Powerbook 17" Hard Drive question/concern

Hi there.
Recently (last couple of weeks) - I've noticed that my trusty Powerbook's hard drive has begun to spin up way more than it ever did.
Sometimes it just winds up even if I'm only on the net.
I've run the disk utility & disk warrior - both say the system is OK.
I have a bad feeling about this...
I really want to wait until the next upgrade comes along before I upgrade - but is this a sign of bad things in the near future...?
Thanks,
SparkyCanada

First, are you sure it's the hard drive you are hearing and not the fan? My PB's fan spins up when the temp gets over ~130°F. I usually hear nothing from the hard drive and my PB is five years old.
If it is extra hard drive access you are hearing, check the amount of free space on your drive. When free space gets low, there will be more drive access as the OSX Virtual Memory (VM) routines seek usable drive space for swap files. See this article if your free space is low:
http://thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
I like to have a minimum of 15 percent off the drive free; more is better. You have plenty of RAM so that helps reduce VM swaps.
From the same site, review this article about the automated maintenance scripts in OSX:
http://thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html
If these have not run in a long time, things can slow. The same site has a nice overview of OSX maintenance:
http://thexlab.com/faqs/maintainingmacosx.html
that takes a very common sense approach.

Similar Messages

Upgrading 12" Powerbook G4 hard drive & OS X 10.5--please help?

So, I’ve decided I want to venture into upgrading my Powerbook G4 hard drive, RAM, and OS. Currently I have:
512 RAM
1.5 Ghz
80 GB 5400 HD
Mac OS X 10.4.11
What I would like to upgrade to:
1.25GB RAM (max)
1.5 Ghz
160-320GB 5400 (7200 if possible) HD
Mac OS X 10.5
Now here comes my questions. The RAM upgrade is straightforward. The HD upgrade seems simple enough when using tutorials on ifixit.com. I am wondering though, does the HD need to be ATA-100 or could it be ATA-133? Are DMA, Ultra DMA, UDMA, DMA-100, ATA, ATA-100, IDE, and EIDE all the same thing and all compatible with the 12" powerbook G4?
Assuming the hard drive speed is 5400 and I have RAM maxed out, are there performance differences between say a 160GB 5400 HD and a 320GB 5400 HD? Would it be better just to get the biggest HD that is compatible with my PB?
Also, FRYS.COM has "retail hard drive kits" and "bare HDs" What’s the difference between the two?
Finally:
Once I figure out which HD I want, I will have new: Hard Drive, RAM, and a Mac OS X 10.5 DVD Purchased from an Apple Store. I will install the RAM. Now I will be left with a HD and OSX 10.5 DVD...how do I get the new OS on the new HD?

The hard drive needs to be a parallel ATA 2.5" notebook hard drive. ATA-100 or ATA-133 or the others you listed don't matter. You cannot use a serial ATA or SATA hard drive, that's important. Here are two online stores and their parallel ATA drives available: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380%201035907 889&name=ATA-6 and http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ (Click on 2.5" ATA laptop drives).
You'll note there aren't any 7200rpm drives listed, as they aren't made anymore for the parallel ATA interface. Choose whatever size works for you, and if increasing the size, make sure you have capacity to backup the new, larger hard drive, as you fill it up.
You only need the bare hard drive. There can be a difference between a retail boxed version versus OEM, as the warranty can be different, but that's about it.
After you install the hard drive, you insert the first OS X disk in the system, boot holding the C key down (so the system boots from the disk), choose Disk Utility from the menu bar, and partition the drive. Once done, you can do the OS X installation. If you don't hold the C key down and the system wants to install OS X, after you tell it what language you want, as soon as a menu bar appears, then you can run Disk Utility.

