Replacing internal hard drive, iBook G4

colindunn · #1 March 2nd, 2008, 12:53 PM

The hard drive of my iBook G4 is failing and I was shopping for a replacement. Looking at newegg.com it is hard to tell what would work. What I know (or think I know) is that the drive needs to be ATA, 2.5", .9mm tall. Please correct me if I am wrong, and any recommendations you can offer me would be appreciated.

Thanks.

eric2006 · #2 March 2nd, 2008, 02:28 PM

You need a 2.5" ATA drive under 128 GB. Anything over 128 GB will be unreadable.

Replacing the hard drive on an iBook is not easy. You can find instructions on http://www.ifixit.com/

DeltaMac · #3 March 2nd, 2008, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric2006

You need a 2.5" ATA drive under 128 GB. Anything over 128 GB will be unreadable.

AFAIK, all G4 iBooks are ATA-6, so larger hard drives will be fully utilized without a 128GB limitation. The older iBook G3 does have that limit, but yours will be OK with larger capacity. Max height will be 9mm, which will be good. In any event, I doubt that the really large capacities (more than 250 GB) will ever be available in ATA form.
And, yes, replacing the hard drive on any iBook is quite challenging.

eric2006 · #4 March 2nd, 2008, 03:59 PM

I'm sorry, it is the G3 iBook that has the limitation, not the G4.

colindunn · #5 March 4th, 2008, 08:18 PM

OK thanks for the help. Any suggestions on brands? They all look the same to me, although I have heard good things about Western Digital.

edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136130 How does this one look? It does not have the height listed.

icemanjc · #6 March 4th, 2008, 08:30 PM

In the past i've used Toshiba, Maxtor and Hitachi. I'm not sure you will want to do the replacement yourself, there are many screws, and taking it apart can be awkward, and make sure you have all the right tools. I nearly tore mine apart trying to replace the hard drive.

eric2006 · #7 March 4th, 2008, 09:18 PM

On the upside, replacing the iBook hard drive by yourself is something you can brag about.

colindunn · #8 March 5th, 2008, 12:13 PM

Well I am doing it for a friend. The estimated repair cost is ~$500 and it is not worth it to invest that much in a 3 year old machine. If I screw up nothing is lost, she was going to throw it out anyway.