Help in upgrading my hard drive

horned_frog

I have no clue where to start. You can see what model of iBook I have below. The 10 gig is simply not enough anymore. I would like to go to the 30-40 gig range, but 20 gig would help. My questions are 1. Is it possible? 2. How difficult (I don't have any Apple stores near me at the moment as I am in PA and not Texas for the time being) 3. Which drive will fit and what can you recomend? 4. How do I transfer all my data from one HD to another? I have an external FireWire drive...can I back-up everything onto that and then just drag it all to the new drive? Can I still use the old internal drive somehow as an external drive?



I am not afraid to take my computer apart.



[ 04-03-2002: Message edited by: Horned_Frog ]</p>

allinone

here's a link to get you started:



<a href="http://caslis.com/mac/ibook/ibdrive.html"; target="_blank">http://caslis.com/mac/ibook/ibdrive.html</a>;



I haven't followed these instructions myself but it looks legit to me...



Accelerate Your Mac is a great place to find real world experiences with Mac upgrades...



<a href="http://www.accelerateyourmac.com/"; target="_blank">http://www.accelerateyourmac.com/</a>;



Hope this helps...

stimuli

You DEFINATELY want to get an Apple Repair Manual for it before attempting to take apart your book.



If you don't, I will assume you are an insane freak. I hear they are a bitch to take apart.



But with a repair manual, you will do as good a job as an Apple service place because... that's right, they use the same manual.



20 GB are kind of a sweet spot, at about a hundred bucks

<a href="http://eshop.macsales.com"; target="_blank">http://eshop.macsales.com</a>; are a good bet for 2.5" notebook drives.

alcimedes

i've done this upgrade to my own iBook. it took a long ass time.



1. there are a ton of very small screws. make sure you have the right torx set, and a very organized way to store the screws. most of them are tiny, and it can be tough to remember where you got them from.



2. there are parts where you put enough force on the frame of your iBook that you'll think twice about doing this. the shell is really hard to take off (at least parts), i was sure i was going to break something in the process.



3. there are half a dozen little wire connectors that you'll need to take out then put back in. if you screw that up you won't know until it's all back together.



4. this totally voids your warranty, so don't do it if you ever plan on having it serviced in the future.



that being said, i'm glad i did it, but i don't think i'd do it again any time soon.



you can find an external case for your old 10GB drive that will make it a firewire drive. look around on the net, not sure what the names/brands are off hand.

ghost_user_name

yeah, as a tech who has worked on those things, it is a pain in the ass. The original PowerBook G3 was great. All you did was take off the keyboard, unscrew the heatsink and you had full access to the memory, processor module and the hard drive. Any other repair, and it took forever...

horned_frog

Yikes. I thought it would just be *slightly* harder than installing RAM or an Airport card (both of which I have done easily and without worry). Perhaps I should just buy a full-size external drive. Idealy, I would love to get a new computer, but I am in love with this little guy

I see there is a LaCie 80 GB drive @ the Apple store for $269 (-$10 EDU discount ). Is that a good deal and a good drive? I mostly just want this drive for MP3s, and video. Plus I have the portable 20 gig drive, but it is getting full and my computers drive is getting there.



EDIT: I see here: <a href="http://www.lacie.com/products/product.cfm?id=4A8676C5-54C8-11D5-97C60090278D3ED0"; target="_blank">http://www.lacie.com/products/product.cfm?id=4A8676C5-54C8-11D5-97C60090278D3ED0</a>;

That it doesn't list it as OSX compatible. Do you think it is and they just didn't say it? I don't see why it wouldn't be.



[ 04-03-2002: Message edited by: Horned_Frog ]</p>

alcimedes

this is nothing at all like the AirPort or RAM upgrades.



you literally have your iBook in half a dozen pieces, and it takes hours to get it apart. add to that the fact that most of it is precision work, and you're talking a royal pain in the ass.



it was not easy. i've never done a hardware upgrade that was this big of a pain in the ass, and i've updated about a dozen laptop hard drives by now.



this one was significantly harder than any others.



edit: oh crap, i didn't notice you had one of the old toilet shaped ones. those ones are a lot easier than the dual USB ones that they have now. that's what i thought you were talking about. you can probably do yours no problem. i looked into those once, and they weren't all that bad. just look online and you'll find guides on how to take them apart and put them back together.



also, make sure to check <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com"; target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com</a> for drives that will work in your machine.



you will often find links to guides that will show you how to do the installs as well.



[ 04-04-2002: Message edited by: alcimedes ]</p>

ghost_user_name

ah, the older iBooks. Those weren't that bad. I think you can get to the hard drive by taking off the keyboard and unscrewing some parts. It's been a while though, and technicians weren't even supposed to work on these units. This is when Apple changed their policy and ordered anything other than a RAM/Airport upgrade to be sent directly to Apple for repair. As such, I've never had one of these open very far. Also, the technician manuals for it don't even tell you how to take it apart.



An interesting thing is that these iBooks had battery charging contacts on the bottom, just in case anyone felt like releasing a charging station for it. I don't think anyone ever did...