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Replacing 17" G4 1.67GH hard drive

treehorn

treehorn

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 21, 2007
470
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I'm going to take the plunge and DIY (DIM?) but having a bit of trouble figuring out what drive would work. The drives in that model of Powerbook are ATA (and all the tech specks I can find on Western Digital are for their SATA drives)

IFixit lists this drive:

http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/160-GB-5400-RPM-Seagate-ATA-Hard-Drive-New/IF107-046

Which is a bit more expensive than a comparable drive on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148073

They are different models (the newegg seems newer. Which makes me wonder if the IFixit drives are all older models - which may be necessary and more compatible with older laptops)

Will either drive work as a replacement?

Thanks for your help!
 
Just put in a new drive in my 12" g4 1.5 ghz powerbook. Okay, I had someone else put it in.

Anyway, look for what's called an IDE drive for laptops 2.5". In layman's terms, ultra ata and IDE are the same thing. Picked up a 250 gig wd drive from best buy for @$90, and am quite happy with it.

It's so much quieter than the orginial toshiba 80 gig drive, that you will at first look at your powerbook and wonder why it sounds so different. I bought the pb the week before, and I was advised that it would probably be a good idea to swap out the four year old hd in it. Whether it was making more noise because of its age, or from it being on the verge of failure, or just from its design, I don't know.

You could possibly try to find a 7200 rpm drive, but it will have to be online or from some sort of a specialty store. Everyone's basically gone to sata. Oh, and I've read some reviews that samsung made a single platter 160 gig 5400 rpm hd that is faster than the 7200's:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209

I got halfway into a DIY replacement, and realized that I'd rather pay someone qualified $80 bucks to do it and just enjoy my weekend instead. So I did.
 
Thanks for the help. I was worried that ATA and ATA-6 were different (and incompatible). Since it would cost more than $80 to have Tekserve do it, I think I may attempt it. Glad to know that the prices at Best Buy are close enough to Newegg prices that i might as well buy it and do it over the weekend.

Don't need 7200 rpm as this laptop is just for me to veg and multitask (it probably would do me a world of good not to fix it but...) All high processing work is done on my 1 year old Mac Pro.
 
I'm 40, so my eyes and hands aren't up to it. If you do it, print up the intructions, give yourself a clean desk with good lighting, and keep careful track of each screw, and take your time.

Pry the keys up carefully from the top left corner to remove them. Use your fingernails only!

Take your time, and good luck.
 
clyde2801 said:
You may have more patience than me. I think your system takes up to 2 gigs of ram. How much ya got?
Click to expand...

Not that much, but I don't need more (I think I have 1GB) as I don't even use it for photoshop.
 
I'm wondering if you have me confused w/another poster...

My drive is fracked - computer fell and hard drive 100% non responsive (get the 'clack of death' sound during start up) but since it runs off CD/DVD and the screen is fine I'm figuring the hard drive is (hopefully) the only problem.

No drive repair programs access or acknowledge the drive so...
 
No, I may be wrong, but I don't believe you said your hd was dead or dying until your last post.

Try to see if you can pry up a key as I described prevously. That' probably the most harrowing part of the process. If you can, carefully and deliberately proceed.

While I had it apart, I would try to max the ram as well.
 
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