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Help Please, HD Problem
Carrying on from my "is my ibook doomed" thread I have some questions.
Is it possible to bypass my built in drive and run it from an external HD? Please forgive me if the answer is obvious.
Does anyone know a good Apple repairer near Lancashire?
Any ideas what it is likely to cost to replace my 60GB HD.
Thanks
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IIRC, you can boot off an external drive that has Mac OS on it. Bung the Cd in, hold down the C button on startup (with the drive plugged in) and then just install the OS as usual, but on the external drive.
Then to boot off it, just hold down the alt key (one with funny symbol on between control and apple keys) and then select the external drive. You can change the default startup drive in the system prefs.
As for repair/cost, I'm not really sure. It might be worth looking for a local Mac User Group and asking them, or looking about in the back of MacUser/World/Format or somesuch.
They aren't too hard to replace, but certainly in the 12" they are pretty tight on space, so it is very fiddly, and it's easy to drop a screw or miss out a wee bit.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks for that, it's appreciated.
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i would fit the drive yourself m8, its not hard, you can download various mac pdf's that document how to strip one down to change the hard drive.
info should be on a mac forum, cant remember where i got the info from..
this may be a good start for you. http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/
real shame you aint in the midlands, i would swop it for £20 + new drive of your choosing.
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If portability is no longer a concern then booting off an external (LaCie in my case) firewire will be an excellent choice. You get the speed boost from a modern desktop drive, cheapness and higher capacity.
The internal drive can be done easily with preparation - but it is not trivial.