Urgent... Internal Hard Drive Question

Greetings... I have an Ibook G4. I only have an internal hard drive of 30GB. I plan to upgrade this. Is is possible? Please give me a website where i can research more about this. thanks.

Greetings... I have an Ibook G4. I only have an
internal hard drive of 30GB. I plan to upgrade this.
Is is possible? Please give me a website where i can
research more about this. thanks.
I used this site to upgrade my PowerBook's internal hard drive.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/
iFelix

Similar Messages

Urgent iMac Hard drive question!

I have an 08 20" iMac with a bad hard drive. I am looking to replace it. Is there a list of compatible hard drives somewhere so I know what to look for? Also, I have a MacBook pro from the same year. Am I able to use the hard drive from the MacBook in the iMac? Any help is greatly appreciated! I am looking for something around 500GB. Also, does anyone have an idea how much it would be to have someone install it for me if I provided my own hard drive? The quote right now from an Apple retailer is $250 for the hard drive plus installation. I'm hoping to save a few bucks by providing my own.

Any SATA II 3.5" hard drive will work, you can navigate to www.macsales.comand see a fairly complete list of compatible hard drives. However as the previous poster mentioned working on an iMac is not recommended unless you are extremely comfortable working on notebook computers. Working on an iMac is not simple and it's easy to damage it beyond repair unless you know exactly what you're doing. I'd recommend taking the machine to your local AASP and have them do it.
Finally to answer your question regarding using your old MBP's HD, no that is a 2.5" HD and the iMacs use 3.5" HDs.

Boots to flashing question mark folder and disc utility cannot locate internal hard drive

Bottling my MacBook Pro I end up with a flashing question mark folder. I reboot holding the option key to select discs and there were no options at all. I plug in an Ethernet cable and it shows a internet recovery option. I click and it downloaded a temporary recovery mode. From there I open disc utility but it doesn't find any internal hard drives. I reset the pram and I still get the flashing question mark folder. Thinking it was my internal hard drive that failed I bought and replaced the internal hd with a new one and repeated all the processes and still no internal hard drive was found. I'm stuck with the flashing question mark folder. Therefore I've concluded that it was my MacBook pros internal hard drive CABLE that had failed. Does anyone know of any other possible problems that is causing this for my MacBook Pro or know of any solutions? Or is replacing my internal hd cable the only solution? Please help!

It was the internal HD cable. I replaced it and now my MacBook Pro works

I currently have a mbp with two internal hard drives ( took super drive out) which for a video editor like myself is a dream I can edit video anywhere, my question can I order a new mbp with 2 internal flash drives?

I currently have a mbp 2.3 gighuz intel core 7 16 gig of ram with two internal hard drives ( took super drive out) which for a video editor like myself is a dream I can edit video anywhere, my question can I order a new mbp with 2 internal flash drives?

I wouldn't think so because the newer ones with Retina displays don't have an internal SuperDrive that can be replaced. Therefore the newer logic boards wouldn't have the two SATA/SATA Express connections on the logic board.
At least that was the case as of 2012. I've seen newer ones and they also don't have a SuperDrive.

Questions about installing a large internal hard drive

Hello all,
I recently bought a Seagate 250GB internal hard drive for my Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics). I intend to install it alongside my old 20GB drive. I have a couple of questions about installing it:
• What kind of PCI card do I need in order to use the full capacity of the drive?
• I'm considering partitioning the drive and installing Debian Linux on one partition. Is it possible that Debian won't recognize the PCI card?
• Is it possible to connect (RAID?) the old and new drives together so that they appear as one big 270GB drive? Is this a good idea?
• What is the easiest way to copy the contents of my old drive onto the new one? I'd like an exact copy so that I don't have to reinstall the system and everything else; can Carbon Copy Cloner do that?
Thanks for any help and advice!
Power Mac G4 - AGP graphics Mac OS X (10.4.3) 768 MB RAM

