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ykarnay · Apr 23, 2007, 12:16 PM

Hi all,

I am currently shopping for an external HD for my PowerBook G4, 1.33 ghz, 768 MB RAM (which has stopped booting and is stuck on a grey screen with the apple logo). When I tried reinstalling OS X from a CD it gave an installation error. Not sure what steps to take from now.

I need external for backup and storage. I am not sure when it comes down to a USB vs. Firewire compability for my PowerBook. I am looking into these two:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nplm=TG267LL/A

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nplm=TJ244LL/A

I read that LaCie is not stable or what not. Any suggestions? I feel like a hopeless graphic designer.

peeb · Apr 23, 2007, 12:48 PM

Get a firewire drive - you can boot your powerbook from that, while you will not be able to boot from a USB drive. Either of the drives you list will work very well, although you will most likely be able to get them cheaper elsewhere. Seagate are recommended a lot here, look on NewEgg.
Can you boot the computer from your OSX CD?

mduell · Apr 23, 2007, 01:36 PM

As the other poster said, you can only boot PowerPC machines from Firewire externals. And those prices for G-TECH at the Apple Store are crazy. I've had and seen nothing but bad experiences with LaCie's drives (optical and hard disk).

Based on the topic of the thread, it sounds like you don't even know what size you want. 2.5" drives are physically smaller (duh) and can be bus powered, but are more expensive per gigabyte (~$1.25/gig) and have a lower maximum capacity (200GB). 3.5" drives are bigger and need a wall outlet, but are cheaper per gigabyte (~35 cents/gig) and have a higher maximum capacity (750GB).

"Building" your own external drive (buy an internal drive and an enclosure) is pretty easy (2 screws and 5 minutes) and can save you a good bit of money. I'll post the links to the parts if you're interested once you've decided what size you want.

peeb · Apr 23, 2007, 01:42 PM

Yeah - the first decision is: do you want to be able to carry it around without a power brick? (smaller, bus powered, more expensive) or plug it in when you want to use it (larger, cheaper, less flexible).

ykarnay · Apr 23, 2007, 03:31 PM

Please, post a link for building your own if you can. I may look into and I am not planning to carry it around. I was able to boot my PowerBook with the firewire to a tower but my user folder is empty. Would you say, all the data is gone?

Are there ways to retrieve it somehow?

mduell · Apr 23, 2007, 06:40 PM

If you don't have any backups, you could buy Diskeeper to see if it can salvage anything.

For 3.5": Take a hard drive from this list (400GB is the best in terms of gigs per dollar, but 320 and 500 aren't far off, and 250 or 750 are available) and put it in one of these enclosures (whichever one you like the look of, I recommend anything with a 4 or 5 'egg' rating and more than 10 votes).

For 2.5": Take one of these hard drives and put it in one of these enclosures.

ykarnay · Apr 24, 2007, 08:50 AM

I am so appreciated for your awesome advise....thanks a bunch. I will consider.

Last night, I took my PowerBook to an apple store. The tech guy said the HD is failing and needs to be replaced. I had a 60GB HD so now I am shopping around for a new one, maybe a bit bigger. Any advise on this? I am not even sure what to use to retrieve some of my data or what not.

peeb · Apr 24, 2007, 10:56 AM

As Mduell said, Diskeeper for recovery. Look at seagate Momentus series on Newegg for replacement drives. Bear in mind it is not a trivial job to replace a PB HD - you might want to take it to a dealer to do this.

mduell · Apr 24, 2007, 03:14 PM

Here are hard drives compatible with your PowerBook that I would recommend.

The Apple Store will want ~$300-350 to replace your drive with another 60GB; most independent Mac stores will want ~$300-350 to put a 60-100GB drive in your PowerBook. You can buy a 100-120GB drive for under $100 and CompUSA (if there's one left near you) will install it for $30.

peeb · Apr 24, 2007, 03:19 PM

No, comp-usa will not. They will charge 170USD to install a drive in a PB, plus the cost of the drive.

mduell · Apr 24, 2007, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

No, comp-usa will not. They will charge 170USD to install a drive in a PB, plus the cost of the drive.

CompUSA.com says $30 to upgrade the hard drive in a laptop.

I had the optical drive and hard drive in a 12" PowerBook upgraded last summer by CompUSA for $45.