old Ibook Harddrive recycling

Discussion in 'PowerPC Macs' started by whyrichard, Jul 7, 2006.

  1. macrumors 68000

    Aug 15, 2002
    Hello mac lovers,

    i have an old ibook, motherboard died, with an 80 gig hd that i would like to reuse.

    Is there a way for me to take out the harddrive and reuse it as a firewire/usb 2 harddrive?

  2. Moderator emeritus


    Oct 21, 2003
    Portland, OR
    Ah.. now I see the rest of your post..

    And yes.. you can.. which exernal case you get depends on what accessories you'll need.
    A small form-factor case for a 2.5" drive or a larger one for 3.5" drives (will require a 2.5" -> 3.5" adapter).
  3. macrumors 68040


    Yes not a problem at all, just find a take apart guide from a place like ifixit.
    All you need to do is buy an external 2.5in FW or USB drive enclosure, you can get one at a Compusa, or online at a place like Newegg.
  4. thread starter macrumors 68000

    Aug 15, 2002
    who designs these horrible things?

    i would love to find a tiny 2.5" hd enclosure with the following qualities:

    -a built in wrap around short cord. when you carry a usb cord it almost doubles the size! whats the point when you need 6" of cord?

    any suggestions?

  5. macrumors 6502a


    Sep 26, 2002
    Somewhere out there
    Just did what you are looking to do ( amazing how Starbucks killed my iBook ( when poured into it ) ).

    I am using this case with a Toshiba 100GB drive on my new MacBook.

    It came with short cables.

  6. macrumors 6502

    Feb 21, 2006
    I don't know, whether there are any cases with a built-in cable.

    If it comes to the question USB or Firewire, it depends on the computer you are using it with. With Macs and Firewire you are generally on the save side. For USB there seems to be an issue with the power over the USB cable. Not every port provides enough power to supply an external drive. That's why many cases come with a cable, which can be plugged into two USB ports to combine their power. Myself I had one 2.5 USB drive which worked fine on a Powerbook Titanium, not at all on a Powermac G5 and occasionally on a Macbook Pro. If a connection to two USB ports was used, it worked fine on all of them. So this is not really a big problem, but an inconvenience, especially if you want minimize the cable.
  7. macrumors 6502a


    Jan 27, 2004
    Vermont, USA
    I haven't seen any with cords that wrap flush around the enclosure. Maybe try velcro straps? A bigger bag?

    I just received my first HD enclosure, a Macally firewire and USB 2.5 to recycle the 40 Gig HD from my Gateway. Small, pretty blue light, transfers fast, makes a high pitched whiny sound: What more could you want? :)

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