iBook hard drive upgrade

J

joneSi

wanna be power user
Hey all, just got my first mac. Its an iBook 12"... Its the one that apple has on the site right now. 1.2GHZ 30gb HDD etc, airport, etc. I've added 512 Ram to it so far. I've realized that the 30gb will go fast. Anybody have a How To on the NEW iBook...(I know there are the ones that are out there that are similar to mine, however its not the same)....

Thanks in advance, I apologize if there is anything on here but I searched and yeilded nothing.

Woo Hoo, first post!

Steve Jones
joneSi
 
Welcome to the forum, Steve.
I know about two members of this forum who managed to replace the hdds of their books. One did on a 12'' powerbook and the other on an ibook like yours. He not only replaced the drive with one that has a bigger capacity but also spinning at 7200rpm. It went fine but iirc it was quite tough.
Viro will surely check your post soon and give you some hints on this project.
Good luck!
 
The 1.2Ghz isn't a bad HD. While it's still under warranty, I'd recommend keeping it. If you want more performance, bump up the ram. It will help. Could also get an external HD for more space, run apps or games off of that (and store your music). Minimises the mobility a little for all you need but it also saves you some money from getting a new HD so soon. If you're stuck on doing that, sell your iBook and buy a PowerBook.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence Zammy ;).

I've upgraded my iBook G3 and Powerbook G4 12" to new hard drives. The guides I used are from PBFixIt. Sad thing is they don't have any details on the new iBook G4.

I second Randman's suggestion. If you've ever taken apart a mac laptop, you'll know the kind of hassle it can be. I took about 3 hours to strip, upgrade and reassemble the machines. Not only that, I'm quite certain you will void your warranty if you did the upgrade yourself. Wait until the warranty is over, and upgrade your RAM if you need more performance.

Perform the hard drive upgrade only if you really really really need the extra space (and possibly performance) and can't bear to use external hard drives.
 
You'd almost be better off buying a newer machine than paying for the upgrade, especially if someone else does it for you (see below). Personally, I wouldn't touch it myself. A lot of Apple Authorized repair centers won't do this kind of work on iBooks either. That kind of tells you something, doesn't it? Not to mention you'll void your warranty by doing this.

That said, here's a link to some instructions for the iBook G4 series. Note: the page is in French...but the pictures should show you what's involved. Take a look at them and see if it's something you want to do. The link at the bottom, Suite, is to go to the next page.


-----


MacResQ (PowerbookResQ) has a service to do it...it's ain't cheap though.
http://www.powerbookresq.com/hitlist-browse.php?category=PowerBookResQ_Hard_Drives

MCE Technologies
http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MTOS&Category_Code=SVCIBCLM

TechRestore
http://techrestore.com/xcart/home.php?cat=255
 
Well, I thought this would be as easy as a peecee laptop upgrade...guess not :(. Its not about the performance...I've already got 768 megs of ram...did that myself.

I just wanted more space for the hard drive, and didn't want to pay apple for it. I guess I can go to external storage...but that kind of detracts from the fact that its a laptop.

I've got 16 gigs free right now...I would have loved to have more like 46 gigs free. Oh well.

I would replace the laptop if I needed it replaced. Its BRAND SPANKIN' NEW. New to mac, thought it would be like pc laptop upgrades...easy...but then it wouldn't have a design this nice and simple.

The more I think about it I could handle a Firewire drive for my music. NBD. Burn when necessary AND have a backup just in case. BTW does the drive need to be attached to the iBook at startup, or can I plug, unplug at 'will'?

thanks,
steve jones
 
I upgraded the drive in my G3 ibook. i know they are different inside, but if yours is even remotely similar to mine it is not for the faint of heart and i would probibly not suggest to do it until the warranty expires. but i did mine without any manuals too so it took me a really long time to do it.
 
joneSi said:
Hey all, just got my first mac. Its an iBook 12"... Its the one that apple has on the site right now. 1.2GHZ 30gb HDD etc, airport, etc. I've added 512 Ram to it so far. I've realized that the 30gb will go fast. Anybody have a How To on the NEW iBook...(I know there are the ones that are out there that are similar to mine, however its not the same)....

Thanks in advance, I apologize if there is anything on here but I searched and yeilded nothing.

Woo Hoo, first post!

Steve Jones
joneSi
Click to expand...