• What kind of PCI card do I need in order to use the
full capacity of the drive?
If the drive is an SATA drive you need an SATA controller. If an IDE/ATA drive you need an IDE controller.
• I'm considering partitioning the drive and
installing Debian Linux on one partition. Is it
possible that Debian won't recognize the PCI card?
You should check the Hardware Compatibility List for Debian against your potential mac compatible purchases. You might also get some good information from Yellow Dog Linux compatibility lists.
• Is it possible to connect (RAID?) the old and new
drives together so that they appear as one big 270GB
drive? Is this a good idea?
If you want to stripe the 2 dives together your overall performance will be slowed down by the slower of the two drives. For example, If you have one 5400rpm drive and another 7200rpm drive, the RAID will be bogged down by the slower drive so you wont get the full benefit of the lower latencies of the 7200. You will still get some of the faster transfer times, just not the lower latencies.
Wether or not it's a good idea depends on your personal needs. Do you need a drive that can can move very large files to and from memory quickly (bandwidth) or a drive that can locate and serve up the files quickly (latency)?
• What is the easiest way to copy the contents of my
old drive onto the new one? I'd like an exact copy
so that I don't have to reinstall the system and
everything else; can Carbon Copy Cloner do that?
CCC should work fine for you. You could also use the command line asr utility.

Internal to external hard drive questions (G4 iBook 10.3.9)

Hello All,
I have a G4 iBook that the internal hard drive has crashed. At the Apple store, they cannot get the drive to mount.... I have a friend that thinks he can get it to spin, and therefore thinks he can get any info that is not corrupted off the drive. That would be way cool!! He only wants me to bring him the drive, and is going to use a device that plugs into the drive just like it would in any computer, and at the other and it is USB on the end he will plug into his PC to make the transfer. Here comes where I need help. He is a PC guy, and knows nothing of Mac. If I buy an external hard drive will it need to be formatted HFS+ first in order to transfer any data that might still be good? I herd that most external drives come formatted in Fat32. Another thing is I would like to use this external hard drive for both my Mac at home, and a PC at work. i have herd that fat32 will work for both, but have herd some people having trouble with backing up a mac on a fat 32 partition.
If anyone has any other ideas of how to get what ever is left on my drive so that I can recover it, and also how I can use an external HD for mac and pc (although not simaltaniously)that would be cool.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Thanks,
Sean

I have encountered no problems with fat32 formatted drives. I format my flash drives the same way too. For backing up files or using the drives for file transfer between a Mac and a PC it's very convenient. You can't use a fat32 formatted drive for cloning PPC Mac hard drives. Your friend may also find he can't access the hard drive through a Windoze computer.

Questioning about Partitioning a new Internal Hard Drive

I just bought a new Internal Hard Drive, Western Digital Caviar, 500 GB. I am trying to Partition the Drive but, there is a pull down menu which I am not sure what to select.
On "Volume Scheme, I selected 1 Partition from the menu, BUT, what do I select on "Format"?
It gives me these options:
1. Mac OS Extended (journaled)
2. Mac OS Extended
3. Mac OS Extended (case sensitive, Journaled)
4. Mac OS Extended (case sensitive)
5. Mac OS Extended
Free-Space
I am not sure what to choose here, IF I have to chose anything. All I need is another HD where I will have music samples on it.
Any help would be appreciate it.

For normal purposes, use Mac OS Extended (journaled)

