New hard drive for Pismo

Question

New hard drive for Pismo

Hi everyone,

Owing to the pathetic hard drive in my Pismo, I've convinced myself to upgrade. I've got the original 6GB IBM TravelStar DARA-206000 drive, and I'm aiming for something around 30GB. I thought about the Hitachi TravelStar DK23CA-30, which I can get brand new for £36, or nudging up 10GB I could get a Seagate Momentus 5200.2 40GB drive for about £50. Are these drives compatible with the ATA controller on my Pismo? It's a March 2000 G3 400, running Tiger.
I need a lot of storage space, since I have a lot of music and a lot of documents to dump on the disc. Since this is a desktop-replacement arrangement, I'm not too worried about battery, but being able to get at least 3 hours of life, like I currently can, would be nice. Noise is also a factor - the old IBM disc is clearly audible (I'm sure it's not about to fail - I hope). Any other good models - I'd like to hear from you.
Secondly, how would I go about transfering my data across from the old drive? I've got about 4.5GB of data to shift, since I don't have the Tiger installation CD or a spare £80. I've heard about cloning the hard drive - is this really as easy as it sounds? If so, is it cheap/free?
As a last point, does anyone know a way to keep the heatsink on the processor card? I can't get my card off without the heatsink falling off.

Thanks in advance,
Rob Johnson

PowerBook G3 Pismo, 400MHz 1MB Cache, 192MB RAM, 6GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 5, 2006 1:27 PM

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Answer 1

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Jun 5, 2006 7:16 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Rob:

Upgrading the internal HDD on my Pismo is one of the best things I did for it. Not only are the newer drives larger, but they are faster. A larger drive will not only have greater storage capacity, but it will also improve the performance of your Pismo and make it faster.

You need a 2.5inch ATA 6 drive. A higher number is fine as these drives are backward compatible. I don't know about the particular items you mentioned as I am not aware of their specs.

I would also suggest an even larger drive than you are contemplating, at least 60 GB. Music and photos fill up a drive pretty fast, and you do need to keep 10 to 15% of the capacity free for virutal memory etc. Besides, as you know when you buy a 60 GB drive you don't get that much storage capacity. My 100 GB HDD gives me just over 93 GB storage capacity. In this case, more is better.

In terms of moving your files, you will need either an external Firewire HDD to which you can clone your present drive and move it back after your new installation. To clone you can use either Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper which you can download and use.

The second method is to use Firewire Target Disk Mode for which you will need to use a second computer with Firewire capability.

Thirdly, you can place you present/old HDD in a Firewire enclosure, and clone it to your new HDD.

One last thing. Here is a set of directions for removing the old HDD and installing the new. It is a pretty easy process and not as intrusive as the direction in PB Fixit.

Good luck, old man. Post back with updates or questions.

cornelius

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2006 12:19 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Hi cornelius,

Been a while, but I'm now thinking of temporarily retiring my old ThinkPad T23 from service - the hard drive's probably a mess in terms of fragments, but the reason I'll retire it is a) I've got my PowerBook, and b) the battery's messed up. What I'd like to do is zero my ThinkPad's drive, a 30GB Hitachi, and clone the Mac's drive onto that. At this moment, I'm skint, so I can't afford a drive enclosure. Is there any way I could use my 20GB G4 iPod (Firewire) as, like, a boot drive? I've read that you can boot a Pismo from Firewire drives. Is it possible to clone my Pismo's hard drive onto the iPod, boot from it and clone it back onto the Hitachi drive? Sounds overly complicated, but I know what I'm talking about. I don't mind wiping the Pod clean, restoring it to HFS+ etc. etc. Since the ThinkPad needs a wipe-clean-and-start-again, it doesn't really matter to me.
What I want to know, though, is there any way I could mess up the Pismo's original hard drive? It's a 6GB IBM drive, but as I understand the process, I copy the entire drive to an external source (ie iPod), then either i) use the external source in place of the original drive, or in my case, use the ecternal drive as a boot drive and clone that onto the 30GB drive.
I won't format the Pismo drive until I get a new hard drive for either the Pismo or the ThinkPad, as this is sorta 'extended loan.'

