I have a powerbook 520 that I need a hard drive for. Is eBay the only place to find one? Also how do I know I have purchased the right one, or one that will fit/work with it?
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Powerbook 520 HD
- Thread starter 95yjman
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Well lowendmac would be a good place to go to get some general info, but for quick reference, its a scsi laptop drive, apple branded. Without apple brand you would need a third party program to format and use it on a mac (hard disk toolkit or lido are common ones).
This is one of those times when you REALLY have to ask yourself how much you care about getting the computer, as the hard drive is the single most valuable piece in these machines. As said, you need a 2.5" SCSI drive, which is difficult enough in the first place, and you really want an Apple OEM drive.
It's not uncommon for low end Powerbooks like the Duo to get parted out just for their hard drive.
It's not uncommon for low end Powerbooks like the Duo to get parted out just for their hard drive.
This article dates from 2006, but it recalls the days (circa late 1990s) when Apple Service supplied 2.5" SCSI drive replacements with a sandwich style ATA drive with an ATA to SCSI converter. Neat for it's time.
http://www.tiac.net/~sw/2006/03/scsi_to_ata/index.html
http://www.tiac.net/~sw/2006/03/scsi_to_ata/index.html
If I can't find a drive for it, I can always set it up on a shelve or something. The thing is just in really good shape. Whoever had it before me took really good care it. It came with its original box, manuals and what not. I have had it for quite some time, its been sitting in my closet since. The other day I decided to get it down and open it up to see what was up with it. Noticed everything was there but the hard drive. Whoever pulled it was nice enough to tape up the little screws to hold down the drive too. That said, a drive out of a powerbook duo will work? I have two of those computers sitting around. Maybe I will pull one of those just to see if the 520 fully works before I began my search for its own drive, and if I never find one, I'm ok with that.
I actually was just given a 520c a few weeks ago, and can completely relate to your desire to save it.
Mine is a great little computer-I didn't get a power adapter with it, but someone on here gave me a link to one for sale on Ebay(I bought two of them just in case). Getting the "full package" is always exciting. Although I did only get the computer, mine(fortunately) had a good HDD and also had a 32mb RAM upgrade card.
As far as I know, at least among Apple products, these little HDDs are unique to 68K laptops-the 5300 series switched over to IDE. At least I think that's true of the 5300-if not the one currently sitting on top of my Mac Pro at work might soon be without a hard drive
Duos are some of the most common and least expensive 68K laptops, so they are common donors for the drives-and unfortunately finding donor drive is a lot easier than finding something NIB. In the desktop realm, 50 pin SCSI drives are also becoming scarce, although you can often use a newer 68 or 80 pin with an adapter(something that you just don't have space to do in a PowerBook). In fact, my Mac II came with a 73gb, 10K 2.5" 80 pin drive already installed and running. With PCI PowerMacintoshes, you also have the option of installing an ATA or even SATA card.
I've heard of someone putting an SSD in a 100 series Powerbook, but I don't know the full details of how it was done. An mSATA drive and adapter might be the ultimate solution for these.
Mine is a great little computer-I didn't get a power adapter with it, but someone on here gave me a link to one for sale on Ebay(I bought two of them just in case). Getting the "full package" is always exciting. Although I did only get the computer, mine(fortunately) had a good HDD and also had a 32mb RAM upgrade card.
As far as I know, at least among Apple products, these little HDDs are unique to 68K laptops-the 5300 series switched over to IDE. At least I think that's true of the 5300-if not the one currently sitting on top of my Mac Pro at work might soon be without a hard drive
Duos are some of the most common and least expensive 68K laptops, so they are common donors for the drives-and unfortunately finding donor drive is a lot easier than finding something NIB. In the desktop realm, 50 pin SCSI drives are also becoming scarce, although you can often use a newer 68 or 80 pin with an adapter(something that you just don't have space to do in a PowerBook). In fact, my Mac II came with a 73gb, 10K 2.5" 80 pin drive already installed and running. With PCI PowerMacintoshes, you also have the option of installing an ATA or even SATA card.
I've heard of someone putting an SSD in a 100 series Powerbook, but I don't know the full details of how it was done. An mSATA drive and adapter might be the ultimate solution for these.
I actually was just given a 520c a few weeks ago, and can completely relate to your desire to save it.
Mine is a great little computer-I didn't get a power adapter with it, but someone on here gave me a link to one for sale on Ebay(I bought two of them just in case). Getting the "full package" is always exciting. Although I did only get the computer, mine(fortunately) had a good HDD and also had a 32mb RAM upgrade card.
As far as I know, at least among Apple products, these little HDDs are unique to 68K laptops-the 5300 series switched over to IDE. At least I think that's true of the 5300-if not the one currently sitting on top of my Mac Pro at work might soon be without a hard drive
Duos are some of the most common and least expensive 68K laptops, so they are common donors for the drives-and unfortunately finding donor drive is a lot easier than finding something NIB. In the desktop realm, 50 pin SCSI drives are also becoming scarce, although you can often use a newer 68 or 80 pin with an adapter(something that you just don't have space to do in a PowerBook). In fact, my Mac II came with a 73gb, 10K 2.5" 80 pin drive already installed and running. With PCI PowerMacintoshes, you also have the option of installing an ATA or even SATA card.
I've heard of someone putting an SSD in a 100 series Powerbook, but I don't know the full details of how it was done. An mSATA drive and adapter might be the ultimate solution for these.
Thanks for the reply man! Good to know!