Replace your MAC harddisk, easy

I should do stuff more often, at least it makes far hotter stuff come out.

Couple of days ago I decided that both MAC laptops in the house needed more storage. The G4 PowerBook and the MacBook. So I ordered a Western Digital Scorpio 250GB 5400RPM and a Western Digital Scorpio 320GB 5400RPM. The replacement of the MacBook one can do with a sharp kitchen knife, no problem. Just remove the batery [do not bother shutting the OS down, it's as stable as my weight] and take a sharp kitchen knife [I used the new Global one I gave my wife a couple of days ago]. Unscrew 3 little screws, pull out the harddisk, take a strong plyer, remove the 4 screws, take the plastic thingy, wrap it on the new disk, sort of re attach the 4 screws, stick the thing back in. Ram the old battery in and of you go [never mind about the 3 little screws and the metal strip, all just surplus weight].

Reinstall and do not mind about the updates that want you to reboot your DVD version of the OS 4 times!

Now the Powerbook, that is another story. About 23 philips screws [tiny fuckers!] and then 2 torx 6, that is SIX, not 8, but 6, the smallest possible tool made only in Switzerland and it will set you back about the same amount of euroos as the 320Gb disk.

Then you get to pull of two, well, 'connectors' that are actually used open ended flatcables: class construction. Putting the whole thing back is a joy. Takes the precision of a live-bomb-defuser, nice enginering.

Installing the OS of course requieres the PPC version. Inserting the iMac Intel version yields a nice panic message. Never mind about the I-do-not-know-how-many updates and reboots [even for the so called 3.1.x SAFARY update one gets a reboot!], for they slow down the secure OS X anyway.

Right after finishing something flashy caught my eye: the MHZ2 CJ.

A 2.5 inch Serial-ATA Revision 2.6 (Gen1i and Gen2i) hard disk with embedded AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption, high-speed rotational speed of 7200rpm, it supports SATA 3.0Gbit/s and the capacities go up to 320GB with a 16MB buffer... How is that for cool?

You know what that means as soon as you see it: dumping the current disk for no reason on ebay, including all the private data it has accumelated in a months time and over pay for the new disk since it is new and hot.