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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > iBook G4 HD...max size?

iBook G4 HD...max size?
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DmbShn41
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May 26, 2009, 07:16 PM
 
So I'm searching like hell, and all I can think is these things have been left for dead...is there a max size HD that you can put in an iBook G4 1.2Ghz 12" screen? I had a similar experience with my older iBook, everyone said a 160GB HD would fit, and it was a great deal, and it did fit. However, at least maybe for Panther, the computer will only recognize the first 127GB. For my G$ iBook, I can get a great deal on a 250GB, but I want to make sure if I buy 250GB, I can use it. Anyone know, or where to point me? Thank you thank you.
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Eriamjh
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May 26, 2009, 09:36 PM
 
According to everymac.com, your 1.2GHz G4 iBook supports ATA/100 which is ATA6 and should support drives bigger than 128GB.
Upgrade to Tiger and see if that gets you the extra space on your 160GB. If not, then don't bother with the 250GB.

I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
     
macfix
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May 26, 2009, 10:06 PM
 
For sure it supports a 160 gig hard drive with tiger.
I have a 160 in mine (same machine as yours).
     
analogika
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May 27, 2009, 05:40 AM
 
Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post
According to everymac.com, your 1.2GHz G4 iBook supports ATA/100 which is ATA6 and should support drives bigger than 128GB.
Upgrade to Tiger and see if that gets you the extra space on your 160GB. If not, then don't bother with the 250GB.
It's not an OS limitation.

The 127 GB was a hardware limitation of his OLDER iBook (not the one he's currently talking about upgrading).
     
Eriamjh
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May 27, 2009, 07:00 AM
 
Oops. I misread.

iBook 1.2Ghz will support it for sure.

I know Pismos don't support more than 127GB. After that...

I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
     
DmbShn41  (op)
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May 28, 2009, 10:16 PM
 
Thanks folks. I came across a 120GB for $35 brand new, and I couldnt pass it up considering the 160GB is the smallest in the retail stores near me, and that fetches $70 retail. I feel pretty content with 120 GB in a notebook that will see daily use, mainly for document, web, light audio, and the occasional web cam when I'm away from home. As for the HD limitation, I found this out. On the older G3 setups, you can use a 160 GB drive, however as a single solid drive, the system will only recognize the first 127 GB, UNLESS you partition at 120GB, and then use the remaining space as a separate drive for storage. You can not use any OS on the remaining partition, but will still have the space available for storage, and the lone OS running the computer will have seamless integration with the partition. On the G4 iBooks and up, the logic boards will recognize HD sizes up 320GB verified, as my friend has not seen any internal 2.5" EIDE/PATA size offered larger than that. He says however that he wouldn't see any limitation to doing 500 GB if it was offered, but the likelihood of that is low as companies like WD and Seagate are moving to new technologies that will not fit nor be supported by older systems such as G3/G4 possible G5. Make sense? The G4 is laying on my kitchen table and will be taken apart this weekend. I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks again.
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Bearsfan34
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May 29, 2009, 12:21 AM
 
Will be curious to read your report on how your upgrade goes. I have the same iBook G4 as you with the stock 30GB HDD, and after reading the iFixit.com guide several times, I am VERY wary of taking the iBook apart to upgrade the HDD.

I've built PCs from scratch & done all kinds of computer maintenance (including MacBook Pro HDD upgrades), but taking apart the iBook G4 seems quite daunting and am considering paying the price & sending it off to TechRestore instead of doing it myself...unless some folks say "It ain't that bad."
-Core i5 MacBook Pro, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM; iBook G4 1.2GHz, 1.25GB RAM
-5G white iPod 30GB; original U2 iPod 20GB mono; now on 32GB Black iPhone 4
-...oh, and a PC too.
     
AKcrab
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May 29, 2009, 12:40 AM
 
Originally Posted by Bearsfan34 View Post
and am considering paying the price & sending it off to TechRestore instead of doing it myself...unless some folks say "It ain't that bad."
No.. It's pretty bad. Can't believe  used so many damn screws on that thing.. Depends how comfortable you are with a buttload of small screws, and how good the instructions you can find online are.
     
DmbShn41  (op)
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May 30, 2009, 07:45 PM
 
Started the 'process' this morning...When I bought the G4, the kid had installed Leopard, it ran great. He was even nice enough to give me a 'copy' of Leopard if I ever needed it. Well, I decided this morning to activate TimeMachine and backup to my EHD. Found out you have to wipe your EHD in order to use Leopard. Do you know how long it takes to transfer 164 GB of live quality music thru USB to my iMac? SO I did that, and now I'm waiting for TimeMachine to complete the initial backup of 712,085(21.2GB) files off the factory 30GB in the iBook. I've read the iFixit instructions 100 times, backwards too. I feel confident enough I can do this. I've done harder things in larger spaces with live electricity, so this shouldn't be so bad. I replaced he HD in my Clamshell, and this looks somewhat similar to that. The key is you have to maintain a 'road map' as you take things out so if or when you have to go back together, you just follow your tracks out. When handling small screws and compnents, I use a piece of cardboard about the size of a phone book. I start in one corner, work down then up, etc. You can push the screws into the cardboard so that they dont roll around or get lost. Can anyone answer this question:

If I backup my entire computer thru TimeMachine, then install the new HD, can I reinstall the OS and all my files using that backup? I'm not entirely familiar with TimeMachine.