Thanks in advance,
Rob Johnson

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Answer 3

Jun 16, 2006 12:46 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

I recently installed a used Hitachi Travelstar dk23eb 40GB drive in mine. It had XP Pro on it, so I just popped it in, booted off my X Install CD, formatted to Mac OS Extended, and was on my way. It seems to be a lot easier and better for the machine if you just back up the files thatyou want and transfer them over, rather than cloning the entire drive.

By the way, the Travelstar is great in a Pismo- quiet,cool operation and quite a noticeable speed increase. 30GB should be plenty for most people unless you're a graphic designer or something of that sort....

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Answer 4

Jun 16, 2006 1:04 PM in response to The Guy with 12 Macs

Microsoft,

Welcome to the forums, and may I say great choice! Your name conveys exactly what I think.

My problem with your method is that it needs the original discs. I bought my 'Book off eBay, and it came pre-installed with Tiger and Office 2004. I didn't get any discs - I was grateful for the power lead!

My method takes these factors into account. Is it possible, or would I run into serious problems?

Thanks for the quick reply,
Rob Johnson

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Answer 5

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 16, 2006 1:46 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

mypublic,

You may be able to use the iPod in that manner but I don't know...you could inquire over on the iPod Discussions.

A safer alternative is to buy a cheap-o USB enclosure like this for $9:
http://www.xpcgear.com/ue25u1.html

You would place the 30GB in the enclosure > use Disk Utility on your Pismo to 'write all zeros' once to clean the HD > Erase (initialize) as MacOS Extended plus check the option to Install MacOS 9 HD Driver (I would install it whether you use 9.x or not). Once the HD is set up, quit Disk Utility and launch CCC (be sure to check pref to make it bootable) and then clone. When done, install 30GB in Pismo.

Please make sure your Pismo's HD is sound by first performing a Safe Boot so First Aid will run, then restart and Repair Disk Permissions...now clone.

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Answer 6

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 16, 2006 1:51 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

mypublic,

I forgot to mention...

You cannot boot to a USB device with OSX (9.x...yes) but there is no need to in the procedure I described.

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Answer 7

Jun 16, 2006 1:55 PM in response to jpl

Hi jpl,

I seriously am out of cash at this moment, plus the fact I'm in the UK. I'd need a Firewire enclosure for this project, since I'll eventually put the old 6GB in the box and use it as a mobile disk - for this reason, I want decent performance. Since there's really nothing to lose by trying to clone to the iPod, I'll give it a shot. I'm just saving what I want from the ThinkPad's drive over my network. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers for the help,
Rob

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Answer 8

Jun 16, 2006 4:23 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Hi again,

OK, managed to clone the internal drive onto my iPod. Next step is booting from it, and that's where I'm stuck. How would I go about booting from the iPod (in disk mode, so it's a firewire hard drive)? There's a key to hold down or sequence to enter, right?

Thanks in advance,
Rob Johnson

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Answer 9

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 16, 2006 9:00 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Rob,

Do not use FireWire Disk Mode. The Pismo already has its blank (empty) internal 30 GB HD installed and the power adapter is connected. Connect the iPod to the FireWire port and turn it on > power on the Pismo while pressing the 'option' key > the Startup Manager will pop up with any available, bootable volumes > select the iPod > click the 'continue arrow'. If your installed OSX on the iPod is done correctly, the Pismo should boot to the iPod.

Launch Disk Utility > set up the HD as I described earlier > quit Disk Utility > lauch CCC or SuperDuper! and clone back to the HD > when completed, make sure the Startup Disk selection in System Preferences on the iPod is set for the internal HD > restart.

