Powerbook G3 storage space

Izzy

Izzy

luv my lil' malteaser
Hello everyone,

I have a G3 Firewire Powerbook with a 10 gig hard drive...I'm always running out of space and I need suggestions on upgrade options...

Am I better off getting an external Firewire drive? Or should I get an internal drive despite the higher cost? Or what about removing and replacing the original HD...is that possible? I'd like to keep the costs in the $300 dollar range...what do all of you suggest?
 
From my "Lombard" experience (400 mhz; one generation previous to your "Pismo") I offer the following:

Last month, my local dealer pointed out that the supplied drive (in my case: Toshiba 6 gb) was very slooow and I would benefit greatly from an upgrade to an IBM Travelstar 20 gb. My quandry - how to back up everything on my internal drive without writing multiple CD's. So, in the process, I also purchased a VST 20 gb Firewire"SmartDisk" - very small and very fast - and a great universal backup device (similar products available from other manufacturers).

So, your choices:
You can get you vendor to repace your drive with a larger one and swap your data in the process (or do it yourself if you have the means); you can get a larger external firewire drive to augment your internal (but this may mean carrying around an additional peripheral); or both. The option of replacing the internal whould be cheaper than the addition of an external.
[If you go for an internal upgrade, think about your needs regarding partitioning. I currently have five partitions: one with OSX.x, one with OS9.x + most of my 18,000 files, one dedicated to Virtual PC, one with Norton and other troubleshooting software with another OS9.x, and one as a general dumping ground.]

Incidentally, the IBM is so fast it effectively doubles (or more) the speed of my machine. For instance: in Netscape 4.x, a cache clear of 50+ files would take 10 - 20 seconds, now takes 3 seconds or less; backups to the external drive are now about evenly doubled; startups faster, etc.

Another option: get rid of all that junk we all carry around on our drives!
 
Wow...I never thought about the fact that my drive might acutally be a slow one...if I replace the internal drive on my PB though, what do I do with the original one...I think I remember seeing some kind of kit for desktop HD's where you could convert old internal drives into Firewire external drives...is this available for PB drives?
 
There are at least 2 options that I know of for putting your drive in another case.

This will give you an external case option -
http://www.atomicfirewire.com/info/2.5clearlight.html

This will give you a "hot swapable" internal option -
http://store.yahoo.com/powerbook1/doitxcarproe.html

There are probably a number of other options out there. Keep in mind that the hard drive is one of the most sensitive components of your machine; i.e., more likely to fail as its use increases. If you are a power user, don't rely on your "old" drive for important tasks such as archival backup.
 
Thanks for the heads up amigo...I'm definitely gonna look into that for my old drive...I especially like that it is bus powered, the less cables the better!

What kinda speed should I shoot for in the drive that will replace the old one? I wanna get something in the 40-80 GB range...is there any particular brand that is better than others? I don't really know much about this sort of thing, I've never upgraded hard drives before...
 
cool...I will definitely look into that then, but from looking through websites like macmall and maczone they look kinda pricey...I guess if the quality is top notch though it is worth it
 
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