question about a new harddrive

synthemesc · Jul 7, 2009

i was looking around for a new harddrive for my macbook pro and i was wondering if the RPMs made any real difference. is something like a 5400 noticeably different from a 7400?

also, this is kind of a newbish question about computers generally, but is there anything left on your mac when you put in a new drive? is your data stored anywhere besides the harddrive?

CrimsonRequiem · Jul 7, 2009

synthemesc said:
i was looking around for a new harddrive for my macbook pro and i was wondering if the RPMs made any real difference. is something like a 5400 noticeably different from a 7400?

also, this is kind of a newbish question about computers generally, but is there anything left on your mac when you put in a new drive? is your data stored anywhere besides the harddrive?

Yes there is a difference. It's spinning a lot faster than a 5400 RPM drive, so it's obviously faster. Boot ups are faster, launching applications are also faster and read/write speeds are also faster.

All your data is store on the HDD. If you want to keep the original data you need to clone your HDD.

zacharace · Jul 7, 2009

If you can, go for the 7200RPM. As Crimson said, there is definitely a noticeable difference.
And no, it's all on the original hard drive. Back it up!

XJ-linux · Jul 7, 2009

Another item to check when looking for a new HDD is the cache on the HDD. 16MB is pretty much standard on 7200rpm / higher performing HDD's. Some, however, have only 8MB of cache. It's not huge, but can notice the difference on the 7200 rpm 3.5" form factor drives I use.

synthemesc · Jul 7, 2009

thanks for the tips guys. im going to go with a 7200rpm 16mb.

also, if i wanted to send every bit of information on my comp straight to ****, would just replacing the hdd do the trick?

chscag · Jul 7, 2009

synthemesc said:
thanks for the tips guys. im going to go with a 7200rpm 16mb.

also, if i wanted to send every bit of information on my comp straight to ****, would just replacing the hdd do the trick?

No. You would need to secure erase the old hard drive. You can do that from Disk Utility.

Regards.

Kash · Jul 7, 2009

Here's another vote for a 7200RPM drive. I upgraded several months ago and it's been the single best way to speed up my Macbook as the improvement is actually noticeable.

GK27V6 · Jul 8, 2009

I agree, I just updated from a 5400RPM 120GB HD to a 7200RPM 500GB HD recently. With the old drive, my computer booted up in about 45 seconds, whereas now I timed it at 28 seconds. You'll also notice an increase in speed in other areas of using the computer, such as applications launching faster.

question about a new harddrive

synthemesc

CrimsonRequiem

zacharace

XJ-linux

synthemesc

chscag

Well-known member

Kash

GK27V6

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