Planning on upgrading my MacBook hard drive...

Currently, my hard drive setup is something like this:

160GB internal
80GB external (Hooked to Xbox 360 for movies)
250GB external (Time Machine and TV Shows)

What I'm thinking about doing is buying a Western Digital 2.5" 500GB hard drive, installing it in my MacBook, putting my 160GB and my 80GB drives into new enclosures (so they match ^_^), plugging a USB hub into my Xbox 360, (loaded with movies/tv shows/music), and then using my 250GB drive as my Time Machine drive.

Basically, without breaking $150 (the 500GB WD drive is $100), is there a better way to do this, or does what I described sound like a good plan?

Derek McNelly said:

Currently, my hard drive setup is something like this:

160GB internal
80GB external (Hooked to Xbox 360 for movies)
250GB external (Time Machine and TV Shows)

What I'm thinking about doing is buying a Western Digital 2.5" 500GB hard drive, installing it in my MacBook, putting my 160GB and my 80GB drives into new enclosures (so they match ^_^), plugging a USB hub into my Xbox 360, (loaded with movies/tv shows/music), and then using my 250GB drive as my Time Machine drive.

Basically, without breaking $150 (the 500GB WD drive is $100), is there a better way to do this, or does what I described sound like a good plan?

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Hey mate.. I upgraded my HD a lil while ago in my macbook. I used the Scorpio Black from WD 320Gig 7200 drive. It is as quick as they get.. I didnt think you could get a 500Gig drive in the 9.5mm form factor the Macbook needs. They are 2.5" but think they maybe 12.5mm thick.. so won't fit.... Worth double checking as I've not looked into this since 6 months back....

EDIT*
OK scratch that....
WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB SATA Hard Drives ( WD5000BEVT )

they do one.. but it is a 5400 drive so will be slower but you can get the capacity at 9.5mm... sorry to confuse.. I was looking for a 7200 drive and the biggest in this speed is still 320..

Oh and your plan sounds good to me... except, when your 500G drive starts to get full you won't be able to back it up using time machine as your other drives are too small......

In case you are still deciding, here is my suggestion. There is really no reason to buy a new enclosure for the 80GB. Although it might be aesthetically pleasing, you'll be wasting money.

As for the USB hub, I can only tell you about my experiences with external HDs and USB hubs. Either, the external won't be recognized (that HD is USB powered though) or it will be painfully slow (this one is not USB powered). I wish I could empahsize the painfully more as any significant TM backup will take forever. I'm not sure how this will affect playback of media though.

Can I pose a question on the topic? Will this drive work on a Black MacBook?

Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200rpm 16Mb Buffer hard drive

hagios1972 said:

Can I pose a question on the topic? Will this drive work on a Black MacBook?

Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200rpm 16Mb Buffer hard drive

Click to expand...

Should work.

CrimsonRequiem said:

Should work.

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Thanks. I am planning to upgrade my MB with this drive.

vansmith said:

In case you are still deciding, here is my suggestion. There is really no reason to buy a new enclosure for the 80GB. Although it might be aesthetically pleasing, you'll be wasting money.

As for the USB hub, I can only tell you about my experiences with external HDs and USB hubs. Either, the external won't be recognized (that HD is USB powered though) or it will be painfully slow (this one is not USB powered). I wish I could empahsize the painfully more as any significant TM backup will take forever. I'm not sure how this will affect playback of media though.

Click to expand...

I currently have 3 USB harddrives and a USB DVD burner hooked up to a hub (along with my printer, wireless mouse, two USB audio interfaces and a midi device). You'll only run into issues with devices not being recognized if your hub doesn't provide enough power and the device is bus powered.

Make sure the hub doesn't revert to USB 1.1 if you don't have all USB 2 devices connected (some are known to do that) though!

Copying speeds may be faster without the hub, but unless you're constantly copying hundreds of GBs back and forth, speed is a non-issue IMO. Obviously if I was moving large files around constantly it might be a pain, but I think for general storage and backups it's not such as big deal.

Time machine backups take longer to "prepare" than they do to copy, so you're in for a bit of a wait either way.