Internal Hard Drives Disappeared, Finder Memory Problem

Hello Helpful Folks,
I recently installed an addional internal Hard Drive, and an additional 1GB SDRAM. This worked great for a day, but the next morning, after powering up, system was extremely sluggish, and after much deadline-induced impatient problem solving, has gone from bad to worse (system refuses to acknowledge existence of internal Hard Drives). I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but as
the devil is in the details, I figure too much info is better than not enough.
Following is a breakdown of my system: AS IT LAST WORKED; RECENT UPGRADES; and MY LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE. Please don't interpret my all caps as shouting, just trying to organize this post for better clarity.
System is dedicated to Video Editing with FCP 3, running under OS 9.2.2. System is "off the Grid", i.e. no network, no internet, no printer, no gaming devices. System was purchased new in July 2001, by a friend. At one point I know this system had an Airport card, which was removed prior to my purchase in 2003. I can't remember what else it may have had installed in its history, but here's what it has now:
SYSTEM AS IT LAST WORKED:
**bold items are upgrades Original Owner or I installed with no apparent problems**
Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" 2001
867 PowerPC G4, 256 L2, 2MB L3
-1 Stick "ValueRAM - KVR 133 x 64 C3/512" in PC 133 DIMM slot **
- "Virtual Memory" was turned off years ago due to conflict with FCP 3
-2 empty DIMM slots
-1 60 GB internal HD (Maxtor Ultra ATA/100), 1 partition, formatted HFS+, jumpered as "Master" on Internal ATA 2 ID=0 (which as I understand it is ATA/66 speed)
-1 Pioneer "Superdrive" DVD-R/W/CD-R/W on Internal ATA 0 ID=0
-NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM in AGP Slot, feeding a 17" Apple Studio Display.
-PCI Display Card "formacGA7" - not attached to any external device, not sure what its intended purpose is.**
-3 Empty PCI Slots
-OEM Keyboard attached to Monitor's rear USB port.
-Microsoft 3 Button Wheel mouse with "IntelliEye" (wheel is 3rd Button) connected to Keyboard USB port (right side).**
-2 OEM FireWire (400) ports
-2 OEM USB (1) ports
Peripherals that have worked in various configurations with this system over the past 3 years:
-3 OWC Mercury Elite ("Oxford Chipset") Externally powered, External FireWire(400) 200GB Hard Drives, 1 partition each, formatted HFS+, daisy-chained to either of the FireWire ports.
-1 Canon GL1 MiniDV camera, attached either to the other FireWire port, or to the last drive in the chain, depending on my urgency/laziness factor. BTW, FCP 3 has worked flawlessly controlling this Cam for logging and Batch Capturing.
Applications on System Hard Drive that I have OEM CDs for:
-OS 9.2 - (I think I remember that OS X was removed from system due to conflicts shortly after original purchase)
-FCP 3
-DiskWarrior (version unknown, purchased from Alsoft in 2003)
-OWC Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools ver 3.5
Other CDs I have:
OEM CDs for Power Mac G4:
-Software Install, OS 9.2, CD vers 1
-Software Install, OS 10.0.4, CD vers 1
-Software Restore, OS 9.2 & 10.0.4 CDs vers 1, Discs 1-4 of 4.
-OEM Apple Hardware Test; Power Mac G4, SW vers 1.2.1
Applications on system Hard Drive that I don't have CDs for, that I rarely use, but I'd like to keep:
-After Effects 5.0
-QuickTime Player 6.0.2
-Toast Audio Extractor 1.1
-Toast Titanium 5.0.2
Applications on system Hard Drive I use if my wife is busy on our Windows XP machine:
-Photshop 6.0
-Microsoft Word & Excel
# of other Applications on System Hard Drive I either don't use or may be integral to the system: 260
# of Control Panels:
-Enabled: 34
-Disabled: 0
# of Extensions:
-Enabled: 174
-Disabled: 0
note: a number of the applications and extensions are for AOL, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money and the like, as well as other things I don't use (Airport, USB printers, Networking, etc.)
Smart things I did:
-Regularly made backup copies of my FCP projects to the external drives.
-Bought a copy of MacDrive so I can see what's on my External Drives on the XP machine.
-Printed out System Profile before I installed upgrades.
-Thoroughly searched this discussion board for and gathered as much info as I could before upgrading.
Dumb things I did:
-Made a copy, but not a clone, of my System Folder to one of the external drives when I first got it.
-Didn't keep any sort of separate log of what's on the External Drives.
-Never ran any sort of Disk Maintenance, even after one of the Externals crashed (DiskWarrior saved my butt on that).
-Ignored some of the advice on this discussion board.
Really dumb thing I did without even realizing it:
Captured all media for a rush job onto my internal system Hard Drive, as well as storing and using massive jpgs for the same job on that same drive...
Which led to painfully slow rendering times, and crashes caused by "Error: Out of Memory", which I interpreted as "Must buy more memory" and not "must make sure I'm not trying to edit media stored on system drive, especially with massive jpgs that I should reduce"
RECENT UPGRADES:
Here's what I did, and how I did it:
Turned off system, disconnected all External FireWire Devices, disconnected Monitor, opened case, touched various metal parts of case and power supply to discharge any Static, unplugged power cable.
-Installed 2 512MB sticks of "Lifetime" PC 133 SDRAM; total System RAM is now 1.5GB, all 3 DIMM slots now occupied.
