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| Replacement for PB150 hard drive? |
Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-08 20:09:08
About a month ago, my PB 150's hard drive died and I have been looking for a solution ever since. Do you guys know of any suitable hard drive replacements?
Also, how the heck do you take the drive out?
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Posted by: tomlee59 on 2008-03-08 20:18:21
You are in for a nice surprise. The PB150 accepts ordinary IDE drives, which means that it is trivial to put in a cheap, high-capacity drive from the PC world. A 1GB SCSI notebook drive is almost unheard of (and exceptionally expensive if you ever manage to find one), but a 1GB IDE drive is considered landfill material. Put a few gigs in that 150, and you can load it up with just about every 68k app you'd ever want.
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-08 20:48:02
Wow! Thanks! I actually have a 40 GB drive somewhere.
But how do you take the old hard drive off? It seems like it's soldered or something.
Also, the mechanism to pull out the drive cable is snapped of at one side. :'(
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Posted by: tomlee59 on 2008-03-08 21:34:45
It isn't soldered in, but it is screwed to a frame which in turn is screwed down. Take out the screws, and remove the connector. The release tab breaks off easily (as you've found), so connector removal takes a little work. Gentle prying with a utility knife will separate the pieces enough for you to get a small screwdriver in there. After that, it's duck soup pulling off the connector the rest of the way. Just work slowly and carefully.
A 40GB drive might be overkill (personally, I'd save it for a more powerful 'book). One issue that you will encounter is the need to partition it into smaller volumes, each less than 2GB in size to avoid problems (the actual limit could be larger than that, but obeying the 2GB rule will definitely work). Given that little annoyance, you might want to choose a somewhat smaller drive (which will still be huge for anything 68k-related).
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-09 08:25:36
Well, I really don't have another choice(since it's just lying around my dad's garage) I have some more appropriate drives(2.5 GB), but they are desktop hard drives. I will try going to Micro Center if they have any smaller drives.
I will also try what you said. Thanks! 🙂
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Posted by: bluekatt on 2008-03-09 09:40:33
i'll have a 20 gig hd kicking around very soon but even that is overkill i think
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-09 12:12:30
I'll be checking ebay too. Thanks for your help Tom and bluekatt!
EDIT: I found these🙁Sorry if the links are too long:if they are, someone can edit them)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-6-Gig-Hard-Drive-for-Laptop-Powerbook-Mk6014MAP_W0QQitemZ150223664242QQihZ005QQcategoryZ38118QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Internal-2-5-Laptop-Hard-Drives-2-1GB-Each_W0QQitemZ180221101184QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-10-1-08GB-1-44GB-LAPTOP-HARD-DRIVES_W0QQitemZ220210037502QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-PC-Laptop-2GB-Hard-Disk-Drive-DTNA-22160_W0QQitemZ180221971653QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/laptop-harddrive-fujitsu-4-gig-working_W0QQitemZ220210795312QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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Posted by: bluekatt on 2008-03-09 22:00:38
the 6 gig one is a bit over kill
link 2 and 3 are in my oinion the most interesting i'd go for those but that would be me
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-10 15:35:52
Alright thanks! Also, is there a possibility that the IDE controller could have died?
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Posted by: tomlee59 on 2008-03-10 15:47:34
Well, in the abstract, sure, the controller could've died. However, drives fail at a much higher rate by far, so in the absence of any other evidence, a failed hard drive would be the first thing to assume.
It's easy to grab a random old IDE drive of almost any capacity to test out whether or not the controller is still functioning. You could wait on buying a higher-capacity drive pending the outcome of that test.
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-10 18:14:36
I will certainly try everything you said, but I still need to free the drive from the 150's caddy.
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Posted by: beachycove on 2008-03-11 16:40:49
The PB150 is picky when it comes to installing a new hd. Be careful to read up on it, starting here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19644
There is a useful hobbyist article online somewhere re. the use of a CF card in the PB150, and which refers to the business of the ROM and the complications that come of this unusual setup.
I recently tried the procedures specified in the tech. article cited, using a (definitely working) 3 GB drive. I simply could not get it to work in the machine, no matter how hard I tried. This is pure speculation, but it may have been because the drive was larger than the 2 GB maximum allowable under 7.1, which is not only the stock system, but which is effectively embedded in the machine itself. In the end I gave up on it.
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Posted by: benjgvps on 2008-03-12 12:38:30
There is a useful hobbyist article online somewhere re. the use of a CF card in the PB150, and which refers to the business of the ROM and the complications that come of this unusual setup. http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/hardware/pb150/PB150_and_CompactFlash.html
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-12 16:00:28
Yes, I've read the article before.
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Posted by: benjgvps on 2008-03-12 16:11:23
I too want to upgrade the hard drive in my PowerBook 150, the hard drive in it works, I just want to get a bigger one in there as I have a lot on it. I think it would be possible to get a IDE to USE adapter, copy the files into an image, format new hard drive on the Mac and then copy files back onto the hard drive with the cable.
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-12 17:16:26
How big is your current HD?
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Posted by: benjgvps on 2008-03-13 16:16:30
120 MB, I have 50 MB free but if I had more space it would be getting full, plus its good to know I have the space.
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-13 16:24:39
I've been keeping an eye on any Quantum Daytona laptop drives since they seem to be similar to the one that comes with the PB 150, therefore not worrying about incompatability.
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Posted by: JRL on 2008-03-14 20:46:08
I have managed to get the HD connector out, but for some reason, one screw will get stuck and refuse to budge. > 🙁 It's the one under the HD cable.
Would I be able to use WD-40?
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