It’s official …
Posted by Nick.
My HD has kicked the bucket. Disk utility says it has reported a fatal mechanical error and that it will die soon. Anyone out there in blog land that has replaced their G4 PB hard drive with recomendations on new ones? This place looks decent, or this one. I wonder if Kewitt carries this sort of thing. Also, is the 7200 RPM speed really worth the extra money? Comments?
March 21st, 2007 at 11:20 am Using
This is what (and where) I bought mine last spring. Working just fine still, pretty quiet, and for $60, I’m quite happy with it. As I recall, the drive arrived within a couple days of ordering, so I was pleased with their service, as well.
March 21st, 2007 at 12:40 pm Using
My HD died last year… I bought mine from newegg too. I was tempted to buy 7200RPM but eventually went with the slower version. I think I read somewhere the speed difference is not that noticeable, while the heat/noice might be more annoying.
March 21st, 2007 at 7:14 pm Using
Nathaniel will probably tell you that 7200 isn’t worth it, and yes in a laptop I would worry about the extra heat.
back to meetings. this whole interview process is tiring! (duh)
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:53 pm Using
Yeah, Michael has pre-emptively quoted me correctly. For laptops, I don’t think it’s a big deal to go with a 7200 rpm drive. Then again, the power different isn’t that much, around 2.3 watts for a 7200 rpm versus 2 watts for a 5400. I suppose that is over 10% though.
I’d buy from newegg.com, they have good prices and ship quickly. Macsales has also worked well for me in the past too. I’d probably go for a Seagate since they have nice long warranties… at least 120 GB.
You might try just driving to Staples too. The one near my house here had 120 GB Western Digital drives around $85 a few weeks ago. That’s about the same as the online places and you wouldn’t have to pay for shipping. (plus it would be fast)
Taking apart a G4 powerbook is pretty easy, just download the pdf instructions from http://www.ifixit.com. One really nice thing is that the last page (or two) of the instructions is a screw guide. As you remove screws, use some tape to tape them to the different descriptions. That way you won’t lose screws or forget which screw goes where. Needless to say, watch out for static too.
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:54 pm Using
Oh yeah, if you don’t already have a backup, stop using your hard drive at all until you can get it replaced.
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm Using
So I went with the 120 GB equivalent of this one(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152024&CMP=OTC-RSS) ($80), but it seems to have sold out at newegg. Will get here Monday. We’ll see how getting it up and running again goes…