My friend's G3 ibook's 40 GB hard drive died (it was his fault, so there's no warranty claim possible). We're wondering where online to get the best deal on a new one (we can replace it ourselves). He's thinking of spending around $100. I told him Other World Computing was, in general, a good place to get Mac stuff. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
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Where to get an ibook replacement hard drive
- Thread starter Invizzible
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Thanks, I'll check them out.
Ooooooh yes, his drive is most definitely done for. It was funny and sad at the same time. We were video chatting, and he had one of the mounting things that came with his iSight in his hand (it was the piece that has a magnet built into the bottom of it). Suddenly I hear him say "Wow, my computer makes a weird noise when I put this thing on it...it has a magnet in it". At that point, it was too late to do anything but explain that a hard drive is a magnetic storage medium and that at the very least he'd probably erased his data and at the worst, he might have damaged his hard drive. Sure enough, he tried to open up an application and it wouldn't open (apparently there was enough of the OS and iChat in RAM at that moment to keep things running, but the damage was preventing any new apps. from opening). He went to the Apple store and they quoted him a price of over $400 to install a new drive (they said it was physically damaged). What a bummer! And such a simple thing, and a situation that most non-technical people could easily end up in.
[Wow! I just checked that link. What a great price for a really nice drive. Thank you!!]
Ooooooh yes, his drive is most definitely done for. It was funny and sad at the same time. We were video chatting, and he had one of the mounting things that came with his iSight in his hand (it was the piece that has a magnet built into the bottom of it). Suddenly I hear him say "Wow, my computer makes a weird noise when I put this thing on it...it has a magnet in it". At that point, it was too late to do anything but explain that a hard drive is a magnetic storage medium and that at the very least he'd probably erased his data and at the worst, he might have damaged his hard drive. Sure enough, he tried to open up an application and it wouldn't open (apparently there was enough of the OS and iChat in RAM at that moment to keep things running, but the damage was preventing any new apps. from opening). He went to the Apple store and they quoted him a price of over $400 to install a new drive (they said it was physically damaged). What a bummer! And such a simple thing, and a situation that most non-technical people could easily end up in.
[Wow! I just checked that link. What a great price for a really nice drive. Thank you!!]
Invizzible said:
I am really sorry to say that, but some people are just too stupid... but still very entertaining!
magnets usually do no physical damage to the hard drive, only the data gets damaged. if the drive spins normally, you could try to format it with the disk utility that you can run from your OSX installer cd or the system restore cd that came with the ibook. if you can initialize the disk normally and restore the system, then you save yourself a good money.
(if it works, it is probably a good idea to "re-zero" the hard drive; meaning, you want the disk utility to write disk full of zeros just to check that the whole disk surface is working properly.)
if the hard drive is physically damaged, i recommend buying a good replacement drive instead of the cheapest alternative. that is because it's very tough job to change hard drive for an ibook and getting a better performance hard drive adds to the overall system performance very significantly. a 7200rpm hard drive might be an overkill, but get at least 5400rpm one and not the slow standard 4200rpm model which sells cheap but cripples the system.
i hope you can get it working by simply formatting it, as it really is tough to exchange the hard drive. i did it once and hope to never have to do it again.
(if it works, it is probably a good idea to "re-zero" the hard drive; meaning, you want the disk utility to write disk full of zeros just to check that the whole disk surface is working properly.)
if the hard drive is physically damaged, i recommend buying a good replacement drive instead of the cheapest alternative. that is because it's very tough job to change hard drive for an ibook and getting a better performance hard drive adds to the overall system performance very significantly. a 7200rpm hard drive might be an overkill, but get at least 5400rpm one and not the slow standard 4200rpm model which sells cheap but cripples the system.
i hope you can get it working by simply formatting it, as it really is tough to exchange the hard drive. i did it once and hope to never have to do it again.
He tried using the restore disc, but it wouldn't install. I'm pretty sure the drive is shot. Apple claims that it is. There was an actual grinding sound while he had the magnet on the ibook (where one's palms normally rest when typing, probably right on top of the drive). But I work as a component level electronic bench tech, and my neighbor works on Macs and PC's for a living, so I'm not worried about doing the replacement. And yeah I agree, a decent drive is worth getting.
You might find a few good tips in this thread, started by someone with a dead PowerBook hard drive on the same quest as you.
Just ignore my extravagant recommendation...
Just ignore my extravagant recommendation...
As a Mac mini owner who swapped his 80GB/4200RPM drive for a 80GB/5400RPM one, I can't agree more: if you have to change the drive, avoid 4200RPM drives, they're too slow.
What did I do with my old 80GB/4200RPM? See my sig. Nice way to keep the whole setup quite silent while keeping heat to a minimum.
What did I do with my old 80GB/4200RPM? See my sig. Nice way to keep the whole setup quite silent while keeping heat to a minimum.