PB15 on its last legs, now what?

[Epicurus]

My PowerBook has been with me pretty much every day since I got it back in Oct. 2003 (its a first generation aluminum 15"). Now its hard drive has gotten flakey and I'm losing confidence in it very quickly. So the question now is what to do to next. The way I look at it there are three choices:

- Buy a new hard drive and replace the bad one myself ($140), then hope for the best
- Buy a reburb 12" PowerBook ($1200) and wait a year or so for a better MacBook Pro
- Buy a brand new 15" MacBook Pro now ($2400) and close my eyes to any upgrades right around the corner

I just got more RAM for my PB a few months ago, so the idea of sinking more money into it (option 1) is frustrating at best. Option 2 I like best, since I get to keep all my PPC apps running at full speed, I get to reuse some of my newly purchased RAM, and I don't have to worry about Rosetta messing with MS Office or Adobe CS2/Studio. Option 3 seems the most reasonable, since I'll get newer technology and be ready to run CS3/Office08 at native speeds by the end of summer. The problem is I'll have to make it that long and I can't afford even a few days of downtime.

So any advice you might have would be greatly appreciated. The worst part is, my PowerBook hasn't died completely yet (its just acting stranger and stranger, slower and slower). I've backed up everything, so I'm ready to move on whatever option I pick. Hopefully I'll have this all sorted out by next week or so. I don't want it to drag on any longer since its giving me a massive headache.

 

[dornoforpyros]

I'd personally drop a new HD into it, but I also know the feeling of not wanting to poor more money into the same computer again & again.

 

[Multimedia]

Are You A Sissy?

4th option: Hang on for dear life 'til the new MacBook Pro with Leopard and Santa Rosa when it ships.

5th option: Buy a C2D 2GHz MacBook Refurb for $1099 when Leopard ships. Rosetta works perfectly. What are you scared of?

6th option: Buy a C2D 2GHz MacBook Refurb for $1099 NOW. Then buy Leopard and iLife '07 when they ship.

7th option: DO NOT BUY Another PowerBook. They are WEAK Man. Don't be a sissy!

BTW I have the same PowerBook you have. No problems so far. My priority is with the 8 core Mac Pro. But if it was mobile like it is for you, I would do the above.

 

[MrMacbookMan]

I don't know if you have an external hard drive or not, but if you do I would definitely suggest backing everything up as soon as possible. And I don't mean just backing up your documents, I would use disk utility, or even easier, carbon copy cloner to make a bootable copy of your hard drive, that way if yours does die, you won't lose anything and more importantly you can run the backup on another computer (with slightly slower speeds that is) until you decide what you are going to do. Just my opinion, but I used carbon copy cloner when replacing the hard drive in my macbook just incase, and it really came in handy.

 

[toneloco2881]

4th option: Hang on for dear life 'til the new MacBook Pro with Leopard and Santa Rosa when it ships.

5th option: Buy a C2D 2GHz MacBook Refurb for $1099 when Leopard ships. Rosetta works perfectly. What are you scared of?

6th option: Buy a C2D 2GHz MacBook Refurb for $1099 NOW. Then buy Leopard and iLife '07 when they ship.

7th option: DO NOT BUY Another PowerBook. They are WEAK Man. Don't be a sissy!

BTW I have the same PowerBook you have. No problems so far. My priority is with the 8 core Mac Pro. But if it was mobile like it is for you, I would do the above.

I concur with all these suggestions. To drop $1200 on a g4 powerbook at this point is virtual insanity! You can get a 15'' MBP 2ghz Core Duo right now for $1350. In a few months you can get a C2D for the same price. The powerbook was obsolete before the intels even came out. Their just dinosaurs now.

 

[gigiuk]

Pb G4

I've got the same PB G4 as you and also bought it in Oct 03 and have decided to wait for the new MBP and Leopard (it should't be too long now hopefully) as my PB is still very solid.

Don't assume your HD is dying just on the symptoms it's showing. Have you tried to reformat it and install a fresh system on it? That may fix the problems. Also run hardware checks on the HD after it's been reformatted. You have to try to ensure it does have a problem before you buy a replacement / another machine.

This way you'll be getting the latest MBP plus Leopard and at the same run PPC apps natively for longer. Also a working PB will serve you as a secondary / back up system once you get the MBP.

Whatever you do, don't buy another PB G4.

 

[gigiuk]

Pb G4

Double post - had to log in again.

 

[smokeyrabbit]

Your choices are spend $140 or spend $2400. If you can work now with your PB, then it stands to reason that you can continue working with it. If you are losing money because of the speed difference, then upgrade to a MBP by all means. If you just "want a faster computer" then spend $140 on a new faster HD. If you have $2400 burning a hole in your pocket then get the MBP. As far as speed, I don't think you'll notice Rosetta running more slowly than PPC software on your PB, which I would consider pretty slow compared to any G5 or Intel.