Replacing a hard drive in a Powerbook - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

kerry · #1 12-03-2010, 12:06 AM

My daughter has a G4 Powerbook and the hard drive went out. I can pick up a hard drive on Ebay for about $40. Taking it apart, the physical removal and replacement of the drive does not look too tough. Booting and formatting the new drive may be more of a challenge for me since I'm pretty computer illiterate. I don't think we have the program disks for the powerbook since we bought it used but I have OSX disks from my wife's MacBook and from what I read on the net, it appears the OSX Tiger 10.4 should run on the Powerbook. Will this be over my head or could I pull it off?

Ara T. · #2 12-03-2010, 02:33 AM

If you can work on a car you can damn sure work on a computer. Formatting the HD/installing an OS is a piece of cake. I know on macs there is a button you press to boot from cd. I believe you hold down the OPTION key while it's booting. Then just make sure you set your partitions how you want (IE, do you want it split into different parts or not).

cscmc1 · #3 12-03-2010, 09:05 AM

You can handle it. It's tedious work (I did this with an iBook), but can be done. Google the procedure, as there are several pictorials out there on how to do it. Good luck!

MTI · #4 12-03-2010, 09:24 AM

It's been awhile since I've been inside a Powerbook, but you might need a couple of torx drivers

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.

elchivito · #6 12-03-2010, 09:38 AM

forgot, OWC has a little 5 dollar tool kit that has spudgers and the torx you need if you don't have the right tools.

LandYaghtLover · #7 12-03-2010, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ara T.

If you can work on a car you can damn sure work on a computer. Formatting the HD/installing an OS is a piece of cake. I know on macs there is a button you press to boot from cd. I believe you hold down the OPTION key while it's booting. Then just make sure you set your partitions how you want (IE, do you want it split into different parts or not).

Its the "c" key, as in CD. But when it does not find a local OS to boot from it will move right onto the CD. And then you are right, it will pretty much tell you to format the drive first before install and take care of it for you. Its very, very easy.

kerry · #8 12-03-2010, 10:01 AM

Thanks. I'll order the drive and give it a try. I may be back for more advice.

#9 12-03-2010, 10:32 AM

Which powerbook is it, I've done it on my old 12-inch using this:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-12-Inch-867-MHz-Hard-Drive-Replacement/208/1

kerry · #10 12-03-2010, 10:55 AM

It's a titanium 15".

LandYaghtLover · #11 12-03-2010, 11:21 AM

I miss my TiBook! Pretty straight forward, just lots of screws. This is for the DVI model, will be 867Mhz up (I think). There were two generations, DVI being the newer.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Titanium-DVI-Hard-Drive/89/1

kerry · #12 12-03-2010, 11:40 AM

Yes, that looks like it. I'm not sure which model I have but the insides of mine look like that.
After successfully replacing the power supply in my wife's G5 desktop a week ago, it's made me think that repairing this Powerbook which has been sitting around for about a year is a better choice than simply tossing it out.

LandYaghtLover · #13 12-03-2010, 11:54 AM

They are a good machine and very well built. I prefer the Titanium design over any of the new designs. Has more character. They still fetch a good penny on eBay too.

elchivito · #14 12-04-2010, 12:06 AM

TiBooks are great so I've heard. The only complaint I'm aware of is signal strength on the airport card antenna. Apparently the titanium isn't as signal friendly as aluminum, and that's why they switched eventually. Certainly worth putting a new drive in. My 17 is a daily driver and I love it. I spose I'd miss intel if I'd ever had it, but so far I don't seem to need it.

LandYaghtLover · #15 12-04-2010, 12:52 AM

That would be odd since the antenna are external to the Titanium in the bezel edge with a clear plastic "slip". They were actually on par with any other. It was just a phycological thing. The only "problem" was that the antenna were in the base and not in the screen. But that was more of a design thing than an actual flaw since performance was the same.

I agree that putting a new drive in may be overkill. I think it may even be limited to 128GB. Not sure on that. But then again for most people who do word processing, e-mail and light browsing its fine. For gaming and photo editing the thing would be pushed too hard.