-Installed 1 Maxtor "DiamondMax" Ultra ATA/133 100GB Hard Drive (8 MB buffer) as "Slave" (no jumper) in top of U-Carrier above System Hard Drive; attached to middle of original Apple ribbon cable, attached available power plug.
Taped spare jumper to inside of empty drive bay, noting origin and date. Did NOT push PMU button. Carefully closed case. Reconnected Monitor, did NOT reconnect any FireWire devices. Powered System on, but did NOT perform PRAM reset.
I don't remember the exact order of what happened next, but I think: System booted up normally, a window popped up saying a new drive had been found, would I like to intitialize it?, which I did as Mac OS extended, and then named. If I was instructed to restart, I did so, otherwise did not. Clicked on "about this Mac" and saw that it now showed 1.5GB RAM. I then went about moving Media/Render files off the System drive (and one of the Externals) onto the Internal Drive, with a combination of FCP's Media Manager, and dragging from the Finder. After files had copied, dragged Media/Render files from System Drive to Trash. Opened FCP project, had FCP re-link to new locations of missing files. Saved, closed, and re-opened project, set Capture/Scratch disc to new internal Drive. At some point I changed FCP's Memory Allocation from whatever it was to 512000KB Minimum, and 900000KB Prefered (and I hope I got all those zeroes right). Did NOT restart after changing Memory Allocation, unless a window popped up instructing me to do so, in which case I did. Re-opened my project, rendered a few thing at a noticeably increased speed, saved everything, emptied the Trash, shut everything down, and called it a night as it was 4:30 am.
A few hours later, I plugged the MiniDV and an External Drive into the FW ports and powered up the System. It was behaving extremely sluggishly. I would click on something, the pointer would turn into a wristwatch (sometimes with the minute-hand moving, sometimes not) and like an actual minute later, what I'd clicked on would open. All three drives were on the desktop, still had their files, and "About this Mac" still showed 1.5GB total Memory. So I powered down, disconnected the FW devices, waited a bit, and powered back up. Same sluggish response. I tried to open my FCP project file, and instead got a Window that said something to the effect of "The Application associated with this document could not be found". I think I tried to open FCP from the Applications folder on the System Drive and got the same message (I'd only had 3 hours sleep, no coffee, my client had died, and his family was coming for whatever I had in a few hours).
LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
Rebuild Desktop
PRAM Reset
Neither of those solved the problem, so I continued.
I tried restarting without extensions.
I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
I was finally able to boot from the OS 9.2 Software Install Disk, and actually saw both internal drives on the desktop, and the 1.5GB RAM in About this Mac. I tried to allocate more memory to Finder, but was informed that "Cannot Perform Requested Operation. This operation requires versions above 8.0".
I think at this point I decided that I must have too many extensions, and started disabling ones I thought irrelevent to my cause (mostly anything that said "AOL", "Airport", "Ethernet", "Printer", "Modem", "Speakable", and a couple things called "Open TPT".
It gets worse. Then I decided to turn off some "unnecessary" things via the control panels, but somehow managed to disable the control panels themselves: AppleTalk, DialAssist, File Sharing, Modem, Mouse (as I saw that Microsoft Mouse was among the others), Remote Access, Speech, USB Printer Sharing, and possibly TCP/IP.
That certainly didn't help anything (though upon restarting from the OS 9.2 Disc I was able to see the extensions and control panels in their respective "Disabled" folders in the System Folder). But I still wasn't able to get more Memory to Finder.
So, I decided a few more PRAM resets might help, which succeeded in making both Internal Hard Drives disappear. I tried booting up from the DiskWarrior disc, but even the Mighty DiskWarrior couldn't find the drives. I performed the longer, in depth version of the Apple Hardware Tools tests, which reported that everything's fine (including the new RAM), but made no mention of the Hard Drives at all. The deadline having long passed, I shut the system down. I read through more posts and tech articles, etc.
I searched my External drives with MacDrive on my XP, and found the drive that has the copy of my System Folder (which shows all extensions and control panels as enabled); not sure if the Quicksilver will boot from that, I don't know what the Keyboard command for booting from a FireWire drive is (if there is one) and the drive itself only has 900MB of free space.
I can't find any reference to Internal ATA drives anywhere in the MacDrive documentation; if it was possible I'd put them into the XP, get the files off the Mac drives, reformat them and install OS9 from the Discs.
This is where I am now:
The Quick Silver is still powered down. I removed the Microsft mouse and replaced it with the OEM Apple mouse. I opened the case, and removed the PRAM/Backup battery (manufacture date: July 2001). Couldn't find my voltmeter, so took the bat to Radio Shack and bought a new one. Had the Radio Shack guy test the old one: it showed 3.69 volts still. Have not installed the new battery yet. The case is still open, waiting for any advice any of you might have to offer.
Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
Sincerely,
Patterson
Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867 Mac OS 9.2.x 17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

