startup from external hd?

[zorba199]

The HD on my iBook G4 is dead.
I want to buy an external portable HD to permanently start up from.
I understand that with a firewire connection I'm able to do that. I have narrowed my search down to the laCie 80G Bus-powered and the smartdisk firelite 40G(which is considerably cheaper). I've read some very good reviews on the laCie and some not so good, some moderate ones on the firelite.
I would like the external drive to be powered without additional adapter.
Does anybody have experiences and recommendations??
Thank you.

 

[deadpixels]

The HD on my iBook G4 is dead.
I want to buy an external portable HD to permanently start up from.
I understand that with a firewire connection I'm able to do that. I have narrowed my search down to the laCie 80G Bus-powered and the smartdisk firelite 40G(which is considerably cheaper). I've read some very good reviews on the laCie and some not so good, some moderate ones on the firelite.
I would like the external drive to be powered without additional adapter.
Does anybody have experiences and recommendations??
Thank you.

why don't you replace the hdd in your ibook? you can get take apart guide for 14" ibook here
my brother had th same thing, they asked an amazing price for the replacement so he decided to do it himself, it worked fine and he's not a tech savvy guy at all

 

[twoodcc]

yeah, i would advise just replacing the internal hard drive. you could do external, but you need power from an outlet to do that (i believe). even if you could power it from the laptop, you wouldn't want too

 

[x86isslow]

Hi,

I had the same problem as you last year. DO NOT try to replace the internal drive yourself. I damaged my PowerBook that way, and as a result, my microphone port and internal microphone are gone.

Instead, I got a Firewire enclosure and hard drive from Other World Computing : macsales.com

I've been using the external drive as my boot drive for the last year, and its worked out pretty well. To twoodcc's concern about needing an external power source, you don't need one if you're running a Firewire bus powered laptop drive. You would need one if you're planning on getting a 3.5" desktop-style external HD.

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

Hi,

I had the same problem as you last year. DO NOT try to replace the internal drive yourself. I damaged my PowerBook that way, and as a result, my microphone port and internal microphone are gone.

Instead, I got a Firewire enclosure and hard drive from Other World Computing : macsales.com

I've been using the external drive as my boot drive for the last year, and its worked out pretty well. To twoodcc's concern about needing an external power source, you don't need one if you're running a Firewire bus powered laptop drive. You would need one if you're planning on getting a 3.5" desktop-style external HD.

Yeah but then his laptop wont truly be a laptop anymore, since it would always require a nearby outlet (in which case u might as well use the adapter too and ditch the battery).

You could always get an applestore to switch it no? If you bought a hard drive yourself and brought it to them, how much would that cost?

 

[deadpixels]

Hi,

I had the same problem as you last year. DO NOT try to replace the internal drive yourself. I damaged my PowerBook that way, and as a result, my microphone port and internal microphone are gone.

sorry about the dammages on you pbook but i have to say that if one is very carefull and methodic, nothing should get bad

 

[x86isslow]

Yeah but then his laptop wont truly be a laptop anymore, since it would always require a nearby outlet (in which case u might as well use the adapter too and ditch the battery).

You could always get an applestore to switch it no? If you bought a hard drive yourself and brought it to them, how much would that cost?

Maybe I should have been clearer. There are two types of HDs. Bus powered, and outlet powered. I have a bus powered drive, which means it is still a laptop, in every sense of the word, it just has company. I take my laptop to class, and I haven't had any problems.

There is also the option you describe, a 3.5" drive, outlet powered, which would convert the laptop into a desktop.

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

Maybe I should have been clearer. There are two types of HDs. Bus powered, and outlet powered. I have a bus powered drive, which means it is still a laptop, in every sense of the word, it just has company. I take my laptop to class, and I haven't had any problems.

There is also the option you describe, a 3.5" drive, outlet powered, which would convert the laptop into a desktop.

Oh thats pretty cool then. that would solve most of his problems. I'd still rather put the harddrive inside personally, but I guess if you have a small external self powered one it's nearly the same (and easier if it fails a 2nd time lol)