Hello folks, this is my first post here, I just found this wonderful website today and I'll probably be coming back for more interesting Mac tips, info and knowledge.

And now the purpose of this post.......

My TiBook's (G4 550mhz, and old dog but still decent) hard disk was making some unpleasent noises yesterday when trying to access my "documents" and my "applications" folder (only when I get near to the S's and U's where it starts clicking).

Now what I've done was back up whatever I can/needed and decided to format the hard drive, and used the restore disks, it seems to be working properly now. I'll upgrade it back to 10.3.5 later tonight.

Now It's very possible the noise was due to some seriously trashed data on the hard drive, or a future failure, so the point of this topic is to ask if other hard drives would work in the TiBook or do I have to go to an Apple shop and pay out the nose.

You can use absolutley any 2.5" laptop drive inside your PowerBook.

I would really suggest getting a 5400RPM or a 7200RPM model, as it would improve performance in a big way for a little extra cash

Awesome, got any suggestions in regard to prices, models, that are best with a TiBook that way I know if stores/markets (they're cheaper) aren't ripping me off or anything.

I'll have to drop in on one of the computer markets that happen every Sunday and sniff out a 2.5 laptop drive with a nice speed and capacity. My current drive is the 20gb (18gb after format, and 15-16gb after OSX) which is quite.......sad.

Now only if we can keep these things running cool, cuz goshdarn you can cook an egg on these TiBooks, or get a 1st degree burn, now that summer is coming at us early at full force.

I really suggest not buying a crucial item to a computer like a hard drive from a computer market. Stick to a retail store, it may cost a few extra bucks, but when something stuffs up, there's some form of safety net.

Computer World in Melbourne are selling a 5400RPM 40GB Samsung drive for $145

If I was in the market for a new laptop HDD, I'd buy that.
I'd love to put a 7200RPM drive into my iBook, but I don't think it would be able to take the heat

Hmm, good point about heat, considering the TiBook becomes a portable oven after a while, I don't know if a 7200RPM drive in a TiBook is healthy idea either.

I wonder what shops have good prices that are located in Sydney. I just fear the idea of the hard drive bouncing about on it's way up to Sydney via AusPost.

Computer World have a Sydney outlet too
Check the details on the front page.

In the meantime, can someone suggest a good disk checker, defragmenter, and most importantly some sort of bad sector marker/checker to let the hard drive know that those sectors should be ignored so the hard drive can stop having a fit, cuz that's what I think is happening.

I've come to that conclusion cuz it seems to consistantly have a problem in a specific spot, and not the whole hard drive. Mainly cuz I was able to install OSX 10.1 from a Restore disk without headaches, but have issues when I install 10.3 and it seems to die while installing the BSD part, must have something to do with that particular spot on the hard drive, donno really.

In OSX, there is no longer any need to defragment your hard drive. In fact, it can make it run slower, as the OS organises files such that frequently accessed files are at the front. De-fragmenting would ruin this organisation.

As well, if you're using 10.3, by default, hard drives will have Journalling switched on (something you can check and switch with Disk Utility). This results in a journal of changes to the disk being stored, such that in the event of a crash, the OS only has to read the journal to resolve any problems, rather than check the disk for inconsistancies. As a result, the need for a disk checker is considerably lessened.

Make sure the 2.5" drive is no higher than 9.5mm - some are 12.5mm, and won't fit into the TiBook's thin metal casing.

I wouldn't worry about overheating if you get a 7200RPM drive - while quite a bit more expensive, they wouldn't be made if overheating was a problem, as most notebooks don't provide any cooling for hard disks within the casing.

JB

Uhm, its not 18GB after formatting.

Sorry, I just hate it when people say this.

HDD's are advetised with GB's these days. The thing is, they still calculate the size by how many bytes. But when you convert it from Bytes to GB's remembering that there are 8 bits in a Byte. You get a slightly (depending on the size), sometimes a substantially lower capacity.

eg:

80,000,000,000 bits / 8 = 10,000,000,000 Bytes

10,000,000,000 Bytes

This would signify a 10GB HDD, which is exactly as they would advertise.

But divide this by 1024 (how many Bytes its take to make a KiloByte) and you get the KiloBytes.

10,000,000,000 / 1024 = 9,765,265 KiloBytes (KB)

9765265 / 1024 = 9,536.74 MegaBytes (MB)

9536.74 / 1024 = 9.31 GigaBytes (GB)

So it appears we have lost approximately 700MB of space.

Formatting takes so little space, its negligable.


Sorry for being so analretentive, just one of those things I hate people not understanding.

pipsqeek

Hehe, either way, I'm not really getting all 20gigs as advertised.

No one ever gets exactly the capacity on the case, they always lose a few due prepping the hard drive.

My IBM 30GB drive failed in my Powerbook TI about 18 months ago, made some horrible noises and went from running nicely to completely Fubar in 3 days.

I bought a Fujitsu 60GB 5400 RPM drive to replace it.

Details from the sys prefs below.

Steve
FUJITSU MHS2060AT:

Capacity: 55.89 GB
Model: FUJITSU MHS2060AT
Revision: 8004
Serial Number: NL00T3113FHA
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: Yes

Titanium:

Capacity: 55.89 GB
Available: 18.82 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s9
Mount Point: /

No, I think you missed the point.

pipsqeek

Yeah, maybe I am, but this topic was about 2 things, I wanted to find out if I can use any other laptop drives in my TiBook (I'm more familiar with PCs not Macs, I'm still learning about Macs), and if there was any sort of Bad Sector checker/marker program for Mac.

Knowledge aquired thus far.....

Question 1: Can I use other hard drives in my TiBook?
Answer: Yep Absolutely, but make sure it's 9.5mm not 12.5mm or it won't fit.

Question 2: Is there a Bad Sector Checker/Marker for the Mac so I can tell the hard drive to ignore those nasty spots on my drive cuz obviously this drive still has 5 lives left and I would like to stretch that out a bit till I can pickup a replacement drive.
Answer: I'm still waiting for someone to tell me where to find it.

And Added New Question 3: I heard that some people use their old drive as an external drive running out via the FireWire, can you folks suggest some brands, prices, etc... where do I find one of these cases I've been hearing about.
Answer: Hopefully coming soon after I post this message

Thanks Guys

2.5" Firewire Cases are pretty cheap. Check out http://www.programmersparadise.com.au/
They have a good range and low prices.