Thank you Rodney and John,
The jumpers are correct for both Maxtor Drives.
Rodney, you are correct in that the initial problem (slow rendering/"out of Memory" crashes) was caused by my not realizing I'd stupidly captured several GBs of media to my system drive, and not checking which drives those files were on (as I'd assumed I'd put them on one of my external media drives) once that problem presented itself.
Before I'd determined what I'd done, I bought the extra RAM. After I'd found the media files on the System Drive, and saw that my dedicated media drives were too full to easily move them, I decided to buy an additional Internal drive so that I could:
-Move the Media onto it relatively quickly and finish my urgent project.
-Juggle all my media into a more organized fashion for archiving (as most of my projects are on-going long-term affairs)
-Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
My guess is that the System Drive was terribly fragmented, having been subjected to intense use over the past 5 years without any sort of Drive Maintainence, and deleting that massive amount from it in one shot caused my extreme system sluggishness upon Startup the next day.
My subsequent lame attempts to solve the sluggishnes ultimately resulted in my losing access to both drives.
Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
It was trying for a few minutes (the gray screen went black at one point, and then returned to gray) before presenting me with the flashing question mark.
There was, however, a quiet but distinct "buzzing" sound that would alternate: 1 sec "buzz", one second silence, one second "buzz", one second silence, etc. coming from the drives, even after the "?" appeared.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power Cables from the new "Slave" drive, and powered up again, with the exact same results.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
Cheers,
Patterson

