---
title: "Powerbook G4 Disk Replacement"
subtitle: "Andrew shares his journey in replacing a failed disk in a Powerbook G4"
date: 2023-11-05T15:55:43Z
tags: []
draft: false
author: Andrew Williams
author_email: andy@tensixtyone.com
---

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In October 2003, I made my first leap into using an Apple device. For quite some time i'd been trying to find a reasonable and portable machine to use daily, and i'd slowly got frustrated with the current offerings by Dell, HP, and other major laptop manufactures. In the hunt for something new and I picked an Powerbook G4 12", this machine was my daily workhorse for several years and at the end of its life it was stuffed into a draw and forgotten about.

Sometime around 2014 when I was purchasing a new Macbook Pro I decided to grab my old laptop out of storage and get it booted to hopefully pull a few files from the system. I had lost the power adapter and (obviously) the battery had given up. I purchased a new power adapter on eBay and ended up throwing everything back in the draw to sort out another day.

Roll on to 2023, in the Leigh Hackspace [Slack](https://join.slack.com/t/leighhack/shared_invite/enQtNDYzMjEyMDMxNDExLTE1MWY5N2IwMzdhMzQ0ZWFiNDkyNzJmMGM1ZmFkODcwMGM5ODFmYmI4MjhmM2JiMWEyY2E3NTRjMTQzMzljZWU) a fellow member was discussing his newly acquired iBook G4. I was reminded about my poor Powerbook that had been left unloved in a draw close to a decade, I found all the parts and powered it up...

Only to be confronted with the sound of screeching metal and clicking. The internal disk had given up. This model of Powerbook runs on a 2.5" IDE disk, usually manufactured by Toshiba, not one of the usual brands that would fail. After a few moments of poking it did seem that either the bearings or motor was damaged. If I wanted a working system then i'd need to replace it.

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iFixIt [rates the hard-drive replacement](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/PowerBook+G4+Aluminum+12-Inch+1-1.5+GHz+Hard+Drive+Replacement/548) as 'Difficult', and I walked into this thinking it wouldn't be that hard. You can really respect the modern repairability of most systems after looking at this, even just having a standard set to screws alone would be a huge improvement!

The initial disassembly took about an hour, most of that time was spent trying to get the top case to release from the tiny plastic clasps on the inside of the case. Lots of tape, sensitive connections that can snap at a moment notice, and again more screws to finally get to the hard drive within. 

The replacement hard drive I purchased was a 'Bingogo 2.5" IDE 128GB', my fellow hackspace member purchased a cheaper mSATA to IDE converter to replace is iBook drive, but I felt like a fool when my drive arrived and it was also a simple mSATA to IDE converter. Lesson learned. 