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

24 replies

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 17, 2006 2:43 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Rob,

Well, shucks, you aren't supposed to remember my earlier posts and then put me on the spot 'cause I don't even remember them 🙂

I cannot explain why the drive is having these problems. However, as I look over your original post on this HD, you bought this HD second-hand, but then you lose me when you keep referring to the ThinkPad and its 30GB drive. Are you installing the HD you bought in the ThinkPad as a test and reporting it works OK in that computer?

Regarding the formatting with other utilities, etc: If you want to try it, go ahead...nothing to lose.

When you zero (zero all data) the HD, then run Test Disk in 9.x's Drive Setup, does Test Disk run successfully? I ask because you said this:

"...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."

What happened...did the zeroing quit or Test Disk quit or did you get some kind of error report, or is this what you are referring to when mentioning I/O errors?

Jun 17, 2006 4:07 PM in response to jpl

Hi jpl,

First off, sorry to 'put you on the spot' - didn't mean to, just that I remembered about it.

Secondly, yes, it wasn't clear about where I got the drive from. The 30GB drive is from my second-hand ThinkPad T23, which I've retired after the battery screwed up. It's worked fine in that machine, which was first used around June 2003.

Thirdly, loading OS9, I ran Disk Setup and tried to Erase the drive. At first, it said I could initialize it, but after clicking on 'Erase,' it paused for about a second before saying 'Error.' I then went into the settings and checked 'zero all data.' Same result.

Finally, the input/output errors crop up when I try the same procedure in Disk Utility in OSX - both Jaguar (setup stage) and Tiger do the same thing when I try to format, zero, 7-pass or 35-pass the drive. I'm stumped, so I've given up. My iPod is now a music player, and the hard drive is back in the ThinkPad. I've nicked the 256MB RAM chip out of the 'Pad, so I've now got 384MB to play with.

Thanks for your patience and understanding,
Rob Johnson

Hardy Geer

Level 4

3,166 points

Jun 17, 2006 4:42 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

If it came from a windoze machine it may have been set to slave not master. This is done by jumpers connecting pins on the drive connector. If there are any remove them.

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 17, 2006 7:15 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Rob,

Just kidding about my previous posts...I'm glad you did remember it.

I'm stumped 😟

If both Drive Setup and Disk Utility fail in their attempts, possibly something happened to the drive after it was removed...squeezed (the two flat metal covers pressed together) or dropped or bumped...I just don't know.

You put a lot of time in this and am sorry it did not work out.

Jun 18, 2006 2:46 PM in response to jpl

jpl,

I think the best course of action would be to buy a new drive. Therefore, I'll shelve the project for the mean-time, until I can afford a new 40GB drive and a Firewire enclosure. That way, I can bypass the whole iPod-as-boot-disk issue and do things simply.

You wouldn't believe the number of things I devote lots of time to, only to have them blow up in my face! I'm completely used to it. Cheers for your help in any case.

Laters guys,
Rob

mvb9999

Level 1

0 points

Jun 23, 2006 6:15 PM in response to mypublicselfdestruction

Hello all.. I have a Pismo 400 mhz 512 mhz with a 10 gb hdd running at 4200 rpm. I would like to upgrade to a 40 gb running at 5400 rpm. Any problems I should anticipate?

Thanks very much!

mvb

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Jun 23, 2006 8:18 PM in response to mvb9999

mvb,

That HD will work just fine assuming it is not one of a small number Toshibas that do not support Powerbook G3s; a model number would be more helpful.

If a used HD, I would recommend you 'zero all data' when initializing (erasing); use MacOS Extended Format. Both Drive Setup in 9.x and Disk Utility in 10.x can prep the HD, and both have Help guides.

If a new HD, initialization is sufficient and should be performed.

mvb9999

Level 1

0 points

Jun 25, 2006 7:10 PM in response to jpl

thx,

yeah, I was wondering about ATA-6. earlier, this kind of drive was considered ok, but from others i have heard ATA-6 is not compatible. In profiler, my current drive is listed ast ATA-4...

i guess i just don't know what that stuff means

thx,

mark

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Jul 5, 2006 11:33 PM in response to mvb9999

mvb9999:

ATA-6 should be fine; that is what I am running on my Pismo. These drives are normally backwards compatible as noted earlier.

Good luck.

cornelius

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New hard drive for Pismo