Installing internal hard drive on an old iMac

I am an absolute novice when it comes to taking apart a computer and know nothing about any technical terms or parts. I was able to install a new battery when the original died, so when the "genius" at the Apple Store said I could install an additional internal hard drive, I gave it a whirl. Before I try to return the hard drive, I thought I would give this a shot.
My iMac is a 400 MHz PowerPC G3, one of the early generations, if the not the first (see-through cobalt blue exterier). I am running with 256 MB of memory and the CPU type is PowerPC 750 (83.0). I have Mac OS X Tiger, version 10.4.6 and this machine had been working great until we recently purchased our first iPod. Now with all the music being loaded in iTunes, the iMac has slowed down and even frozen when trying to use a few applications at once.
I figured I needed more hard drive space and/or memory and the people at the Apple store suggested I purchase a Seagate 80 GB Barracuda and install it myself.
Well, I got the computer apart and found the old hard drive, but that is about as far as I can go. I read about making the new hard drive the "slave" hooking up the BLUE, BLACK and GRAY connectors on the new cable, but I don't know a motherboard from a jumpdrive and the new connectors do not match up with the old one (the Blue connector is not the same size as the old one that I think was going into the motherboard). There is also something about an unused power cable in the old computer for the new hard drive, (which I did not see) and a suggestion that I get a Y-shaped power cable from an electronics store, which even if I knew what it was, I would not know where to begin connecting it. Not only does the new connector not match up, it is about 10 times as long as the old one, which leads me to the final issue: if I could get this all hooked up and power-supplied, where in the world would I put the new, additional hard drive? There is no room I can see adjacent to the current hard drive. Do I have to take the thing further apart?
I realize this may provide a great laugh for anyone who knows how all this works. If trying to walk someone through this process using Apple Discussions does not make sense, I completely understand. I had nothing to lose (except possibly the cost of the Seagate drive if they won't take it back).
I was able to put everything back together after taking the old hard drive out, so I think I could do this if the parts were all there and matched up....but I would still need to know where to put the new drive!
Any suggestions are appreciated. I have already resigned myself to the fact I may just need a more expensive external drive...I just have few available ports.
Thanks,
Conrad Farner

"...when the "genius" at the Apple Store said I could install an additional internal hard drive, I gave it a whirl... if I could get this all hooked up and power-supplied, where in the world would I put the new, additional hard drive?"
Your iMac has room for one hard drive and the optical drive (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, etc.). Any ribbon cable supplied with the hard drive or a Y-splitter power cable is of no use in the iMac. The new drive must replace the original, because the two can't coexist internally. Additionally, you need to configure the new Seagate as "master," since the optical drive is "slave." Refer to Seagate's accompanying documentation, for instructions on setting the small jumper(s) to designate the drive as "master." The drive may have been factory-configured for "cable select," which isn't supported in your iMac. After you get that straightened out, you'll need to boot the computer from the Tiger installer CD and use "Disk Utility" to format the new drive as a Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volume. You may also want to partition it as well.
Incidentally, you should post any future questions about your iMac in the Forum dedicated to the CRT-style iMacs. You'll receive informative answers to any questions that you might have, from those who are thoroughly familiar with your model iMac.

PLEASE HELP me select new internal hard drive for Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina)

Good afternoon.
I just bought a Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina) 15 inch from a friend. I think it is running Mountain Lion (has not been upgraded to Mavericks yet), and has iLife on it. It came with the stock 500 gb 5400 rpm internal hard drive. At home, I only have the Snow Leopard OS installation Cds and a copy of iLife 2011 installation Cds. I am going to buy 16 gb of RAM from Other World Computing to install.
I want to replace the hard drive with a 1 tb hard drive, preferably something that is $100 or less.
I talked to Other World Computing (OWC) and looked at the Data Doubler Option to replace the optical drive with a Solid State drive, but decided that for now I want to keep the optical drive inside the computer for portability issues.
I know that Solid State drives are better, but they are still too small, and I want the ease and portability of a 1 tb size INSIDE my computer.
Initially I was going to order this from Other World Computing: 1.0TB 2.5" HGST Travelstar 7K1000 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 9.5mm Notebook Drive 32MB Cache. *'New' Factory Replacement with 2+ Year HGST Warranty*    As of April 4, 2014 it's on sale for $79
But then I started reading some of the discussions online and thought maybe I should get a hybrid solid state drive?
I saw on Amazon the Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch ST1000LM014 It's on sale for $94.
But according to some reviews, this Seagate has a platter that is only 5400rpm, unlike the previous Seagate Momentum that has a platter speed of 7200rpm.
How reliable are the Seagate, versus a Toshiba or Western Digital or Hitachi or something else?
Here are my questions about replacing the hard drive:
1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
I would love to get some recommendations about the smartest option to upgrade my hard drive with something that will be fast (I edit lots of photos) and large (1 tb) that isn't going to cost too much. I don't know much about the different brands or options (and there are so many listed in tons of online reviews), that I got really overwhelmed and confused by the info out there.
I would really appreciate any help and advice. I've never switched out a hard drive before.
PLEASE HELP !!! Thanks!
Here is the "About this Mac" Info:
Macbook Pro 15-in Mid 2012
Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS x 10.8.5
Storage (Hard drive): APPLE HDD ST500LM012 Media, Rotational, SATA, GPT (GUID Partition Table)