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Answer 10

Jun 17, 2006 2:24 AM in response to jpl

Hi again,

Managed to get the Pismo to boot from the iPod. All I had to do was re-clone the hard drive and change the Starup Disk, then reboot. However, I've now got ANOTHER problem (yep, sorry!). The TravelStar won't accept an erase - it's detected as a 30GB drive, but keeps throwing up I/O errors. This is quite possibly my own fault - I ejected the 6GB drive after booting to the Pod, which powered down normally (and I'll say something, the room went silent!). I removed the IDE connector and carefully put the connector straight on the 30GB (more or less straight on). I then rebooted, ran Disk Utility and the problems began anew. I'll try to run Jaguar setup and get the drive working - if it does, I'll wipe it and clone the 'Pod back. However, have I missed something, or have I messed the drive up by attaching it while the machine was running?

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm enjoying this.
Thanks,
Rob

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Answer 11

Jun 17, 2006 4:27 AM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

No luck with Jaguar, will try OS9

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Answer 12

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 17, 2006 8:54 AM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

mypublic,

Not sure where you stand at this time...

After the 30GB HD was installed in the Pismo and you booted to the iPod, did you try 'zero all data' when setting up the HD with Disk Utility? I suggest this since you really don't know the health of the 30GB drive.

Ideally you would boot to 9.x from the iPod, launch Drive Setup, then run Test Disk. It reads/writes to every block on the HD and if there is a problem with the HD, it will usually find it. If the Test Disk fails, select 'zero all data' in Initialization Options, then run Test Disk again.

When booted to the iPod, select 9.x on the iPod in the Startup Disk pane in System Prefs, restart, then test the HD. When booted to 9.x and Drive Setup is open, go to the menu bar and open Drive Setup Help for additional details.

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Answer 13

Jun 17, 2006 10:15 AM in response to jpl

Hi jpl,

Really appreciate your help. I've tried running OS9 from a software installation CD from an iMac DV - it loaded OS9.1, and I was able to run Drive Setup. It found the 30GB drive and informed me I could initialise it. I tried zeroing it, wiping it normally, everything, but it wouldn't have it. I tried the same under Tiger and during Jaguar setup. Every time it fails, although OSX does at least tell me why. As I understand it, an I/O error is communication-related - the PowerBook can't read from the drive. The original drive works, as I am currently typing this from my back garden with a wireless card and no iPod in sight. The 30GB is recognised by the ThinkPad, and works OK. I used the Maxtor PowerMax utility to low-level format the drive, followed by FDISK under Windows 98 DOS to mount the single partition. Currently, the 'Book won't boot with the 30GB attached; should I try wiping it with a Hitachi utility (if there is one)? If so, should I then format the drive with FAT32 and then wipe it on the PowerBook?

This is getting far too complicated.
Rob

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Answer 14

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 17, 2006 11:41 AM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

my public,

Well, at least you are back up and running and do not have a hardware problem with your current 6GB HD configuration.

Some HDs made specifically for PCs will not work properly on a Mac...they lack the proper firmware. Whether this is the case with your Hitachi I just don't know. One possible way to find out is to get the model number off the Hitachi HD, then google for that number...see what turns up.

At this point, I would not use the HD; if both Drive Setup and Disk Utility cannot properly setup the HD, then something is amiss.

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Answer 15

Jun 17, 2006 1:49 PM in response to jpl

Hi jpl,

As far as I am aware, this drive will work with a Pismo - it's a Hitachi TravelStar IC25N030ATCS04-0, which, according to a post I did some time ago, works with Pismos:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=479662&tstart=50
and it appears that you researched the drive and gave it a positive. Thanks for doing that - being new to Macs, I wouldn't know where else to look for information. However, I can't think as to why the drive won't work in the Pismo. It's a great drive - reliable, fast, very quiet. If it is firmware (and I did note the label on the original drive saying 'Apple HDD Firmware'), then do you reckon it's possible to update it? I'm dipping my toes into something I really shouldn't, as I'm running a real risk of screwing either the drive or computer up. For now, I'll take your advice and stick with the 6GB.

Modern technology - a blessing or a curse?
Rob

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