PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

elchivito · #5 12-03-2010, 09:36 AM

I just finished replacing the drive in my old Powerbook G4 17 inch aluminum. It's easy. Other World Computing has great walk thru videos for most Macintosh laptop R and R's. Make sure you have number 6 and 8 Torx drivers and get some little spudgers, the plastic wedgie tool things for prying the case apart. Here's a link to the videos, you'll have to dig around to find the one for your model.

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

If the disks from your wife's MacBook contain 10.4 it may work, but I wonder if there's possibly an issue with the processor differences...your wife's machine is intel don't forget, and her version of X.4 might be different, I'm not sure. If it does work, reformatting is simple once you get the new drive installed.

Put the start up DVD in the optical drive

start up while holding down the C key. The computer will automatically boot off the DVD and not the hard drive.

The installer process will begin and take you to the language choice screen and then to the next screen. Don't begin the install yet, you have to partition the new drive or it won't be recognized. In the upper left corner of the screen you'll see the " INSTALLER" menu. Pull it down and open "Disk Utility".
You should see your new drive showing up in the left side of the disk tools page. Highlight it and click the Partition tab at the top of the page and follow the instructions. You'll want to just make it one large partition, no need for separate ones.

After that, you should be able to continue with your install, but you might need to reboot, I forget. A tip for shortening your install is to leave out all the language packages that it puts in under "easy install". On the last install screen before it begins is a custom button, click it and you can customize your install by unchecking all those language packages. They'll shorten your install time by an hour or so.
I'm giving you all this from memory, so can't guarantee I didn't leave something out. You can't really screw up a Mac install, if necessary just reboot and start over, no worries.