1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
The boot drive, regardless of what it is, needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This is standard with OS X.
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
There are arguments pro and con. Bottom line, SSD's and hybrid drives are still quite expensive per GB than standard hard drives. If you have the bucks and are a speed demon, go ahead.   I have better use for my money.   Standard hard drives are mechanical and may wear out over time. But even though SSDs are not mechancial, they can still go bad and ultimately they even have a limit to their write capacity. The jury is still out on this debate.
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
No
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
You can physically put the hard drive in but probably not install Snow Leopard on this MBP.
The mid-2012 MacBookPro9,1 models came with Lion 10.7.3 (11D2097) preinstalled.   It is very unlikely you would be able to install Snow Leopard on it. Historically you cannot install a version of OS X that is earlier than the version that came with your Mac (even if you replace the hard drive).
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
Not via Snow Leopard on this MBP. See my response to #4.
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
No. They are completely independent of each other; they are just independent storage units (drives) and their RAM does not interact.

Internal Hard Drive replacement issue?

Hi,
Last night, I upgraded my internal hard drive from 20Gig to 80Gig, and I added a DVD ROM drive so I can watch movies (instead of playing CD's only). I ran the hardware test disc and everything passed.
In addition, last week, I installed 512MB of additional RAM. The physical installations of everything was really a lot easier than people in the forum would have you believe, but Pismos are definitely easier and a lot more user friendly when it comes to upgrading.
The problem is I don't have any iBook installation discs. I DO have the 4 original restore discs, but when I attempt to do a restore, the restore option is grayed out and inaccessible. The eject and switch disc option only shuffle between image and disc. The HD icon won't come up. Startup without the restore discs only boots up to the question mark.
Obviously, I didn't know that I was supposed to back up the original 20Gig drive before removing it. I guess I can put it back in, back it up, and take it out again. My question is, before I remove the 80Gig and reinstall the 20gig, does anyone know of another option to get the restore option to not be grayed out?
If not, then I have another question. How can I back up the original iBook drive on my Pismo's external 300 Gig Firewire Seagate without destroying all the data I've backed up from the Pismo.
It is partitioned into 2, but one of them is only 10Gigs large as a mirror of 1 of my Pismo's 10Gig HD? If it isn't possible, then I guess I can destroy everything on my Seagate and reinstall it again when I'm done upgrading the iBook. I would rather not do that though.
Thank you in advance for any ideas you may have on the subject,
A Little Fish in the BigMac Pond

Check Apple's Knowledge Base article on restoring your Apple software for links to the proper instructions for your model (which depends upon which software came with it). Most likely, the Restore discs are not startup CD's, so you can't use them until OS X is installed on the computer.
You need the installation disc to initialize the drive and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I haven't used it, but DiskStudio is supposed to allow you to partition without erasing the hard drive.

How do I move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac?

My question is pretty straightforward: How do I—or can I—move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac Pro desktop?

I'll let baltwo come in with a definitive answer, but the last time I just made a clone, CCC used Disk Utility to create a recovery partition on an external drive's partition. You get these windows successively (and it did create it with a message that it was successful):

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help!

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help! Thank you!
I've also been getting an image with the folder and question mark. I've tried everything on the apple support page but it doesn't seem to work either.

Well, I tried all of your suggestions and they didn't work -- no surprise because I was trying to backup to my external c.d. disk. Duh! The application for the home is in the mail.

Internal hard drive- can it be used as an external hard drive???

