPM HD into my PowerBook in place of the 4200 RPM one (later, after my warranty is gone). What do you think? How easy is it? I would only do it if it is user-installable.
Click to expand...
You can install the HD yourself on the TiBook or other powerbook's however make sure if you do it to do it after your warranty is gone, or have a technician do it this does not void the warranty. Best advice when tearing apart the TiBook's google up the Apple service manuel for your model, the manuals are hard to find, but they are out there. Its best to do this because the manuel gives you an in depth look at the take apart, and believe me there are a lot of SCREWS!
Good luck.
 
Macmaniac said:
You can install the HD yourself on the TiBook or other powerbook's however make sure if you do it to do it after your warranty is gone, or have a technician do it this does not void the warranty. Best advice when tearing apart the TiBook's google up the Apple service manuel for your model, the manuals are hard to find, but they are out there. Its best to do this because the manuel gives you an in depth look at the take apart, and believe me there are a lot of SCREWS!
Good luck.
Click to expand...

My manual is with me - I just didn't bother to check it. First page I turn to - how to replace the HD! Thanks.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
You didn't see that one at the Apple Store? It is a real portable unit ;)
Click to expand...


Oh! that one. The new G5 PB that fell in my pocket at the apple store
:rolleyes:

wait got to go get the door.... O crap its the c
 
FuzzyBallz said:
Something called "Selecting the system you want to use to start up your computer" in Startup Disk.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the smart ass answer.

To anyone else: I have a 160Gb USB2.0/FW 400 HD. I thought about using Carbon Copy Cloner and clone my system disk onto the external hard drive, will that disk show up in the startup disk utitilty as the disk I want to boot from? I am a bit of a noob at this whole mac thing and was wondering if using the external hard drive as my boot drive when the powerbook is not being used portably.
 
Actually, changing the hard drive in the Titanium 15" powerbooks (not the 2 revisions of aluminum powerbooks) will NOT void the warranty. It is considered a "customer installable part" so as long as you follow Apple's installation instructions you are not voiding the warranty.

Apple's Customer Installable Parts Terms and Conditions

Customer Installable Parts List by Computer

If you select any of the 4 revisions of the titanium powerbook you have a list of 5 customer installable parts, including the hard drive. All aluminum powerbooks (all sizes) do not have the hard drive listed, which is why changing the hard drive will void the warranty.

Of course, it couldn't hurt to verify this information at an Apple Store or over the phone with Applecare, but it seems pretty clear from the website what you can and can't install in your computer under the terms of the warranty.
 
ToddW said:
Hey, thanks for the smart ass answer.

To anyone else: I have a 160Gb USB2.0/FW 400 HD. I thought about using Carbon Copy Cloner and clone my system disk onto the external hard drive, will that disk show up in the startup disk utitilty as the disk I want to boot from? I am a bit of a noob at this whole mac thing and was wondering if using the external hard drive as my boot drive when the powerbook is not being used portably.
Click to expand...

In System Preferences under the System category is a preference called "Startup Disk." When you select it, your powerbook will scan for all available startup options. So, if you are booted up from the internal hard drive, and have an external drive plugged in with a bootable system on it, it will show up as an option for you to select. When you change the startup disk, you will be prompted to restart the computer from the new drive. I also believe you can have the computer let you pick from a list of available drives while the computer is starting up by holding down the option key after turning the power on, however someone is going to have verify that for me.

If my explanation was not clear, please let me know.
 
Elan0204 said:
In System Preferences under the System category is a preference called "Startup Disk." When you select it, your powerbook will scan for all available startup options. So, if you are booted up from the internal hard drive, and have an external drive plugged in with a bootable system on it, it will show up as an option for you to select. When you change the startup disk, you will be prompted to restart the computer from the new drive. I also believe you can have the computer let you pick from a list of available drives while the computer is starting up by holding down the option key after turning the power on, however someone is going to have verify that for me.

If my explanation was not clear, please let me know.
Click to expand...

That sums it up. Thanks for being clear and concise. I will have to try that tonight.
 
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