08-14-2009, 02:50 AM

A few months ago I just got a macbook for studying mainly but other things as well. I got it refurbished and maxed out the ram myself.

Anyway to the point. I spent the week researching hardrives. The two main ones recommended (that I have comes across) are WD Scorpion Blue (some don't recommend the 7200rpm one)

So, after more research there is this one

Western Digital 500GB 5400rpm 2.5" Mobile Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. (WD5000BEVT) | Techbuy Australia

Me being the extremely paranoid kind (and wanting a clear "yes" or "no" or "**** no") and partly because I have to save up for it (doesn't help I'm in Australia either, had to go hunting for that one) Would that actually work.

Oh yeah, where are my manners. Here are the specs for "check list" sakes.

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

And the hard drive itself (just incase you wanted to know):

Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00:

Capacity: 149.05 GB
Model: Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00
Revision: BBCAC3GP
Serial Number: 080129BB0C10WGJVVE3A
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)


Again I apologise for posting the possibly one millionth of this. But after reading through the threads I just want to abate my paranoia before I do anything.

PS: Part of my reasoning for wanting to go up to 500gb is because I do a lot of stuff with DVD footage as well.

08-14-2009, 03:44 AM

If you are extremely paranoid then i think you should buy an Ext HD for a bootable back up. Don't believe any models of HD have a lifetime warranty, so you pays your money and takes your chance and plan for possible failure of your MacBook HD whichever one you end up with..

08-14-2009, 03:48 AM

WD has a 5 year warranty on their HDD. Seagate use to have 5 years too but now it's 3 for some reason.

The 7200 RPM Black scorpio from WD is decent from what I hear. There are a few members here that have that HDD. There are also a few that have the 7200.3 from Seagate as well.

08-14-2009, 04:21 AM

Originally Posted by Collin Bl

If you are extremely paranoid then i think you should buy an Ext HD for a bootable back up. Don't believe any models of HD have a lifetime warranty, so you pays your money and takes your chance and plan for possible failure of your MacBook HD whichever one you end up with..

To be honest, I'm not that paranoid, but paranoid enough to double check. Plus, I'd be hunting more for other sources that sell that one (hopefully with a warranty) that one just happened to have the specs I'm looking for.

Originally Posted by CrimsonRequiem

WD has a 5 year warranty on their HDD. Seagate use to have 5 years too but now it's 3 for some reason.

The 7200 RPM Black scorpio from WD is decent from what I hear. There are a few members here that have that HDD. There are also a few that have the 7200.3 from Seagate as well.

About the warranty, considering that one I linked to is 1 year, it looks like it is warranty hunting time.

08-14-2009, 04:30 AM

That drive will work and should be a great green drive.
I may start using those as I expand my server.

I'm one of those that has the WD black. The only people I know of that don't recommend the newer 7200 RPM drives are those that have not used one. I have not seen a post from someone that has put either the WD black or the Seagate in their Mac that would consider going back to a 5400 RPM drive.

Collin makes a great point and I agree - unless you can just shrug your shoulders and move on when your internal fails and you don't have a backup drive already, I'd recommend investing there before changing out the internal drive.

Ref the warranty. That site may have some 1 year warranty that they offer for alleviating the necessity of dealing with the manufacturer, but WD warranties the Blue for 3 yrs and the Black for 5 yrs. With drive warranties, it's always best to check the manufacturers site rather than the sellers. Even the best of sellers may have that data listed wrong.

08-14-2009, 06:43 AM

Me being me I already have 3? 4? external drives (one 750gb, one 250gb and one 30gb) , so I'm good. I actually use the biggest one as my iMac's main drive (purely because I live in a storm prone area)

And yup, I have been spending the whole afternoon looking at WD's website and comparing warranties.

08-14-2009, 12:45 PM

i also am paranoid but not for price or performance but i assume EVERY drive will fail eventually.

i bought:

Newegg.com - Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II 2TB 7200 RPM 3.5" USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / IEEE 1394b / eSATA Quad Interface Storage System with RAID Model WDH2Q20000N

since it comes with RAID built into the drive. i have it set up as Raid 0 (mirrored 1TB drives - my geek son did it for me) and it works great as a Time Machine backup drive.