Well, this may be ranked right up there with dumb stupid questions but I have to ask. My sons both have iMacs- one has a new 80G internal hard drive. The other has the original one (600mhz iMac). I have the 20G internal one that was removed from iMac #1- is there any way that can be set up for iMac #2 as an external drive? I don't believe there is anything wrong with it and iMac#2 user would like to have more hard drive space...... Thanks for any help with this! Judy

mrstee,
Before I upgraded my iMac, I went looking for an external 3.5" enclosure. I went to BestBuy and then CompUSA. There are more choices at CompUSA, and yet, I left CompUSA empty handed because their choices were 1) clunky looking, 2) pricey, and 3) the specifications on the enclosures left me wondering about their (intended) compatibility with OS X.
I purchased my external 3.5" enclosure from CDW/MacWarehouse. It is a Macally PHR-100AF (strictly firewire) enclosure. They also have the PHR-100A (strictly USB 2.0), and PHR-100AC (USB 2.0 and Firewire 400). Mine was $48 + shipping. Macally shows these offered at CircuitCity, CostCo, and Fry's.
Positives: Aesthetic appearance. Simple transplant of internal drive to external enclosure without jumper change. Only two screws and ten minute task. Very fast and simple solution. Works perfectly with OS9 and OS X (10.4.3). Atractive price. Positive online reviews.
http://www.giantmike.com/reviews/macallyfirewire.html
http://www.coolmacintosh.com/phr100af35firewireenclosure111304.html
Negatives: None.
You can see these at http://www.macally.com
I have no financial interest in Macally.
Hope this helps.
/ckh

Swapping circuit boards for an internal hard drive

My story may be a bit long and roundabout, so please try and bear with me as I explain.
My PowerMac G5 is 4.5 years old and over the past few months, the DVD and my secondary internal hard drive, both the originals that came with my computer, have been slowly dying. I finally replaced the DVD drive the other day and was little by little copying the data off my secondary internal drive before it completely failed. One thing that seemed to help the internal drive run more smooth was unplugging the power cable and plugging it back in. A worker at an Apple store's Genius Bar also suggested swapping each internal drive to the bay that the other was originally in, to see if that helped at all.
Anyways, in the end, the drive was giving me so much trouble and I had unplugged/plugged the power cable so many times that eventually the part of the circuit board that holds the pin connectors straight broke off, so now I had no way to get my data off the slowly failing drive. Another visit to the Genius Bar and I was told that the drive was as good as done, but not wanting to believe that the majority of my film projects were gone forever, I contacted a store across the street from my old NYU dorm called Digital Society. They told me that the circuit board on the drive needed to be replaced and that the new board had to be taken from an identical drive. I soon realized that the primary/system drive of my G5 was in fact identical. So, after running Time Machine, purchasing new primary and secondary internal drives, re-installing the OS and doing a Time Machine restore - which was flawless - I took my two drives back to Digital Society where they swapped the circuit boards rather quickly.
Now that I'm back home, I was easily able to recover all my data from my failing drive... only after having its circuit board replaced, the drive is showing no signs whatsoever of the read/write difficulties and failures that it had been showing prior to the circuit board swap, which leads me to a few questions
a) Was it really the drive that had a problem, or the circuit board itself? Is there anywhere I could buy just a circuit board without having to buy a new drive just to get a circuit board? The drives in question are 400 gig Hitachi Deskstar, model #HDS724040KLSA80. While I'm not entirely sure the once failing drive should be trusted again, my old system drive - which now has a busted circuit board on it - still works perfectly fine.
b) If I'm able to get a new circuit board, how easy is it to replace myself? The guy at Digital Society did it very quickly and for a price of $120. Are there any video tutorials?
Thanks!

Lot's of good question Will,
Hard drives are not what they used to be, if your work is important I'd replace them every 3 years & have 2 backups in the meantime.
I doubt you can get the circuit boards separate without buying a while questionable drive.
If I'm able to get a new circuit board, how easy is it to replace myself? The guy at Digital Society did it very quickly and for a price of $120.
1 TB 3 year warranty $99...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/HD103SJ/
1 TB 7 year warranty...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/HE103UJ/
More cheaper drives...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/3.5-SerialATA/WesternDigitalCaviar

Urgent... Internal Hard Drive Question

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