PowerBook 12" Hard Drive Problem

Dear Apple Discussion people,
I have a serious problem and I am hoping you may help me.
My PowerBook's hard drive is not functioning any more. I was uploading images via iPhoto when the computer crashed. After the crash, I restarted the machine but the boot-up process got stuck at the grey Apple screen with the spinning wheel. I was on a lenghty trip at that time and didn't have my OS CD's with me. I tried to restart several times, but to no avail.
I then went to the next Apple Store and after receiving permission, hooked up the PB in target disk mode to one of their machines, ran disk utility, which repaired some issues on the drive and upon running it a second time stated that no errors were there. I was happy, shut down my PB, and left the store. Outside, I rebooted and everything went fine. I intended to back the data up to my iPod later and closed the lid.
A couple of hours later, I opened the lid again when the PB chrashed once again. I then didn't touch it for about two weeks.
Upon my return from the trip today, I hooked the PB up to my office PowerMac (again in target disk mode). This time, the PB didn't even mount on the PowerMac. I used my Tiger DVD to boot from the DVD and then ran disk utility. I successfully located the hard drive in the PB, I clicked on repair disk, and Disk Utility went to work. It finished and stated that there were no errors. I ran it again, just to be sure, but again, no errors.
I did, however, notice that in the list of drives in disk utility, it appears that the hard drive did not mount.
So, I am really at a loss. Most of the data is not that important (I have backups), but my iPhoto library is vital - and my last backup is about 6 months old. I had more recent backups on my old iPod's hard drive, but it got stolen. So no luck retrieving those backups.
I really hope you guys can give me some light at the end of the tunnel. Also, does anyone know how much a data recovery by a professional would cost for a 60 GB hard drive? (Just in case that's my only option.)
Thanks in advance!
PB G4, 12" Mac OS X (10.4.3)
PB G4, 12" Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Welcome to Apple Discussions, macopoly.
Sorry, but it sounds like the hard drive in your PowerBook is either failing or has already failed. I'm not hopeful that you will be able to recover the drive (or data) without help from a professional data recovery service.
That said, have you tried running Disk Warrior or Data Rescue from their respective startup CDs (instead of using FireWire Target Disk Mode)?
15 1.25G/12 1G PBs, Mac minis, iBooks G3/G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3) Cube, TAMs, iPods 2G/4G, iPs, AEBS, AX

K8T Master 2 FAR; Hard Drive Questions About

Greetings!
I just got off the Google bus and stubbed my toe on your doorstep. What luck!
I have many questions, and it's getting harder to find answers for a mainboard that's not being sold "new" anymore. I did see some other topics that go along lines similar to my own, but I figured it would be a good idea to open a new thread with my specific questions.
I have decided to split my questions into three parts. This is part one, "hard drive" questions.
HARD DRIVE RELATED:
Western Digital recently announced a new high-capacity SATA Raptor drive, with 150 GB of storage:
1) Can I mount two of them into my K8T Master 2 FAR system and "hardware stripe" them for Windows/XP?
....1A) If yes, is there a minimum recommended BIOS that I should be running?
....1B) If no, then would it be feasibile to "software stripe" them in Windows/XP Pro?
If I decide to proceed, I will be well-prepared to accept the risk of data loss that would occur if one drive were to crash.
I currently run my system with a removable SATA drive caddy for my system drive. This makes it easy to swap OS's by swapping hard drives without opening my CPU case. If I go with a dual-striped SATA drive arrangement and two Raptors, then I'll replace that removable caddy with a unit that can accomodate two SATA drives.
....1C) Once in a blue moon, I get a BSOD after having swapped SATA drives. It happens when I first boot Windows/XP after having run Linux. Hot-swappable claims notwithstanding, I always swap drives while the system is powered down, although I don't typically shut off the hardware switch at the power power supply. Are there any known issues or reports of other people having similar occurrences?
I also run some IDE devices for data and archival purposes. My system is typically set up as follows:
CH 0/0 - Data drive
CH 0/1 - DVD burner
CH 1/0 - Data drive
CH 1/1 - Data drive
Recently, my system stopped "seeing" any hard drives on CH 1 drive 1. Known good drives won't show up in the BIOS, and auto-detect doesn't "see" a drive in that position. I have tried more than one drive, and the problem stays on that channel and position. I swapped cables with a known good cable, and the problem stays on that channel and position. For the time being, I have disconnected one of the data drives...but I'd really like to resolve this issue if possible.
....1D) Are there any known problems or issues with "disappearing IDE devices" in the K8T Master 2 FAR?
Thanks in advance!

Can't say, this is the first time I hear about SATA caddies....
Maybe a bad contact or so?
Sata is pretty sensitive to connection problems, or even folded cables for that matter...

Slow Powerbook - failing hard drive, or worse?

