Replacing internal hard drive, iBook G4

[colindunn]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[colindunn]

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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136130 How does this one look? It does not have the height listed.

 

[icemanjc]

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]

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

 

[colindunn]

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.

 

[macworks]

With 10 years of hard drive replacement experience, I can assert with confidence that Maxtor, Western Digital, Toshiba (or trashiba, as I like to call them), Quantum, and Fujitsu drives are all JUNK!

I only feel comfortable with Hitachi and Seagate drives. And yeah, I know Seagate now owns Maxtor ... but that's only recent.

 

[andychrist]

colindunn, MCE will install a new 120 or 160GB HD for $269 or $299. Not cheap, but less than $500 and beats shelling out for a new machine. Of course if you wanna try doing it yourself, good luck!

 

[stilbite]

Make lots of space..AND TIME.. note where all the screws come from there's LOTS... use a SPLUDGER.. be patient.. follow the ifixit site..it's BRILLIANT.. before putting it all back together try to 'boot it' to make sure it works before you have to UNDO it all again just in case...good luck..Jimbo