So, last week the hard drive in my usually excellent Powerbook started making these ominous grinding and clunking noises. Not a good sign. Fortunately, I had enough warning to back everything up. I tried to reformat the drive and reinstall the OS. That helped for about two days, then it turned to toast and nothing worked at all.
After a suitable period of mourning and despair, I faced the inevitable fact that I’d need a replacement. A friend sent me a link to this review of the Seagate Momentus. It sounded great, until I found out that it’s a Serial ATA, and not compatible with my Powerbook. At least that was the word I received from the sages at macfixit.com.
Instead, I went for what I believe is the next best thing – the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100. This drive is pretty sweet, spins at 7200 RPM’s and has an 8 meg cache. After putting it in, I have to say there’s a noticeable improvement in performance, not to mention the extra 20 gigs from the old 80 gig Toshiba that came with the Powerbook.
I was a bit wary about the installation. I’ve taken this laptop apart before to install an external wireless antenna. That was fairly easy, although getting it back together just right was a bit of a pain. I’d never replaced a hard drive though, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.
Fortunately, a Google search came up with this excellent guide at ifixit.com. I printed out the PDF version, which includes step-by-step instructions, along with a handy screw guide, and a couple of pages in the back that included little circles where you can place your screws as you remove them. I didn’t actually know about that until I was done taking it apart, but I just kept the screws in groups according to where I’d removed them, and that made it pretty easy to put it all back together.
I think the whole replacement process only took an hour or so. No problem putting it back together, although one caveat I would give is to be careful of the little tab in the front, which is easily mishapen, as is the aluminum top case itself. Other than that, removing the ribbon cables for the trackpad and keyboard was a bit sketchy, but I’m still typing and tracking, so I guess it worked okay.
I hope these tips can perhaps help somebody else who’s in the same boat. I’ve never had a problem with Mac hardware before, but I think the Toshiba drives do go out from time to time. Maybe this post will help save some folks some time.
Tristan Pipo Says: April 29th, 2006 at 10:12 amI ordered the same drive as you did and will be attempting this surgery on my baby today. I am a little nervous and I have to go find a #0 Phillips Screwdriver and a Spudger. I will let you know how it goes.
n Says: May 2nd, 2006 at 10:44 amThanks for posting your reaction to the HD replacement process. I’m attempting to perform the same thing on my al. 15″ this week. also, nice referral to ifixit. I found that site last week, but didnt know about the screw template! Its great to know that your operation went so successfully– gives me hope.
Take it easy,
N
Allan W. Says: October 22nd, 2006 at 5:42 pmYes – thanks for the ref to ifixit. My HD died and I’m replacing it tonight on my 15″. Here goes…
Alex Says: December 26th, 2006 at 11:02 amThank you very much for the information. My 15″ powerbook Aluminum HD died last night, I ordered new one from ifixit.
bradford Says: January 26th, 2007 at 2:50 pmMe too. Thanks so much. I googled everything but couldn’t find any info on this exact subject. The links are awesome.
Foz Says: May 26th, 2007 at 6:49 pmDitto here… I have just completed the shopping and needed to know how difficult it would be. You have made it EASY. Thanks..
chris Says: December 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pmFixit guides are amazing, aren’t they?
But does anyone know if there’s a way to retrieve data from a fried hard drive?
I have come to terms with the grief and am about to replace the g4 al, backed up all data and much else before the grinding began, but had so many bits & pieces (that took so long to find and tune) that I’d like to recover whatever else I can.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks, folks.
chris
Derwin Says: September 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pmDo these drive come in at 320gb /7200.
I have seen them only at 5400.Derwin