Upgrading HD on 12" iBook 1.33

[ChePibe]

Hello all,

I've recently ordered a 12" iBook and while I have no plans to upgrade it immediately, I will be upgrading it as soon as the 40 gig drive fills up (which probably won't take too long, all things considered).

I'd like to install an 80 gig 5400 (perhaps 7200 if I've got the money or they come down in price) RPM drive. Before I proceed with my plans, I have a few questions:

Warranty - just how shot is my warranty/can I cover this up if something goes wrong later (just slap the old 40 gig drive in place and act like nothing happened, assuming I don't do any physical damage of course)?

Sudden Motion Sensor - my understanding is that the sensor is independent of the HD itself and just tells whatever HD is present to park heads when it encounters a problem. Is this correct?

Heat - I know faster drives will lead to more heat being generated. Other than some mild discomfort, can this cause any problems for the other components?

Battery Power - how badly will this affect battery power?

Data transfer - is there a USB/FireWire connector/adapter I can use to plug my old HD in as an external drive to dump the data on to my new one? That'd would be perfect.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[mad jew]

Warranty - just how shot is my warranty/can I cover this up if something goes wrong later (just slap the old 40 gig drive in place and act like nothing happened, assuming I don't do any physical damage of course)?

Warrantee will be void, irrespective of whether you replace the 80GB drive again. It's very difficult to replace an iBook hard drive and even harder to do it without Apple being able to tell.

Sudden Motion Sensor - my understanding is that the sensor is independent of the HD itself and just tells whatever HD is present to park heads when it encounters a problem. Is this correct?

I'm not positive about this one but I'd be willing to put a small wager on you being right. It wouldn't really make much sense for Apple to build it into the hard drive, especially considering they don't make their own disks.

Heat - I know faster drives will lead to more heat being generated. Other than some mild discomfort, can this cause any problems for the other components?

The other components will be just fine, even if you do end up going with the 7200RPM drive.

Battery Power - how badly will this affect battery power?

It'll barely affect battery power at all. Like the increased heat factor, it's really only theoretical and in practice there's almost no difference between a 4200RPM drive and a 7200RPM drive with respect to heat and power usage.

Data transfer - is there a USB/FireWire connector/adapter I can use to plug my old HD in as an external drive to dump the data on to my new one? That'd would be perfect.

You could buy an external 2.5 inch case. That way you can use your 40GB drive as a back up too.

Now, are you sure you know what you're doing when it comes to replacing an iBook drive? Have you got a good guide? Best tip I can give is to have a big thick piece of tape to keep your screws on. Best of luck.