kmosx: OS X & upgraded PowerBook 20 GB+ HD

OS X on 20+ gig upgraded PowerBook HFS+ HD

If you're interested in upgrading a Powerbook Hard Drive to 20 or 30 GIGs from the 2 or 4 gig that came with the older G3 Series / WallStreet / Bronze PowerBook and plan to run OS X, IT CAN BE DONE.

At first I was puzzled when I booted to OS X and discovered the operating system didn't see the new 20 gig IBM TravelStar hard drive I installed.

So I booted to 9.1 and made a partition... the whole drive. Then went back to OS X and still didn't see the hard drive in the installer??

Thats because there's this 8 Gigabyte limit for the OS X partition on older/early G3 computers. This was an Apple WallStreet G3 Series PowerBook 12 inch TFT display with 2 PC card slots.

I repartitioned using the Disk Utility after booting on an OS 9.1 CD, the first partition to 8192 megs and a second partition to the remaining gigs.

Booted to OS X CD and lookie there, my partitions are now showing up and I was able to install OS X and my G3 PowerBook is running faster with this new 20 gig hard drive.

The following day I installed a 30 gig IBM TravelStar drive in a Bronze G3 PowerBook with the same success.

Access to the hard drive bay is under the keyboard on both of these models so don't bother removing any screws from the underside of the PowerBook.

On the G3 Series you will remove the CD drive and the Battery and find a latch on each side in those bays which will release the space bar end of the keyboard. Carefully tilt up and pull towards you a little to lift out and then flip it over. Do not force the internal Keyboard ribbon cable to come lose.

On the Bronze PowerBook you will pull the tabs toward you found between the ESC and * (min brightness) and the F8 & F9 keys at the top of the Keyboard. Carefully tilt up and pull towards you a little to lift out and then flip it over. Do not force the internal Keyboard ribbon cable to come lose.

The hard drive bay is in the top right position of the exposed cavity. It will lift up and out. The G3 Series PowerBook secures the drive with a screw, the Bronze uses little rubber boots attached to the drive tray.

Be careful with the ribbon cables and do not force them. On the Bronze PowerBook the ribbon cable will lift out of its snap-in socket allowing you to hold the drive in your hand as you remove the screws and replace the drive. Do not pull the ribbon cable off the drive by tugging on the cable, you should instead try to carefully pry/pull the black cable connector away from the drive and keep the pins from bending by keeping the drive parallel with the cable connector as you separate the two pieces.

Its a good idea to not attempt drive replacement without the prior experience of perfoming similar work yourself or getting the help of an experienced Apple technician. No other hard drives were tested and not all hard drives are guarenteed to work in an Apple PowerBook.