Hi folks,
I've been scouring the net for solutions to this for the past couple of days now, and now I'm fed up enough to ask for help if anyone could care to offer it.
I've had my PB G4 (running 10.3.9) for two wonderful and (up until this week) problem-free years - not a single hiccup or crash since taking it out of the box!
About five days ago, it gradually started to slow down out of the blue. At first I thought it was something hogging CPU cycles, but looking through Activity Monitor didn't show anything out of the ordinary. As the days passed, I noticed that it has been starting up slower and slower, and even lags considerably when running the most pedestrian of tasks. On some occasions, it will appear fine for about an hour or two; sometimes, the whole thing will lock up or I will get the "pinwheel" cursor for so long that the whole OS becomes unusable.
My search for answers seem to indicate that my hard drive is failing; a subsequent run of Disk Utility hasn't shown anything out of the ordinary, but I went ahead and (slowly) repaired permissions, cleaned out logs/caches myself, ran OnyX, etc, but none of these seem to have done any good. (I've also tried resetting the PMU, but to similar results)
It doesn't seem to be rooted with anything in terms of RAM installation issues (it's stayed at the built-in 256mb this whole time), but I wouldn't rule that out, either.
Two peculiar details that I should probably mention: I inadvertently discovered that, occasionally, tilting the computer back for a moment will speed things up just a bit. This is where I'm beginning to think that there is a physical problem with the drive itself. (As a footnote to this, the computer has never been dropped and stays on a desk all day)
Secondly, I've started to hear a very faint beep or two come from the machine. It doesn't seem to be coming from the speakers; I've experimented with it to see if it's something I'm doing that's causing it, but I haven't been able to pin it down.
So, to cut this short, fearing the worst, I've gone ahead and backed up all of my data onto an external drive. I'm considering doing a clean re-installation of Panther to see what that does, but any information or suggestions beyond this that someone could offer me would be greatly appreciated.
Powerbook G4 (12 inch) Mac OS X (10.3.9)
Powerbook G4 (12 inch) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

fukei:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Your computer may or may not have HDD problems. Indeed there could a number of things causing the symptoms you (your PBook) is/are experiencing.
You have made a good start backing up your data. I am not sure how or what you did, but one of the best ways is to clone the entire volume to an external Firewire HDD using a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Be sure you make a bootable clone so that it can be used as an emergency boot drive, or to run tests on your computer without having to boot from disks.
Next, OS X maintenance. I don't know what kind of regular maintenance you do, but if you have not been doing Unix maintenance (CRON cleaning) that could be partly what is slowing you up. Gulliver's ariticle Mac OS X System Maintenance has excellent tips of the kind of maintenace that will help your mac. He also has links to resources, most of them free, that can make a difference for you. In addition you should check out Dr. Smoke's FAQ Tuning Mac OS X Performance for helpful hints on tuning up your mac.
O, yes, your HDD. Boot from your install disk and launch Disk Utility as when you run Repair Disk. With your HDD (manufacturer's ID) selected in the left panel look down at the bottom right at the S.M.A.R.T Status. If it says Verified your HDD is ok for now. If it says Failing update your backup and start searching for a replacement HDD. Be sure to buy the largest capacity one you can afford, as these things have a way of filling up.
Re-install? That is always an option, but should be considered an avenue of last resort. Try the other things first and see how it goes. And do post back and let me know how it's going, and especially if you have further questions, comments or concerns.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

Internal vs External hard drive question???

I have a very basic question about OSX and its treatment of drives...
If I have an external drive (either firewire or SATA using an Express34 card) and I select it, at boot time, as the boot drive, does OSX really treat this drive as if it were the internal drive or is there some underlying difference?
Is there a difference between an external firewire and an external SATA drive (other than the I/O speed)?
What I'm getting at is this. I want the ability, using the 'opt+cmd' (or whatever the key seq is) option, at boot time, to select either the internal drive or an external drive to be "THE" drive, as far as OSX is concerned.
Asuming that both drives have at least a bootable OSX partition, I'd like for the external drive to have OSX AND maybe another partition for maybe Windows or Linux.
At boot time if I select the external drive as the boot drive will it act like the internal drive and allow me to install a BootCamp partition? Can I manuly repartition it (while its a secondary drive usng iPartition perhaps)? Can I install a boot loader that will allow me to select an OS after initially selecting the external drive with the 'opt+cmd' option?
I'm looking for the ability to basicaly select different drives as the "internal" drive, much like you would using the jumper and/or cable selects in a Mac Pro or even a PC based system.
Is this even possible? id it is, is it possible with firewire or express34 card driven SATA drives?
Sorry if this is confusing, I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what i want to do...
Thanks in dvance,
Peter