Well did you search hard enough on the net? I think you should look at this guide at Accelerate Your Macintosh. Then mosey on over to their feedback search lasso and plug your info into it and read other peoples experience on upgrading.
 
joneSi said:
Well, I thought this would be as easy as a peecee laptop upgrade...guess not :(. Its not about the performance...I've already got 768 megs of ram...did that myself.
Click to expand...

Very few laptops are easily upgraded, even PC models. The only one I've personally seen from a PC manufacturer that was easy to upgrade the HD on was a Dell Inspiron 8100. The thing is also 2x thicker than an iBook. I'm sure there's a few others out there that might be easy, but the vast majority won't be. Especially if they're as slim and compact as the iBooks are.

The iBook was designed to be compact, so things had to be placed tightly. The only user-serviceable items on the iBook are RAM and Airport cards. Anything else voids the warranty, unless it's handled by an authorized repairer (even then, better check to make sure).
 
All my past PC laptops were easy to upgrade hard drive wise. My Dell has a slot on the side where the hard drive was. I had an Acer Aspire whose hard drive was accessible after removing the battery and pulling it out. Then there was the run in with the Packard bell. No biggie really, removing one screw and I got the floppy and hard drive out. A friend's Samsung was pretty easy to upgrade as well.

So I must say that all PC laptops I've worked with have been easy to upgrade. Upgrading the iBook or Powerbook is like asking for a root canal.
 
Viro said:
So I must say that all PC laptops I've worked with have been easy to upgrade. Upgrading the iBook or Powerbook is like asking for a root canal.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. They are normally very easy. I can deal because I like the laptop. My next mac (aside from being a powerbook) will have the most hdd I can possibly get.

For now, I've got a few hard drives sitting around from my desktops, I'll get a firewire external setup for it...

thanks for the input

joneSi
 
Satcomer said:
Well did you search hard enough on the net? I think you should look at this guide at Accelerate Your Macintosh. Then mosey on over to their feedback search lasso and plug your info into it and read other peoples experience on upgrading.
Click to expand...

Regarding the guide you posted, it's for a PowerBook. He has an iBook. :(
The xlr8yourmac.com site does not produce any results when searching for iBook G4 and hard drive in the search dropdowns.
 
dmetzcher said:
Regarding the guide you posted, it's for a PowerBook. He has an iBook. :(
The xlr8yourmac.com site does not produce any results when searching for iBook G4 and hard drive in the search dropdowns.
Click to expand...

If you don't put in an OS version and just search for hard drive on iBook G4, the it comes up with many entries.
 
Satcomer said:
If you don't put in an OS version and just search for hard drive on iBook G4, the it comes up with many entries.
Click to expand...

Ahhh...very helpful. Thanks! I got some good information using that query.
 
TechRestore
http://techrestore.com/xcart/home.php?cat=255[/QUOTE]

They seem like they are the cheapest out there, but I cant find any messages from anyone who has actually used them. I want to upgrade my ibooks drive, but not really interested in doing it myself. I saw a few reviews of powerbookresq on a different forum and they were slammed pretty hard.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Check this site out:
http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/
I've upgraded 4 iBooks for friends with the help of this excellent site. Clear step-by-step instructions with photos. Be aware there are 52 screws to remove before you get to the HD. Personally I found cracking the case apart is the scariest bit of all but the above site explains it perfectly...oh and you'll need a No.8 Torx srewdriver...apart from that it was easy. Good luck.
 
patrean said:
Check this site out:
http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/
I've upgraded 4 iBooks for friends with the help of this excellent site. Clear step-by-step instructions with photos. Be aware there are 52 screws to remove before you get to the HD. Personally I found cracking the case apart is the scariest bit of all but the above site explains it perfectly...oh and you'll need a No.8 Torx srewdriver...apart from that it was easy. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Cracking the case is the most nerve-racking bit of the whole operation. I just upgraded my 12" iBook G4/1.2 stock 30GB drive to a 60GB, 5400 RPM, 8MB Cache drive. All with the help of the guide from pbfixit.com (and previous experience with lots of PowerBooks). The last 3 pages of the hard drive replacement guide is a screw matrix; I put scotch tape on each screw location and stuck each screw in the listed area as I removed it. Made it much easier to get them back in the right place (and kept me from losing them).

The upgrade, while scary, was well worth it. Not just for the space increase, but for the performance increase as well.
 
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