This video is the result of me having to replace a dead hard drive for a G4 and realizing there aren’t nearly as many videos showing the process.
I know it’s not the “perfect” demonstration setup, not even close – ideally I’d have a top-down view with the camera mounted on the ceiling, but at least you see EVERY step of the replacement visually, all the way to OSX installation. I’m a visual person so just reading about what needed to be done wasn’t giving me a clear idea of how much work it would take.
I hope it helps at least one person out there to have a better idea of what they are getting themselves into 
Lastly I must mention http://www.ifixit.com/ because had it not been for THEIR helpful guide and website I doubt I would have been able to do this nearly as smoothly. Mad props to them for their wonderful step-by-step guides (with pictures)!
Duration : 0:5:28
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Nickdotvr,
I tried …
Nickdotvr,
I tried another disk and got the same result. The optical drive simply pops it out after a few seconds.
I’m a novice to Macs — but fairly proficient with the other guys.
I replaced the hard drive because the diagnostic indicated that it had failed. But now, with a new drive, I can’t load the OS via the optical drive. The common factor would seem to be the bus or cabeling or something. Any ideas of where to look?
Tom
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey Tom,
Yes, the …
Hey Tom,
Yes, the alternating question mark/file folder’s normal.
No, the Mac OS X install disk popping out is not – it’s supposed to start reading it. I guess I did hold down the C key and not the option key (I also get confused because I own a MacBook Pro, I was fixing this Powerbook for someone) but in any case all versions of OSX with the exception of Snow Leopard are supported by the Powerbooks – have you checked to make sure that the disk isn’t scratched up (by chance)? Try another disk?
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
NIck,
I’m stuck! I …
NIck,
I’m stuck! I replaced the hard drive on my daughter’s PowerBook G4, following fairly detailed instructions. When powering it back up, I got a symbol on the screen that alternates between a question mark and a file folder.
OK, that makes sense. It needs to load the operating system. So I popped in the Mac OS X install disk 1, started it up while holding the C key down and prayed. My prayers haven’t been answered. The disk comes out after a few seconds.
Any ideas?
ThomF
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey Jeshua – not a …
Hey Jeshua – not a stupid question at all but while you are right that the PS3 just uses a laptop drive [I had to look up a PlayStation 3 Hard Drive Upgrade (HOWTO) video on here to see what kind of drive it has since I don't own a PS3] that’s 2.5 inches just like the Powerbook G4, there is 1 big difference. The Powerbook G4 has ATA/IDE connection & drive. The PS3 uses SATA connection. It basically means you’d need an adapter but then it all wouldn’t fit because there’s not much space in there.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
just a stupid …
just a stupid question, i have a ps3 and it’s hard drive is broken. i bought a new hardrive and it didnt fix the YLOD. So i have 2 hardrives, will it work in my apple powerbook g4?
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Look up TransMac ( …
Look up TransMac (free for 15 days of use) – it allows you to burn DMG files [the Apple image format, equivalent of ISO files for PCs] in Windows.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
This is probably a …
This is probably a stupid question but i’m unfamiliar with macs. I got a hand-me-down PB G4 from my brother and the hard drive just crashed. I don’t have a copy of Mac OS, and if i can’t find anyone who does, would it be possible to download it on a PC and but it on a CD from there, or are there formatting issues? Actually buying an OS isn’t on the table.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey, that was my …
Hey, that was my idea when making it – I’d read up and seen iFixit’s picture guide but I still wanted to visually see what goes into the process so I’m happy to have helped out others in that way.
A lot of people say Carbon Copy works great – I have yet to try it out for myself so if you see this let me know if it really works out – one simple way to test it would have been if your WD drive had firewire – you could just hold the option key and boot off the external (OSX supports that).
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Good video – my …
Good video – my starting point. I have read all I could find on this subject, but video helps. I used a USB cable and Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy of the 80GB original drive to a 320GB Western Digital. Lets hope in boots on the first try. if I encounter any problems I will write back – but I suspect it will be a piece of cake. TR
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Amy, glad to have …
Amy, glad to have helped out some people out there!
You can message me anytime with questions and I try to write back ASAP as well.
It’s not too scary of an operation, especially now that you’ve seen that it’s rather straight-forward and ifixit has great step-by-step with pictures to follow (as I did while making this video).
If it was some other kind of a laptop worth a few hundred bucks I’d say not worth yout time but Powerbooks are well worth repairing (and still run great nowadays!!)
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey, thank you so …
Hey, thank you so much for this! It’s actually super helpful regardless of the camera angles. I’m probably going to have to do the same to my Powerbook soon. I think so.. I get my Apple loading screen and then the icon that says, “Hey, thinking about working here..” and then it just shuts off. I’m so tired of fighting this computer. But thank you for giving us visual folks a guide!
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Yes, not much you …
Yes, not much you can recover when the thing does a click-death … Starting the computer in “TARGET” mode when connected to another computer via Firewire does the same thing that having the drive in an enclosure would do – it helped to recover some files but on some the drive would get stuck in a reading “loop” and the only way to get out without waiting for 1000 hours was to power it down, power it back up and try pulling some other files.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
did you try???????? …
did you try???????????
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
basically.
basically.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
so it wasnt …
so it wasnt recoverable
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
It had, what I like …
It had, what I like to call, the CLICK of death … in other words every few seconds it would click if you’re not even doing anything and if you are trying to access data it would click randomly and often not read the data – the person was feeling very lucky since the most important stuff got saved to an external drive but the operating system had definitely become unusable.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
how dead was it try …
how dead was it try using a 2.5” ATA hdd enclosure to get the data
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Definitely a very …
Definitely a very unuseful video. Your back is really annoying…
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
*sigh* Does nobody …
*sigh* Does nobody read the “more info” nowadays? It is not meant as a detailed how-to video- there are some excellent ones out there for that. This video was created with the purpose of visually demonstrating to people how much work they are getting themselves into. I know it sucks and for my next HOW-TO video I’ll be swapping the HDD in my MacBook Pro with a SSD and it will be in HD and step-by-step. I agree with you that iFixIt IS THE BEST, wouldn’t have done it without their excellent guide!
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
You really should …
You really should have had the camera angled differently. All we see is your back during some of the extremely important parts. I’m going to be upgrading the hard drive and RAM in my girlfriends Mac. Her hard drive died and Apple wanted $300 to replace it with another 80GB HD. We spend less than that and we’re putting in a 320GB HD and upgrading the RAM from 512MB to 2GB. iFixIt is the best!
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
this video has been …
this video has been QUITE useful to a number of people (check the rest of the comments). dude– learn how to read that thing on the right of the video that says “more info” instead of wasting your time posting criticism to a video that clearly wasn’t meant to be a “step-by-step” instructional video to begin with (but I have provided a link to a site that has the step-by-step instructions I followed).
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
this video is …
this video is useless. dude– learn how to make a helpful video instead of wasting people’s time.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
ata is the same as …
ata is the same as ide
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
check out “more …
check out “more info” for a link to ifixit where I learned how to replace the drive, they also have drives that’ll work, I’ll re-send you the same message I sent falconwagon61 a week ago since it was more or less the same question (see 2 comments down from yours).
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
hi my drive is …
hi my drive is dying on my 12 inch power g4 i went to a few shops but nobody could tell me which drive to buy in the specs it just says ata but which kind ata would work?please help thanks.