Thanks
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romeosc
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May 30, 2009, 08:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by DmbShn41 View Post
Started the 'process' this morning...When I bought the G4, the kid had installed Leopard, it ran great. He was even nice enough to give me a 'copy' of Leopard if I ever needed it. Well, I decided this morning to activate TimeMachine and backup to my EHD. Found out you have to wipe your EHD in order to use Leopard. Do you know how long it takes to transfer 164 GB of live quality music thru USB to my iMac? SO I did that, and now I'm waiting for TimeMachine to complete the initial backup of 712,085(21.2GB) files off the factory 30GB in the iBook. I've read the iFixit instructions 100 times, backwards too. I feel confident enough I can do this. I've done harder things in larger spaces with live electricity, so this shouldn't be so bad. I replaced he HD in my Clamshell, and this looks somewhat similar to that. The key is you have to maintain a 'road map' as you take things out so if or when you have to go back together, you just follow your tracks out. When handling small screws and compnents, I use a piece of cardboard about the size of a phone book. I start in one corner, work down then up, etc. You can push the screws into the cardboard so that they dont roll around or get lost. Can anyone answer this question:

If I backup my entire computer thru TimeMachine, then install the new HD, can I reinstall the OS and all my files using that backup? I'm not entirely familiar with TimeMachine.

Thanks
Your better to clone the drive using superduper or Carbon Cloner, if you have an external drive case. Then when you swap drives.... it boots and you already have another bootable Harddrive!
     
Simon
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May 31, 2009, 04:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by romeosc View Post
Your better to clone the drive using superduper or Carbon Cloner, if you have an external drive case.
Forget about that. There's no need for third-party solutions and their issues when it comes to cloning.

It's all built right into OS X. /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility > Restore.
Select erase destination to get a bootable clone in block-copy mode (fast!).

Also, if you already have a TM backup there's no need to clone when you migrate. The poster you replied to had the right idea.
( Last edited by Simon; May 31, 2009 at 06:26 AM. )
     
Simon
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May 31, 2009, 04:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by DmbShn41 View Post
If I backup my entire computer thru TimeMachine, then install the new HD, can I reinstall the OS and all my files using that backup? I'm not entirely familiar with TimeMachine.
Yes, that's exactly the way you're intended to do it.

You boot off the install DVD, launch Migration Assistant from the Utilities menu, and select migrate from TM.
     
DmbShn41  (op)
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May 31, 2009, 12:03 PM
 
Swapped HD this morning, took less than an hour to teardown and complete. Not bad as I expected, but def a lot of small screws, like 15 in the main shield under upper case. Powered up, got the flashing ? so that is promising, at least I didn't mess up any connections. I put in my bootleg Leopard disc, labeled 'Stripped Leopard' and its whirling and turnng. Thanks Simon, that makes me feel a whole lot easier.
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DmbShn41  (op)
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May 31, 2009, 02:37 PM
 
For whatever reason, my bootleg disc won't work. So I installed 10.4.1, and as soon as the install completed, I ejected the 10.4 disc, put my bootleg disc in, opened up install file, restarted computer off that disc, and then clicked restore from time machine, using my previous backup. Currently backing up now, hopefully this may be work. If so, it would be rather weird that way.
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DmbShn41  (op)
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May 31, 2009, 04:30 PM
 
So I'm on the iBook now. The funny thing is, I'm running 10.5.6. Here's how. Hopefully someone can explain: I replaced the HD with a 120GB, after swap tried to boot off bootleg Leopard DVD. Wouldn't work cause the DVD couldn't confirm its contents. So I loaded 10.4.1. Immediately after that finished, I put in the bootleg Leopard DVD, rebooted computer off that. Instead of installing, I used that disc to access the 'Restore from Time Machine' option. It transfered all 22GB off my EHD, and when I restarted the computer, I had exactly what I did yesterday, with 90 extra GB on the HD, plus 10.5.6. I was wondering if someone could help me understand how that happened in case I have issues in the future. Thanks for all the help.
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Simon
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May 31, 2009, 04:44 PM
 
You could have booted off the Leopard DVD, gone straight to the Utilities menu, and chosen to restore from TM. There's no need to run the installer at all if you have the TM backup.
     
Eriamjh
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May 31, 2009, 04:57 PM
 
Originally Posted by DmbShn41 View Post
Found out you have to wipe your EHD in order to use Leopard.
Well, that's not true. The retail version of leopard will perform an upgrade from Tiger or any other lower OS.

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DmbShn41  (op)
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May 31, 2009, 08:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post
Well, that's not true. The retail version of leopard will perform an upgrade from Tiger or any other lower OS.
I re-read that, what I meant is you have to wipe your external HD if you use TM for the first time.

Simon,
I wasn't aware of that feature. I wasn't sure that with the backup, it saved the majority of the system software it seems. I would assume that you would have to reload the system software, and then reload the backed files. Could I reload my backup onto my iMac, therefore putting Leopard on it?
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Simon
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Jun 1, 2009, 02:19 AM
 
That's the idea. TM is a complete backup. You can use it to migrate to a new installation, but you can also copy it back to an empty volume like you'd copy back a clone.
     
   
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