Yes. One cool thing to do is create a bootable backup on an external drive, and use it for OS/upgrade testing - think Leopard. To me this is one huge advantage over Windows systems. You can back up the hard drive and prove it works. Also allows for faster recovery of not only data, but installed applications and settings. I always create a fresh backup to my external FW drive before going on trips.
MacBook Pro 17" 2.16GHz / 2GB / 120GB Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Itunes & external hard drive questions "original file could not be found"

I recently got my first apple, a Powerbook G4, and I am trying to figure out how to store and access my music files that are on my external hard drive. I have some music stored on my laptop and the majority of it on the hard drive. I can play the files on my computer's hard drive(itunes finds them), but the files on the external hard drive will not play, unless i seek it out manually. The message says "the song could not be played because the original file couldn't be found. Would u like to locate it" My question is how to get the files in my library to play when they are stored on my external hard drive. Any advice would be appreciated.

There's something missing in your explanation. If you're getting the "original file..." message, that would indicate that you may have had all your music files on your laptop drive at one point and them moved some of them to the external drive without using the proper procedure.
If you don't have a lot of playlists, star ratings, and that sort of information that you're trying to preserve, then Mike's suggestion is an easy way out. If you do have a lot of that kind of information, then you may need to see if you can restore your setup to its former condition, when it was all working, and then use proper procedures to move files to the external drive or whatever it was that you were trying to do.

Backup methods and external hard drive questions

I usually copy files and photos to DVDs but wonder if that's enough and the most efficient method to back up. So I purchased a Seagate 1TB external hard drive. Here are my questions:
- What is the best way to copy all my data to this hard drive?
- Is it necessary to copy everything?
- Is it possible to partition the external hard drive?
- Is it possible to use this hard drive to copy data from more than one computer, for instance, my powerbook and a PC laptop? If so, how?
Any information on this would be so appreciated!

Here are some suggestions for backup:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
Silver Keeper
SuperDuper!
Synchronize Pro! X
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
You can partition the drive if you need to, but that will depend upon why you would need to partition the drive.
Personally, I would clone your startup volume to the external drive. You can do this with any of the referenced software as well as by using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can then incrementally update the clone using a backup utility.
It would be possible to backup more than one computer in which case you would need to partition the drive. Backing up a Windows machine, however, would require partitioning the drive using MBR and formatting it FAT32 (MSDOS).
For clarification do you really have a PowerBook (PPC machine) or a MacBook (Intel?)

Powerbook G4 Hard Drive Unrecognized

Hello,
My 15" aluminum Powerbook G4 just froze up, so I had to force a restart. After I did, my laptop sounded the startup chime, but then displayed a folder with a flashing question mark. Knowing that I had a problem with my startup drive on my hands, I restarted using the Tiger Install DVD as the startup disk. When I went to find my hard drive using disk utility, it did not appear in the menu. I proceeded to open my laptop to make sure that there were no connection issues, which there weren't. I know that I have an issue with my main hard drive to deal with. My question is simply this: is there anything that I can do to retrieve data on the drive (short of paying a small fortune) or am I simply SOL?
Thanks in advance for any help provided.
Matt

So...if I try FW-TDM and nothing shows up on the host computer and the target computer's screen remains black, I'm assuming that I should just accept the inevitable worse-case scenario?
Possibly. There is an outside chance that you may be able to salvage some of your data with DataRescue 3. You can download the demo version and see if it is able to locate any of your files. If it does you will need to purchase the license to be able to rescue your data. You will find helpful suggestions in Dr. Smoke's FAQ Data Recovery.
Good luck.
cornelius

Solid-state hard drive questions....

Hi, I'm going to get a new Macbook Pro soon to replace my archaic 17" wobbley screened Powerbook and I'm having some dilemmas about picking the hard drive. So heres a few solid-state questions I was hoping you could answer:
How much faster is solid state than disk (disc?), for example I run Flash and Photoshop alot. If a go for 8gb of ram and 3.somthing processor, will there be a noticeable difference in the speed of these apps opening/running if the hard drive is solid state?
and...
If I go for normal hard disk now, is it possible to upgrade the hard drive at a later date (doing it myself or through Apple) to a solid one?
It's an extra 600 quid that I could be spending on crisps, so is it worth the money?

