I got a call from a friend with a dead 12" PowerBook yesterday. There was a horrible noise coming from the drive, and I had to fix it. I booted the Mac into FireWire Target mode (hold down the T key on boot and the Mac turns into a FireWire drive). We managed to pull off some data, but the copy would stick after around 5GB of transfer.
The next part was the fun part. New drive! A full rundown with photos awaits you after the jump.
Here is the patient, along with some gratuitous product placement.
The first thing to do is head over to the excellent iFixit.com, an amazing resource for Mac home repair. Their step-by-step guides make it pretty easy, and they sell parts, too. All the guides are free.
It's a good idea to print the pages so you have somewhere to tape the screws. Next, the PowerBook with the keyboard removed.
This is a close-up. Some people don't look after their machines.
This is the the gory inside, with the new drive installed.
Ahhh, the "Question Mark" boot screen. This has reduced tough men to tears. Backup, people!
Pop in the OS install DVD, take a quick trip to Disk Utility and you have a shiny new 160GB drive in your 12" PowerBook. The install went without a hitch.
So that's it. My friend owes me dinner. The whole thing took around an hour, including the install, and the most amazing part is that I didn't have any left over screws.
And for those of you who made it this far, here's a bonus picture of my desk, from where this post is reaching you. It's usually much tidier. And if you can tell me who's legs are on the calendar you win, well, nothing, except our respect.
Disassembly guide [iFixit]
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