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bouda · Mar 19, 2007, 11:31 PM

I am looking to get a 160gb for my 12" 1.5ghz powerbook and wanted to know what you all suggested to get? Thanks!

shifuimam · Mar 20, 2007, 11:02 AM

Seagate. Anyone here with much hard drive experience will tell you to always get Seagate. Their drives are well-built, incredibly reliable, and have a five-year warranty - Western Digital and Maxtor have a one-year, and Toshiba has a three-year. If Seagate costs too much for you, buy Toshiba.

Look at ZipZoomFly.com and NewEgg.com for good prices.

DO NOT, under any circumstances, buy IBM/Hitachi. Their drives are pieces of crap and fail frequently.

bouda · Mar 20, 2007, 12:29 PM

Thanks for the reply. I thought Hitachi was the best? The reviews I have read on new egg seem to suggest this.

dowNNshift · Mar 20, 2007, 12:50 PM

I 100% agree with shifuimam.

Seagate is the way to go for a notebook drive. 5 year warranty, quiet, reliable and they are offered in several different flavors (5400 & 7200 RPM / PATA or SATA). I've run 2.5" Seagate drives in everything from blade servers all the way to MacBooks and Mac Minis -- never had a single hiccup.

I've always had a great deal of success buying OEM drives from Newegg, and if you're looking for a good tear down guide check out Fixit Guide Series - DIY Mac & iPod Repair

shifuimam · Mar 20, 2007, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by bouda

Thanks for the reply. I thought Hitachi was the best? The reviews I have read on new egg seem to suggest this.

Let me put it to you this way:

All laptop manufacturers except Toshiba and *maybe* Apple use Hitachi-branded hard drives. Why? Because they're cheaper (even in bulk-by-the-millions) than Toshiba, or Seagate drives.

IBM ThinkPads use Hitachi drives. My employer had a three-year lease with IBM that just recently ended. I knew of several coworkers who had hard drives fail three or more times in one year. Regardless of what NewEgg customer reviews say, Hitachi drives are notoriously shoddy in quality, workmanship, and value.

Also, from a logical standpoint, Seagate is putting a lot of faith in the quality of their drives, judging by their five-year warranty. You probably aren't even going to *use* your laptop for five years!

Pricegrabber.com is also a good place to find the best price. I'd avoid eBay unless you can confirm that the drive has the five-year warranty - certain serial number ranges are dedicated to OEM drives factory-installed in computers; those don't come with the standard warranty AFAIK.

imitchellg5 · Mar 20, 2007, 02:41 PM

Seagate 100%. Even after your warranty is gone their tech support is still awesome. What about Western Digital? I haven't heard about them that often, and Apple uses them.

bouda · 03:10 PM

So whats it mean on newegg when the drive says OEM? Those still come with the warranty? If anyone could point me to a good Seagate 160mb drive that will work in my powerbook that would be great. As I am new to macs, I assume it is difficult to switch drives, they need to be formatted, etc?

What's the difference between these 3?

Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Thanks again!

earthlings · Mar 20, 2007, 09:00 PM

The Apple store suggested SmartDisk to me, and it works very well.

mduell · Mar 20, 2007, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by bouda

So whats it mean on newegg when the drive says OEM? Those still come with the warranty? If anyone could point me to a good Seagate 160mb drive that will work in my powerbook that would be great. As I am new to macs, I assume it is difficult to switch drives, they need to be formatted, etc?

What's the difference between these 3?

Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Thanks again!

Yes, and for some brands the OEM drive comes with a better warranty than the Retail drive (3 years vs 1). With Seagate they all have a 5 year warranty so it doesn't matter.
You need the ATA drive, which fortunately is the cheaper of the two: Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus 5400.3 (Perpendicular Recording) ST9160821A 160GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

bouda · Mar 20, 2007, 11:19 PM

So if I purchase this Seagate, is it hard to install? I does it need to be formatted, etc (what are the steps)? I just inherited a mac, with applecare, so I do not know if I bring it to an apple store they would do it for me?

Thanks again, I appreciate it.

mduell · Mar 21, 2007, 07:02 PM

You can't replace it yourself without voiding the warranty. You'll have to pay an Apple Authorized Service place to do it; when I was looking most of them quoted $300.
CompUSA will do it for $30 (and they are Apple Authorized), but the quality of the techs varies by locations.