While I can't comment on the speed I can comment on changing the internal drive. In short it's a 10-15 minute process. My recommendation would be to start with a traditional HD and see if it's performance is adequate before considering an upgrade. If not as mentioned the upgrade is extremely easy. In fact here is a video that shows it.

Hard Drive Question pls help

Okay my situation I am getting a MacBook for my graduation gift and im doing my research and I am customizing my MacBook through
http://www.colorwarepc.com/
and they offer a 160Gb Serial ATA hard drive rpm of 7200
but on the online store apple only offers hard drives at the 5400 rpm
now obviously rpm of 7200 is better and I don't mind forking the extra cash out for it either
now my questions
Why doesn't Apple offer hard drives at the 7200 rpm rate?
If I purchase a MacBook through Colorwarepc will the original Mac warrenty still excist?
And will the hard drive be a Apple made product, now I checked to see the make of the Hard drive on the Apple website and colorware website both are said to be Serial ATA... now I don't know if that is the maker or just some jargon
please help me
Thank you
Looking

There is no 7200 RPM 160 GB notebook hard drive. The fastest at that size is 5400 RPM. I think the drive you must be looking at is a full size drive for desktops. Notebook hard drives are mostly 5400 RPM although there are less expensive models that run at 4200 RPM. Only Seagate and Hitachi make a 7200 RPM notebook drive in a 100 GB capacity. The new 160 and 200 GB notebook drives are 5400 RPM. They are also pretty expensive.
Apple does not make hard drives. The hard drives in Apple computers come from different manufacturers. Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Fujitsu are the main suppliers.
Serial ATA is a type of interface not a drive maker. Intel Macs all use SATA drives.
As far as warranty is concerned the warranty is good as long as the retailer is an authorized Apple retailer and the computers they are selling are not gray market. Personally I know nothing about the company.
If you are a college student (currently enrolled) or your parents are elementary, secondary, or university faculty or staff you can purchase Apple products directly from Apple at an academic discount.
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Upgraded Hard Drive Question

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone can give me some feedback into my observations of the change in performance of my MacBook since I have upgraded the hard drive from the stock 60Gb 5200rpm to a Seagate 100Gb 7200rpm drive.
The MacBook is the 2Ghz Core Duo with 2Gb RAM bought last May. Before the upgrade the MacBook was near silent when using it lightly such as web surfing, word processing etc. The fan ran way less than 1500rpm.
Since upgrading however, the fan runs constantly between 1500rpm and 2000rpm. I must add that this really isn't a problem, the MacBook is still relatively quiet and certainly does not spoil user experience.
The other thing I have noticed is, and is more concerning, the MacBook does not perform well in terms of battery usage. I have 175 charge cycles-about 73% capacity and the battery rarely lasts longer than 2hours. It did last around 3 hours with slightly more capacity-75%.
Is the fan running at well above 1500rpm OK whilst using the machine 'lightly'? or might this be of concern?
Is the battery performance crippled when using the 7200rpm drive? or is the poor performance due to the battery capacity dipping below 75%?
I do realise that I can increase battery performance very slightly by 'conditioning' the battery and by simply not having the display so bright.
I ask these questions because I selected the Seagate drive due to good performance reports here on the discussion site and the favourable performance tests carried out by 'wiredbynature.org-macbook resource site' that concluded that the Seagate drive increased speed performance but only slightly increased heat, noise levels and battery life.
This is not my experience, especially battery consumption-has anyone got any comments on my observations?
Regards,
Richard

I've heard (but can't find it right now) that your 7200 drive will use about 25% more power than a 5400. Also the faster drive will be noiser, generating more heat and therefore increasing your fan speed (which again zaps the power). So putting these all together I think things are what you could expect with your drive.
I know that's no consolation, but most people look right away at the performance aspect ..."how much faster can I get my DVD ripped?" - rather than "how long can I watch my 3hr movie while disconnected from power".

Penryn hard drive question: what brand is in your MacBook Pro?

