June 12, 2009
The Weekly WANT IT Mans Up and Controls Itself
filed under: The Weekly WANT ITThis week, Apple released a minor upgrade to the MacBook Pro line, which added a more potent, longer-lifespan battery and dropped the entry prices (while at the same time removing one of the two video cards from the lower-speed 15" model in an effort to make it cheaper).
On a hunch, I checked their Refurb page, and discovered that last week's 15", with specs superior to the current $1700 model (since it still has both video cards and a bigger hard drive), was available refurb for $1450. 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive. It doesn't have the hotsie totsie new battery, but I don't really care. I sure as hell don't care $250 worth.
The new solid-block MBPs are gorgeous, and lustworthy. And did I mention that my wonderful loyal Powerbook, which I got most of four years ago, has been running slowly and was currently refusing to charge because Charlie dipped the end of the power cable into Max's cereal?
In a burst of impetuous capitalism, I was ready to upgrade. All I needed was the ProcrastiWife's final go-ahead, which she had sounded ready to give.
I did not get it. She didn't say no, but she didn't say yes. She pointed out, rightly, that $1500 is still a buttfull of money to spend out of the blue, and that we should think about it.
So what, I thought to myself, is the real problem with my current computer. It turned out the only insoluble issue was that the hard drive was almost full. So I started doing research in the vain hope that I could upgrade the hard drive.
I went to TekServe but balked at their online quote-request tool. So I went to Google.
"Google," I said, "can I replace the hard drive on my Powerbook G4 myself?"
Turns out, I sure can.
It'll look a little like this, except my arm hair isn't as dark:
All I would need was one of each of these:
Western Digital WD3200BEVE 320 GB 5400RPM ATA100 8 MB 2.5-Inch Notebook Hard Drive
Macally PHR-250CC FireWire 400/USB 2.0 2.5-Inch IDE Hard Drive Enclosure
23-in-1 Mini-Uni-Drive Kit
Here's what you do (in a nutshell): buy a new internal hard drive (important: Powerbooks take IDE (also referred to as PATA) hard drives, NOT the SATA drives which are more common nowadays); buy an enclosure to temporarily turn it into an *external* drive; hook it up to your computer; clone your hard drive onto it; pop the hood and swap hard drives (see above instructions); mount your old smaller hard drive in the enclosure for use as a spare external drive; enjoy your newfound storage space.
I had a false start, as I went to J&R in my impatience to get the project going, and Igor the Surly And Idiotic J&R Associate (the bane of my existence in the Hard Drive department, who screwed me over vis a vis my DVR expander which is a WHOLE OTHER STORY) took great Slavik pride in telling me that the only enclosure they had was the Apricorn Universal (it was an Apricorn DVR expander that went bad on me, so I distrust them).
At home, this USB 2.0 drive refused to be recognized by my computer. Lisa's saw it just fine. Mine? No go. So today I searched all over creation (otherwise known as TekServe, BestBuy, PC Richards and finally success at B&H Photo - reminding me of the essential NYC lesson "YOU GO TO B&H") and got an enclosure with a FireWire interface.
My hard drive (which turned out to be a measly 80GB) has been cloned onto my spanking new 320GB monster, and tonight I will attempt the swap. By the way, anyone looking for an excellent sci-fi read that involves this exact procedure, but with humans, should read John Scalzi's brilliant Old Man's War
I'll let you know how it goes. Once this is over, I'm going to upgrade to OS X 10.5 Leopard and iLife '06, and hopefully with the new 4x storage headroom my old girl will keep humming along for another good little while - all for a total investment of around $350.
Now I just have to figure out how to spend the $1100 I just saved!