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Replacement for PB150 hard drive?
- Thread starter JRL
- Start date
You are in for a nice surprise. The PB150 accepts ordinary IDE drives, which means that it is trivial to put in a cheap, high-capacity drive from the PC world. A 1GB SCSI notebook drive is almost unheard of (and exceptionally expensive if you ever manage to find one), but a 1GB IDE drive is considered landfill material. Put a few gigs in that 150, and you can load it up with just about every 68k app you'd ever want.
It isn't soldered in, but it is screwed to a frame which in turn is screwed down. Take out the screws, and remove the connector. The release tab breaks off easily (as you've found), so connector removal takes a little work. Gentle prying with a utility knife will separate the pieces enough for you to get a small screwdriver in there. After that, it's duck soup pulling off the connector the rest of the way. Just work slowly and carefully.
A 40GB drive might be overkill (personally, I'd save it for a more powerful 'book). One issue that you will encounter is the need to partition it into smaller volumes, each less than 2GB in size to avoid problems (the actual limit could be larger than that, but obeying the 2GB rule will definitely work). Given that little annoyance, you might want to choose a somewhat smaller drive (which will still be huge for anything 68k-related).
A 40GB drive might be overkill (personally, I'd save it for a more powerful 'book). One issue that you will encounter is the need to partition it into smaller volumes, each less than 2GB in size to avoid problems (the actual limit could be larger than that, but obeying the 2GB rule will definitely work). Given that little annoyance, you might want to choose a somewhat smaller drive (which will still be huge for anything 68k-related).
I'll be checking ebay too. Thanks for your help Tom and bluekatt!
EDIT: I found these
Sorry if the links are too long:if they are, someone can edit them)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-6-Gig-Hard-Drive-for-Laptop-Powerbook-Mk6014MAP_W0QQitemZ150223664242QQihZ005QQcategoryZ38118QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Internal-2-5-Laptop-Hard-Drives-2-1GB-Each_W0QQitemZ180221101184QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-10-1-08GB-1-44GB-LAPTOP-HARD-DRIVES_W0QQitemZ220210037502QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-PC-Laptop-2GB-Hard-Disk-Drive-DTNA-22160_W0QQitemZ180221971653QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/laptop-harddrive-fujitsu-4-gig-working_W0QQitemZ220210795312QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
EDIT: I found these
Sorry if the links are too long:if they are, someone can edit them)http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-6-Gig-Hard-Drive-for-Laptop-Powerbook-Mk6014MAP_W0QQitemZ150223664242QQihZ005QQcategoryZ38118QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Internal-2-5-Laptop-Hard-Drives-2-1GB-Each_W0QQitemZ180221101184QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-10-1-08GB-1-44GB-LAPTOP-HARD-DRIVES_W0QQitemZ220210037502QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-PC-Laptop-2GB-Hard-Disk-Drive-DTNA-22160_W0QQitemZ180221971653QQihZ008QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/laptop-harddrive-fujitsu-4-gig-working_W0QQitemZ220210795312QQihZ012QQcategoryZ64480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Well, in the abstract, sure, the controller could've died. However, drives fail at a much higher rate by far, so in the absence of any other evidence, a failed hard drive would be the first thing to assume.
It's easy to grab a random old IDE drive of almost any capacity to test out whether or not the controller is still functioning. You could wait on buying a higher-capacity drive pending the outcome of that test.
It's easy to grab a random old IDE drive of almost any capacity to test out whether or not the controller is still functioning. You could wait on buying a higher-capacity drive pending the outcome of that test.
The PB150 is picky when it comes to installing a new hd. Be careful to read up on it, starting here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19644
There is a useful hobbyist article online somewhere re. the use of a CF card in the PB150, and which refers to the business of the ROM and the complications that come of this unusual setup.
I recently tried the procedures specified in the tech. article cited, using a (definitely working) 3 GB drive. I simply could not get it to work in the machine, no matter how hard I tried. This is pure speculation, but it may have been because the drive was larger than the 2 GB maximum allowable under 7.1, which is not only the stock system, but which is effectively embedded in the machine itself. In the end I gave up on it.
There is a useful hobbyist article online somewhere re. the use of a CF card in the PB150, and which refers to the business of the ROM and the complications that come of this unusual setup.
I recently tried the procedures specified in the tech. article cited, using a (definitely working) 3 GB drive. I simply could not get it to work in the machine, no matter how hard I tried. This is pure speculation, but it may have been because the drive was larger than the 2 GB maximum allowable under 7.1, which is not only the stock system, but which is effectively embedded in the machine itself. In the end I gave up on it.
I too want to upgrade the hard drive in my PowerBook 150, the hard drive in it works, I just want to get a bigger one in there as I have a lot on it. I think it would be possible to get a IDE to USE adapter, copy the files into an image, format new hard drive on the Mac and then copy files back onto the hard drive with the cable.
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