I am on my SECOND MacBook Pro in two weeks and both have had VERY noisy Hitachi hard drives. I have discovered through computer savy friends that Hitachi makes notoriously loud and clicky drives. I have a 250gig drive. Does ANYONE have a 250gig drive in their 15inch MacBook Pro that runs silent? What brand is it? All the rest of my macs (powerbook, macbook, iMac), you can't hear the drive ... but this one is a nightmare, you can hear it across the room. Help!
Thanks.

Hi Wolfsonca,
I have a Penryn MacBook Pro, the low end 15" 2.4 GHz, and only 200 GB hard disk. However, it is virtually silent. The nosiest piece is the DVD drive, and the model hard disk is FUJITSU MHY2200BH. Prior to replacing my MacBook with this MBP, I had put a Western Digital Scorpio mobile hard drive 250GB I purchased form Best Buy in it. That hard disk too, was silent. The only thing I was a little concerned with the Western Digital drive, is that Leopard did not recognize it as a NCQ capable drive. Good luck!
Rich

Powerbook external hard drive

With a recent hard drive failure in my Powerbook I have learned a hard lesson, my nice, relatively new external 160 GB USB iomega hard drive is not capable of being a bootable drive. So, when my internal drive failed, I could not boot up my powerbook in OS 10.3.9 but only in sys 9.2. I also learned that when in sys 9.2, I cannot use any of my files in sys 10.
NOW I know that I needed to purchase a FIREWIRE drive, not a USB drive!
So my question is which firewire external drive should I buy so I can have a bootable back up drive? To use the program 'SuperDuper' I was told to purchase my firewire drive from OWC to insure compatibility. I am looking at
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Classic Portable FireWire 800/400/USB 2.0 250 GB for $179
or the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Storage 250 GB Firewire 800/400/USB 2.0 for $158
I expect to upgrade to either Tiger or Leopard before Christmas.
Any suggestions? Anything else I don't know about that is going to come back to haunt me? I don't want to 'goof again' on this purchase of yet another external hard drive. Thanks.

The drives OWC sells are good. The drives you mention will work with your TiBook. But I like their miniStack drives. They are compact, and they double as a FireWire hub and USB hub. In the 250GB size, they currently have the "version 2" model on sale
http://eshop.macsales.com/item-specials/Newer%20Technology/MS2F7250G16/
It's on sale because OWC recently started selling "version 3." Note that version 2 is FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, while version 3 is FireWire 400 or 800 and USB 2.0 (plus eSATA). The drives you mentioned also seem to have FireWire 800. Your Titanium PowerBook only has FireWire 400, so the faster 800 capability would not be used (unless you later bought a new Mac with FireWire 800).
OWC also has empty miniStack kits. You may be able to open the Iomega case and move the drive (if it's a standard IDE drive) to another case that has FireWire.

PB 15" 1.33ghz Hard Drive Question

I ran the Apple Hardware tests on my laptop a few days back and received the, "2STF/4/3: ATA-100 ATA-6-Master" error code. Hypothesis: the hard drive won't mount and is loaded with errors = HD replacement. It isn't recognized even in disc utility. When the computer starts up, I get the grey apple screen, the little preloader, and a loud buzzing sound coming from just about .25" inch away from the right side of the trackpad. I don't think its the combo drive, because i can still load CD's in there like disk warrior and techtools everytime and they load up just fine. (The HD appears like 2% of the time on loading which leads me down the road of being right on my hypothesis)
My questions is "does this sound like a hard-drive replacement ceremony in the making?" If so, can i buy just any sized 2.5 inch notbook drive and put it in? Do these powerbooks only accept certain types of ATA? I'm a newbie when it comes to this and would just appreciate a straight answer or at least some direction on it.

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
You can replace your hard drive with a parallel ATA 2.5" notebook drive. You have two basic speeds available, well three but I wouldn't recommend the slowest: 5400rpm and 7200rpm. 7200rpm will provide snappier response from hard disk operations, carries a small price premium, and tops out at 100gb. 5400rpm drives top out around 160gb. Most drives have a 3 year warranty, however many Seagate drives now have a 5 year warranty.
One source with a good selection of hard drives is OWC. Note, the serial ATA drives at the top of the OWC page are for Intel-based notebooks only.

Powerbook 17" Hard Drive question/concern

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