Replacing MB hard-drive

Kevin M. · Feb 2, 2008

I have been thinking about replacing my Macbook hard-drive for a while now. But I was wondering if can use any labtop hard-drive, or do I need to purchase a specially made one from apple. Your comments on this matter would be very helpful in this situation.

kenbrinkman · Feb 2, 2008

a long time ago you needed to buy a special mac drive, but nowadays any drive will work. just make sure you get the right interface. I'm pretty sure all macbooks are sata drives. I just replaced mine with a 200gb 7200rpm sataII drive

Kevin M. · Feb 2, 2008

kenbrinkman said:
a long time ago you needed to buy a special mac drive, but nowadays any drive will work. just make sure you get the right interface. I'm pretty sure all macbooks are sata drives. I just replaced mine with a 200gb 7200rpm sataII drive

How can you tell which Interface is which?

Richie_Gecko · Feb 2, 2008

Kevin M. said:
How can you tell which Interface is which?

If you buy the drive online, the product description should tell you whether it is a SATA drive.

If you buy it in a store, it will be indicated on the box.

Not to be rude, but it sounds like you haven't dealt with computer hardware very much. It might be a better idea for you to have the drive replaced by a professional.

Kevin M. · Feb 2, 2008

Richie_Gecko said:
If you buy the drive online, the product description should tell you whether it is a SATA drive.

If you buy it in a store, it will be indicated on the box.

Not to be rude, but it sounds like you haven't dealt with computer hardware very much. It might be a better idea for you to have the drive replaced by a professional.

I have, just not with a Mac. By the sound of things, it sounds like a simple process. Just switch out the old drive, with the right drive. Reinstall the OS program, and I'm good to go.

Kash · Feb 2, 2008

Yep, that's pretty much it.

fletch33 · Feb 2, 2008

i just upgraded my blackbook to 320gb sata drive and it seriously took less than 5 minutes to replace and start installing leopard. you wont have any problems.

if your interested in the 320gb you have to options.

1. you can order one online and wait for it since i could not find it in stock at any store. newegg for example it was like $199

2. do what i did and get this from best buy for $199. open it up and it is the exact model number of the WD 320gb sata drive you get on newegg or wherever but now you can take your old drive and place in in this shell and have your old HDD as an external drive that you can connect and drag all the files, programs, etc... to your new OS. works out really nice since you dont have to worry about losing any info and when your finished you have a nice external usb drive.

kenbrinkman · Feb 2, 2008

fletch33 said:
i just upgraded my blackbook to 320gb sata drive and it seriously took less than 5 minutes to replace and start installing leopard. you wont have any problems.

if your interested in the 320gb you have to options.

1. you can order one online and wait for it since i could not find it in stock at any store. newegg for example it was like $199

2. do what i did and get this from best buy for $199. open it up and it is the exact model number of the WD 320gb sata drive you get on newegg or wherever but now you can take your old drive and place in in this shell and have your old HDD as an external drive that you can connect and drag all the files, programs, etc... to your new OS. works out really nice since you dont have to worry about losing any info and when your finished you have a nice external usb drive.

that 320gb is only a 5400rpm right, won't that thing be slow because its so big?

lightsguydave · Feb 2, 2008

I personally think the difference between 5400 and 7200 RPM is academic. Really you'd have to be doing something special to actually notice the difference. I have a 250GB 5400rpm HDD. It takes less power up and it's as fast as I need it to be and everything.

fletch33 · Feb 3, 2008

lightsguydave said:
I personally think the difference between 5400 and 7200 RPM is academic. Really you'd have to be doing something special to actually notice the difference. I have a 250GB 5400rpm HDD. It takes less power up and it's as fast as I need it to be and everything.

agreed

kenbrinkman · Feb 3, 2008

fletch33 said:
agreed

idk, I can definitely see a difference. Maybe its a combination of my ram and the 72000rpm drive, but my OS loads in <20 seconds, my 5,000 picture iphoto library loads instantly, same with my 7gb of music in itunes. For me, its a whole new computer. My fans never turn on. I constantly run spaces with safari, mail, itunes, ichat, word, and excel while streaming music to an airport express and burning a dvd. I can't get my fans to turn on. Even photoshop and illustrator load instanatly. Maybe I'm imagining things, but compared to a 160gb 5400rpm stock, my 200gb 7200rpm is an improvement

Richie_Gecko · Feb 3, 2008

kenbrinkman said:
idk, I can definitely see a difference. Maybe its a combination of my ram and the 72000rpm drive, but my OS loads in <20 seconds, my 5,000 picture iphoto library loads instantly, same with my 7gb of music in itunes. For me, its a whole new computer. My fans never turn on. I constantly run spaces with safari, mail, itunes, ichat, word, and excel while streaming music to an airport express and burning a dvd. I can't get my fans to turn on. Even photoshop and illustrator load instanatly. Maybe I'm imagining things, but compared to a 160gb 5400rpm stock, my 200gb 7200rpm is an improvement

I also saw a drastic difference when I upgraded from the stock 60GB 5400RPM to my 100GB 7200RPM drive.

Aptmunich · Feb 4, 2008

I was considering a 7200rpm recently, but the larger size made a 250GB 5400rpm drive a no-brainer for me... I'm always running out of space.

Kash · Feb 4, 2008

There's definitely a noticeable difference when moving to faster drive speeds. I remember going from 7200RPM to 10,000RPM and then having to go back to 7200RPM for a few weeks, it was like the difference between night and day. This particular difference isn't something only seen in benchmarks, you notice it as you do your work. Why else is the hard drive considered the only major bottleneck remaining in modern computers?

I too would like to upgrade to a 7200RPM drive in my Macbook, and one day when they get a bit bigger, I'll be getting one.

fletch33 · Feb 4, 2008

Aptmunich said:
I was considering a 7200rpm recently, but the larger size made a 250GB 5400rpm drive a no-brainer for me... I'm always running out of space.

that was my thinking. i wanted the 320GB drive and I was willing to loose the 7200 speed to get it. i have no speed complaints about my blackbook.

Changoloco · Feb 4, 2008

Richie_Gecko said:
If you buy the drive online, the product description should tell you whether it is a SATA drive.

If you buy it in a store, it will be indicated on the box.

Not to be rude, but it sounds like you haven't dealt with computer hardware very much. It might be a better idea for you to have the drive replaced by a professional.

Replacing an HD is about as hard as replacing spark plugs on a car. Aka it isn't very hard.

fyrman22 · Feb 5, 2008

I did a drive swap for a friend on her MB it was really easy. I ordered one for me a 250GB drive. Having all that space is gonna be nice. Should be here tomorrow.