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Better... stronger... faster.

After puttering around with my dead PowerBook for a week and a half, I finally went to Fry's and bought a new hard drive. I hadn't been into a Fry's for years, and now I remember why. Gadgets! Toys! Movies! Books! And all that computer stuff! Holy impulse shopping; it took all my willpower to get out just under $300 with only the essentials I needed to get my machine working again.

I asked the guy at their service desk how much they'd charge to swap out my drive. They wanted $130 for just the labor. The drive itself was only $99! Oy veh. I have some experience with tinkering, I thought, so I decided to try it myself. Even though the box clearly says "Professional installation highly recommended."

(I am also a fool and a total amateur, so don't try this at home, your mileage may vary, etc.)

Someone thoughtfully wrote up detailed instructions for this project. They left out one crucial set of screws to be removed, but I was able to figure it out. The instructions also listed the absolute wrong tool (a 6mm hex wrench is worlds away from a T6 torx), but thanks to my tinkering background, I figured that one out, too. It was pretty nerve-wracking, though, and at one point as I was elbow deep in screws the size of ticks, I realized that I would be thoroughly amazed if the machine worked when I was done with it.

After removing the RAM, 34 screws, four keys from the keyboard, two stickers and four ribbon connectors, and then the entire keyboard and face plate, I got to the hard drive and swapped it out. I took a breather to answer the phone and take some photos of the operating table.

I put the new drive in, carefully reassembled everything with shaky hands, and happily noted that no screws were left over when I was done. I formatted the new drive and installed the system and everything seems to work fine so far. Deep breath.

I also bought an external drive enclosure so I can continue my salvage efforts with the drive I removed. As I plugged the old drive into its new box, I realized that I had forgotten one thing. A couple of screws on the drive have tiny, removable rubber rings around them. They provide shock protection for the drive inside the PowerBook. And of course, to put them on the new internal drive, I'll have to remove all 34 screws again.

It's never easy, is it?

December 2, 2006 4:32 PM