Go2Mac reader William B Tittle sends along these instructions for upgrading the hard drive in an iBook. Please note that this process will void your warranty and is best left to an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
1. Unplug AC.
2. Open Battery compartment and remove battery.
3. Unscrew Torx screws on bottom of book (2 at back, 4 in battery compartment)
4. Eject CD and unscrew Philips head that is revealed.
5. Unscrew Single black screw in center holding beauty plate of CD Drive and unsnap and set aside.
6. Unscrew 2 torx head on the monitor that are in the Handle area.
7. Pop off keyboard.
8. Remove Airport (if you have one)
9. Unscrew RAM cover and set aside.
10. Unhook Keyboard from motherboard and set aside.
11. Unhook trackpad.
12. Unscrew Plastic cover.
13. Unhook Speaker.
14. Gently Pull case near monitor until cover pops out (you may have to encourage it with a screw driver)
15. Lift cover until it pops off front. Gently. We don’t want to break anything. This is sort of nerve racking the first time you do it, cause it feels like you have missed a screw.
16. Unscrew CD from case. It is a single screw (bolt) next to the touch pad connection.
17. Carefully lift out CD drive. (Unhooking drive from motherboard.
18. Unscrew power ground on left side.
19. Unscrew RJ-12 connector. (2 small screws)
20. Unscrew Power connector cover (1 small screw)
21. Carefully peel back foil at top of board. (after unscrewing the screws and removing the cushion.)
22. Remove Modem card.
23. Unscrew other small screws holding monitor in. (there are 3 or 4) (can’t remember right now).
24. Undo Big screws on either side of monitor that hold monitor and ground.
25. Unplug Monitor from motherboard. (one on either side).
26. Remove monitor and set aside. Carefully untaping the Airport antenna.
27. Find the rest of the screws holding the motherboard cover on.
28. Thread speaker wire through motherboard cover as you lift it up. Untaping it. and set it aside.
(Yeah, take a deep breath) now the easy part.
30. Unscrew the hard disk (if you can’t identify it, you probably shouldn’t be here).
31. Unplug hard disk from motherboard
32. Remove cage from hard disk.
33. Put in new hard disk.
34. Put everything back together again.
This is not a straightforward task. I really appreciated my Wallstreet once I got done. Replacing that hard disk took like 15 minutes, because I was really careful. When I put my 64 MB module in the bottom slot, it took about 5 minutes to do everything. The iBook is not meant for the average consumer to get into.
PS. I don’t guarantee every step above, people should be advised to keep their own notes and be aware of the dangers involved. (1. biggest of which is not getting the computer back together again and having to explain to your spouse why her computer doesn’t work).
20GB is really nice for my wife who happily scans 20MB images with little thought.
[Update: William has posted pictures of the iBook HDD upgrade process on his Web site.]
