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Some notes on upgrading a G4 iBooks hard disc. In short a pointer to the Apple service manuals but also a lists of problems to look out for and tips on formatting. I believe the G4 iBook is almost identical inside to the G3 slot loading iBook so most of these notes should still be relevant.
I was recently brought back to the Mac world after I was provided with a laptop through the Disabled Students Allowance for my university course (I'm dyslexic). I've worked with quite a few PC laptops before and have never been very impressed with the build quality or hibernation features so I knew I wanted a Mac Laptop not a PC. I've also been a Mac fan all my life ever since my Dad had a Classic.
First thing I did when I go the laptop was add another 512MB memory to it, I've always believed in throwing as much memory as possible at any computer, I would have put a Gig in but my funds didn’t stretch to it at the time so I stuck to 512, seems to work quite nicely.
The only problem with the iBook was the lack of hard disk space, I've been using my inherited upgraded G3 Blue and White as a server and all of my iTunes music was stored on it, along with most of my Videos etc, however it wasn’t the quickest way to access all the data and had the minor issue in that whenever my flat mate slammed the door on the Cat5 cable the connection to the server disappeared. I decided to look into upgrading the Hard Disc, this involves a lot of disassembly of the iBook. The hard disk in under the left wrist pad and you have to remover the top and bottom of the case as well as the top and bottom shielding to get to it. I'm not going to write a blow by blow account of how to do this, but point you to a location to download the Apple Service manuals which have far better diagrams and instructions than I would be able to write. I will however leave some notes on problems and issues that I discovered along the way. At this point I should point out iBook G4s are most likely still under warranty and this will quite possibly invalidate it, do it at your own risk and only if your confident of your skills and can take the consequences off killing your computer if it all goes wrong.
Hard Disc selection
I selected an 2.5 inch Western Digital Scorpio 80Gig Ultra100 5400rpm with 8MB cache this is a bit quicker than the standard Hard Disk which is only a 4200rpm. It is also meant to have less power consumption than normal, but this is according to manufactures specs. The only thing to really watch out for is that the new Hard disc should only be 9.5mm tall, most of them are so it shouldn’t be a problem, but taller discs may cause issues with cooling.
Backup
Do it, somehow your going to have to reinstall I'll leave this part up to you to figure out, I used the laptop in firewire target mode on my G3 and copied the contents to that, your could do a drive image or whatever you feel comfortable with.
Apple Service Manual
I got my copy from this site:
http://www.eserviceinfo.com/index.php?what=search2&searchstring=iBook+G4
The first two results are the ones you want, Download both .rar files and then extract part 1 (its a multipart .rar file).
Actual take apart
Ensure you have a lot of time, It took me about just under 1hr 30mins to take apart and put back together the 'book. Make sure you have correct tools for all the parts, it makes life easier and you really don't want to strip any screw heads due to cheap tools. Their are a lot of small screws and fixings that come out of this take apart, so make sure you have a system for storing them, Ice cube trays are recommended by the service manual. I used double-sided tape stuck to my desk to stop screws rolling away. Static discharge, if you don’t know how to earth yourself yet you should probably not be starting with this mod, I didn’t wear a static bracelet but you may want to.
Within the take apart of the manual section go to Hard Disc. It will show you which parts you need to dismantle, and the order before you get to the hard disc they are:
Battery
Easy just a coin
Keyboard and Ram Shield
Actually its at this point that you need to remove the AirPort card as well.
AirPort Extreme Card
Memory Card
again easy
Bottom Case
Your most likely not going to replace the rubber feet after the take apart so be careful taking them off to avoid damaging them, if you do break any an Apple Centre should be able to provide replacements. I used a small jewellers screw driver to minimise damage to them.
Taking off the rest of the case is a matter of taking your time, looking at the instructions and gently working your way around the case, the final bit does require moderate use of force. (I used half a plastic clothes peg to pry my case apart at this point) you should take out the two springs from the battery compartment.
Bottom Shield
Follow instructions don't bend it!
DC-in Board
don’t loose the tape that you take off at this point if you want to use the same stuff again.
Top Case
Top Shield
Reassemble
Follow the notes in the manual, don't forget to put the springs back in a the correct point (I didn't and had to got back a stage) When reattaching the Arial to the AirPort card ensure its correctly in and ensure the AirPort card is properly installed into its slot, I didn't and thought that I had killed it for a couple of days until I went back and triple checked it.
Reinstall
After all this hold your breath and power the system back on, if you have been careful it should chime as normal and then flash a question mark, obviously theirs no OS on the drive at the moment so reboot with a iBook OS cd in the drive while holding down c, use the disk utility option to format the drive, you will most likely have to reboot after this before setup will recognise the drive as something it can install to.
Install OS X and your apps and test that everything is working, ie AirPort card is detected and your RAM is correct.
Congratulations, you now have a bigger disc in your iBook, do what you will with the old one, mines going into a USB 2.0 caddy to transfer larger amounts of data than will fit on my shuffel between my computers and University PCs
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