Bigger hard drive for 12" iBook G4 1.33

R

rosx

Registered
Hello all,

I've read around for a while and just decided to join. I bought a 12" iBook 1.33 with a 40GB hard drive and 512 of RAM in September.

This is my first mac and I thought that I would be fine with just 40GB and 512 of RAM. Wow was I wrong. I've already filled up my hard drive and I definatly need more ram. However when I've looked on ebay it seems the most i could get is maybe $500 for my used iBook G4. I was thinking of selling it and getting a PowerBook refurbished for 1500$ for that is wayyy too much of a loss.

So how much would it cost to put a bigger HD in my iBook?

Thanks. :)
 
rosx said:
So how much would it cost to put a bigger HD in my iBook?
Click to expand...

If you need more HD Space the easiest way would be to buy an external drive.

If you are not afraid of disassembling your Book yourself, you find instructions here or there. Then it just costs as much as your replacement drive.

I went through the whole process, with a friend for assistance. I enjoyed it, but I can't recommend it. See the links and you will know why…

It's strong "technobastel"!:D
 
You can double your HD size for about $140, plus installation. Installing one yourself is fairly straightforward, as long as you know what to do.

Check here for hard drive prices, and here for instructional videos.
 
I think the only thing you might have to worry about is heat issue, especially if you are installing a HD that has higher RPMs than the one shipped with the iBook. Other than that, it's definitely doable.
 
nixgeek said:
I think the only thing you might have to worry about is heat issue, especially if you are installing a HD that has higher RPMs than the one shipped with the iBook. Other than that, it's definitely doable.
Click to expand...

So I should find one with the same RPMs as the one that comes with the 12" then. Any idea how many that is?

Thanks again.
 
Well, first find out if you can use higher RPM hard drives from others here or from other sites. Do some research before you make the purchase because if you can use the higher RPM without any adverse effects I definitely recommend you get the drive with the higher RPM. If not, then you'll know for sure.

Hopefully someone here with the experience in adding hard drives to iBooks can elaborate on this.
 
You should have a 4200 RPM drive in there now, and there are plenty of others available for your machine at this speed. Standard options include Hitachi, Seagate, and Toshiba.

You'll find many 5400 RPM and some 7200 RPM drives that will work with your machine, but definitely don't just buy any old 2.5" 7200 RPM, because some of them run hotter than others.

Here is a page with recommendations for your specific iBook. Here is another.
 
thanks for the websites, very helpful.

So heres my final question. I have about 1 gig left which is not much. Would it be better to just get a external HD or get one of the 60GB HDs and have someone install it. I dont really trust myself installing it so I'd have someone else or a store do it.
 
Personally, I'd do both -- but I make my living on my computer. If you're going to buy an external drive, ask yourself how much you can archive of what's on your machine right now; i.e., how much can you take off of your drive and not miss while you're using your iBook away from home?

If you can't come up with many, many gigs worth of archivable data, then you should consider a bigger drive. (Then, later, buy an external drive as well, to archive and back up.) If, on the other hand, you can free up many GB by archiving data you don't need constant access to, then you can get away with just an external drive.
 
There are some companies (see list below) which will do it for you. You send your iBook to them, so there's a bit of a turn-around time and it's not cheap. Add $100 or so at least to the cost of the HD, not including shipping. Also it's probably a good idea to let you know that most of Apple's authorized service providers won't even touch such a job.

I'd recommend just buying a good quality external firewire drive (LaCie D2) and only keeping the 'must-have' files on the laptop's internal drive.



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Why do you think you'll only be able to get $500 for it (PowerMax trade-in quote maybe)? Even the last model G3 (900Mhz) iBooks are still getting close to that much ($400 to $500 range) on eBay right now. I'd imagine you'd be able to get $800 out of it, since most 12" 1.33s are getting $790 to $900 on eBay right now (new & used).

Figure the price of upgrading that HD is going to be at least $250 to $300 and you're only $400 to $500 away from the 15" PB refurb. Might be wise to do it before MW though (buy-it-now for $800).
 
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