Recommended hard drive for 12" G4 Powerbook

[sam10685]

Hi. I have a 12" powerbook with a 1.33 Ghz G4 processor. i was going to get a brand new macbook because i want a faster system with a little more HD space but even if I spent no money on anything else (including food), I wouldn't have enough money for a new system for another 3-4 months. (that's not really an option here. food is good.) I was just wondering what brand of new HD you'd recommend and what the biggest size i could get for my system is. any help would be nice!

 

[eyebeaz]

I believe there are 200 GB 2.5" hard drives, however in my opinion your best bet would be like a 160 GB Seagate. Those seem to be the most reliable, with the best warranties.

 

[heatasmallhouse]

if you're looking for a performance boost, I installed a Hitachi TravelStar 7200RPM in my 12" PB two years ago and it made the machine noticeably faster and worked flawlessly.

 

[sam10685]

if you're looking for a performance boost, I installed a Hitachi TravelStar 7200RPM in my 12" PB two years ago and it made the machine noticeably faster and worked flawlessly.

You have the exact same computer for sale that I am inquiring about. I'm having a really hard time selling it so that's why i want to upgrade it. do you know where you got the 80 gig 7200 RPM 2.5" hard drive?

Edit; Is this it or would that work in my system?

 

[sam10685]

I believe there are 200 GB 2.5" hard drives, however in my opinion your best bet would be like a 160 GB Seagate. Those seem to be the most reliable, with the best warranties.

I thought the limit for the 12 inch powerbooks was 100 gigs.

 

[mkrishnan]

I thought the limit for the 12 inch powerbooks was 100 gigs.

Hmmm? There's a 128GB limit on some of the older Macs, such as the Cube, but even that has fairly good workarounds. It should not affect any Aluminum G4 Powerbook. Those should be able to accept any 2.5" 9.5mm high P-ATA drive. As should all other Powerbook G4s and all iBook G4s.

 

[fuzzynavo]

I thought the limit for the 12 inch powerbooks was 100 gigs.

I had successfully installed a 160 GB Samsung HD into my Rev B 12" PB and it recognized the full amount. So I don't think there's any sort of size limitation for hard drives.

 

[mkrishnan]

I did some more digging, and I think the issue that prevented the older Macs from using larger partitions was that they had Ultra ATA-66 controllers. All the Aluminum PBs have Ultra ATA-100.

 

[sam10685]

I did some more digging, and I think the issue that prevented the older Macs from using larger partitions was that they had Ultra ATA-66 controllers. All the Aluminum PBs have Ultra ATA-100.

Excellent... Thank you guys!! another question... what does Ultra ATA-100 mean? do i not worry about that? Also, does it need to be a certain number of pins or connection points or whatever they're called on hard drives or does it just need to be any 2.5" hard drive? Sorry if these questions are getting annoying but I want to do this right the first time.

 

[blackstone]

Excellent... Thank you guys!! another question... what does Ultra ATA-100 mean? do i not worry about that? Also, does it need to be a certain number of pins or connection points or whatever they're called on hard drives or does it just need to be any 2.5" hard drive? Sorry if these questions are getting annoying but I want to do this right the first time.

The connectors are the same for all notebook ATA and Ultra ATA drives (also known, just for confusion's sake, as PATA or Parallel ATA). The number refers to the maximum speed at which the hard drive can communicate with the bus. For your purposes, this is basically irrelevant as long as it's 100 or higher.

Just make sure you're not getting a SATA drive. SATA (short for Serial ATA) drives use a different connector and are only used in the newer (read: Intel) laptops.