I am on the lookout for a new harddisk for my powerbook.
It has a 80 GB harddisk now and I would like a bigger one.
Are there any still available on the market?
All I see is max off 80GB for 2.5 inch pata.
Or is a adapter possible for sata inside the powerbook?

There is still ATA hard drives on the market. So you can upgrade to 500GB. Your system speed will be increase, because modern drives is faster. Of course if you get a 7200 rpm version is much faster, but bear in mind it runs hotter.
Or get an ATA SSD. It is slower than the any SATA ssd, but faster than most of the hard drives. And it is lower power hungry, and runs cooler.

Unfortunatelly, there is no space for an adapter.

My PB has a 320GB Western Digital AFAIK the biggest 2.5" PATA driver ever made.

My iBook has 120GB PATA-SSD and those are available in 250GB too (maybe even bigger) but a bit pricey.

If I were to buy a new HD for the PB today I would 100% certain buy another SSD.

yeah, in 2,5" biggest is 320GB, mismatched with the 3,5" version.

> It has a 80 GB harddisk now and I would like a bigger one.
> Are there any still available on the market?

Yes, at least in the EU:

http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/eu/?cat=hd2&xf=958_160#xf_top

> PATA-SSD [...] are available in 250GB too (maybe even bigger)

256 GiB (= 275 GB) seems to be the biggest:

http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/eu/?cat=hdssd&xf=2646_IDE%7E252_245760#xf_top

Derringer ist correct. The 320 GB Models are the biggest available HDD for IDE.

No clue if they are for sale anymore, but they were. When I updated my iBook and my Mini I had the chance to buy them, but they were to expensive, so I took the 160 GB models.

The only way to get more storage is to get a bigger SATA SSD, ripp the case off (make sure the one is smaller inside) and use a slim IDE-SATA adapter.

Geit


[ Edited by geit 16.03.2013 - 13:35 ]

> Derringer ist correct.

...and Kronos was correct even before him ;-)

> The 320 GB Models are the biggest available HDD for IDE.

...at 2.5" size.

> No clue if they are for sale anymore

According to my link, there're at least still 8 online shops in the EU that are selling them.

> they were to expensive

Yes, the price development over the years is actually very interesting:

http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/eu/?phist=400311

I have a 250GB drive in mine.
Western Digital, picked it up new on Ebay cheap.
Runs great.

Much more affordable then an SSD.

And what about this gadget:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pata-IDE-to-SATA-HDD-12-7mm-2nd-hard-drive-caddy-for-Apple-PowerBook-G4-iBook-/300764866899?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item4606fba953

If you don't use the optical drive too often, then you could put a small and cheap SSD + a bigger SATA HD.

It would have to be extremely thin.
I've had my Powerbook open and the optical drive isn't any thicker then the 2.5" hard drive.