1.33ghz harddrive limitations?

[KevRC4130]

Hey everyone,
As some of you may or may not recall, my Powerbook harddrive crashed, and I bought a new one. Long story short, I had a 4200rpm 60gb, and upgraded to a 5400rpm 100gb, and unfortunately, it doesn't work. I took it to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, and he said that the issue is probably that the 1.33 ghz simply can't handle a 100gb drive. Honestly, this doesn't exactly make sense to me since my computer is not really much different than the current 12", which has a 5400rpm 100gb as an OEM option. Can anybody confirm/shoot down this theory?

This is the new drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152024

Thanks

 

[bousozoku]

Since Apple was selling upgrades to a similar hard drive in the 15.2 inch, I can't imagine someone telling you that it wouldn't support one. I recently bought a Seagate drive in an external case just to exchange the two.

It could be that the machine won't accept the extra power drain or the heat, though, since the 12 inch is more-or-less an iBook re-cast in Aluminium.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

That's bull crap. Can you link us to a webpage that shows specs of the HD?

 

[California]

Huh? That makes no sense. Quiz the guy who told you "it wouldn't work" with some firm technical reason why.

There is no reason it can't work, except he might be saying it voids the warranty?

 

[homerjward]

the one review of the drive says it works in an ibook, so i'd doubt it wouldn't work in a powerbook.

 

[mduser63]

I'll be interested to know what you come up with. I've also got a Rev. C 12" SuperDrive PowerBook, and I've been thinking about upgrading from the stock drive to a 5400 RPM 100 GB Seagate drive.

 

[mrichmon]

Hey everyone,
As some of you may or may not recall, my Powerbook harddrive crashed, and I bought a new one. Long story short, I had a 4200rpm 60gb, and upgraded to a 5400rpm 100gb, and unfortunately, it doesn't work. I took it to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, and he said that the issue is probably that the 1.33 ghz simply can't handle a 100gb drive

There is no reason why that drive would not work in a powerbook unless the drive is faulty, or the installation was not performed correctly. Since you haven't specified how "it doesn't work" I cannot suggest what may be going wrong. At a guess (without any information) the cables that need to be disconnected in the powerbook during the drive install may not have been reattached correctly.

 

[KevRC4130]

I have uninstalled and reinstalled this drive twice, with no luck. During OSX Setup, when it searches for an HDD to install on, it does not find this drive.

I'm thinking the drive must be dead. I guess the question behind the question would be, do I ask NewEgg for an exchange for the same item, or a 60gb 4200rpm (what I had) just to be safe?

 

[mrichmon]

I have uninstalled and reinstalled this drive twice, with no luck. During OSX Setup, when it searches for an HDD to install on, it does not find this drive.

I'm thinking the drive must be dead. I guess the question behind the question would be, do I ask NewEgg for an exchange for the same item, or a 60gb 4200rpm (what I had) just to be safe?

It is worthwhile booting with the hardware diagnostics disk to ensure that the drive is identified. Alternatively, if you have another machine (a windows machine is fine) or a firewire/usb enclosure to hook the drive up to to check that it functions.

 

[KevRC4130]

It is worthwhile booting with the hardware diagnostics disk to ensure that the drive is identified. Alternatively, if you have another machine (a windows machine is fine) or a firewire/usb enclosure to hook the drive up to to check that it functions.

Hmm, I'll have to do that. Should my PB have come with a hardware diagnostics disc, or do I need to buy one?

 

[mrichmon]

Hmm, I'll have to do that. Should my PB have come with a hardware diagnostics disc, or do I need to buy one?

Your PB would have shipped with a diagnositics CD along with a separate reinstall CD/DVD.

 

[generik]

What do you mean by "it didn't work"?

For instance on older PCs what'd happen is the drive will still work, but the computer won't be able to use it to its full capacity.

 

[Heb1228]

I put a 120GB drive in and my PB has a 1.33 G4. And it works.

 

[jimthorn]

Wow, I could really use a 100GB drive in my PowerBook 12" 1.33. And it is supported. See www.ifixit.com for info. Very handy site.

 

[Psycho Therapis]

I have uninstalled and reinstalled this drive twice, with no luck. During OSX Setup, when it searches for an HDD to install on, it does not find this drive.

I'm thinking the drive must be dead. I guess the question behind the question would be, do I ask NewEgg for an exchange for the same item, or a 60gb 4200rpm (what I had) just to be safe?

Since you don't appear to have mentioned it, whilst in setup, did you venture into disk utility to set up the partitioning etc, first?

 

[bpd115]

I put a 100 gig 5400 rpm seagate into the same laptop before so it does work. I do remember it wasn't recognized off the bat and took a few unplug/plug back in's for the os x install disk to finally see it.