Upgrading Hard Drive

Mikeatsea · Sep 22, 2010

I've managed to use almost all of my Hard Drive space in a year and a half that Ive had my MBP 15. It's a 250 Gb hard drive and I'd like to go with a 500 Gb. I 've looked at the forum exchanges about putting a new HD in myself and am not really comfortable opening up my machine myself. I've also looked at the Apple site and they don't seem to offer to sell upgrade hard drives or install them. Am I missing something? Does the Apple in their stores not offer this?
Thanks for your replys.

CrimsonRequiem · Sep 22, 2010

As far as I know they don't sell HDDs or install them for you, unless there is a problem with the one you have* (need to be under warranty).

There are plenty of guides on the internet on how to do it. Need to just google to find them.

Mikeatsea · Oct 15, 2010

In the 1 1/2 years that I owned this computer, I'd opened the battery cover once. That's as far as I got into it. After your suggestion, I checked out just how complicated it would be to upgrade the HD. Hooked up with OWC and found their products and videos very easy to understand and use. Ordered a 500 GB hard Drive and also went for 6GB of Ram. Got the stuff and installed it in about 45 minutes. I'd cloned the original HD using Carbon Copy Cloner. Could have not been easier or cleaner. For having done nothing with a Mac before this, I have to say that I'd encourage anyone who can read and watch a video that they could do these upgrades too. Thanks for suggesting it. Much better solution than getting bigger external hard drives to lug around with me!

MYmacROX · Oct 15, 2010

Mikeatsea said:
In the 1 1/2 years that I owned this computer, I'd opened the battery cover once. That's as far as I got into it. After your suggestion, I checked out just how complicated it would be to upgrade the HD. Hooked up with OWC and found their products and videos very easy to understand and use. Ordered a 500 GB hard Drive and also went for 6GB of Ram. Got the stuff and installed it in about 45 minutes. I'd cloned the original HD using Carbon Copy Cloner. Could have not been easier or cleaner. For having done nothing with a Mac before this, I have to say that I'd encourage anyone who can read and watch a video that they could do these upgrades too. Thanks for suggesting it. Much better solution than getting bigger external hard drives to lug around with me!

Awesome! Congrats on the successful "surgery".

Do you have a unibody or the model just prior? I replaced my HDD (200GB -> 500GB) and upgraded RAM (2GB -> 4GB) a week ago (I have the model just prior to the unibodies). Also went the CCC route. Went smoothly and those video tutorials make all the difference.

Mikeatsea · Oct 18, 2010

I have the Unibody -probably first generation. I got it new in late 2008. Just love the machine. My first mac - never going back! The whole upgrade process couldn't have been easier - or more satisfying.

Oefootball70 · Nov 3, 2010

Would you mind linking me to the hard drive and ram you purchased? I have a black uni-body. I am wanting to run a more efficient windows along side of my snow leopard. Also if I have it open I might as well upgrade the RAM. I semi new to macs. I am also very new upgrading internal to macs. I really would appreciate the help or links to the upgrades that you all talk about.

Oefootball70 · Nov 3, 2010

actually is this them?

500GB Hard Drive Upgrade for Mac Pro and iMac

1.0TB Hard Drive Upgrade for Mac Pro and iMac

8GB Apple Mac Pro Workstation Memory Upgrade for Mac Pro 8GB | Mac Pro Workstation 8GB Mac RAM modules

So the RAM is more expensive than the HD. If I did the 1TB and 8GB Ram my laptop would be a beast huh? Would it be able to fit both of those?

Oefootball70 · Nov 3, 2010

Okay, I found on another forum that you can run the 8gb RAM in the 2.4 ghz processor. But I am 2.16 ghz processor. So can I upgrade my ram even? I am at 2 gb, So I think that the 4GB of RAM would treat me nicely. 1TB might be way over kill. 500gb would be perfect for me. I guess this is more of a blog for me at this point now lol. No responses yet

True Bassist · Nov 4, 2010

Hey Oefootball70. I have the RAM kit you need on the buy/sell forums if you'd like to make me an offer?

Here's the link

V6Pony · Nov 4, 2010

Oefootball70 said:
actually is this them?

500GB Hard Drive Upgrade for Mac Pro and iMac

1.0TB Hard Drive Upgrade for Mac Pro and iMac

8GB Apple Mac Pro Workstation Memory Upgrade for Mac Pro 8GB | Mac Pro Workstation 8GB Mac RAM modules

So the RAM is more expensive than the HD. If I did the 1TB and 8GB Ram my laptop would be a beast huh? Would it be able to fit both of those?

The 1TB drive is also 7200 rpm. I believe the stock HD is 5400 rpm so it is faster as well. I have a new MBP 15 I'm thinking about installing this drive while the laptop is new. That is such a good buy. I have a MBP 15 I5 that is less than a week old. Love it. I'm think about taking it back and trading for the MBP 15 I7. This would up my HD to 500meg and the faster processor. The difference in cost is not that much if you assume a 5 year lifespan. I could add the 1TB disk and upgrade my memory on the 15 I5 to 8mb for less? Decisions Decisions.

bobtomay · Nov 4, 2010

Oefootball70:

You can only put a max of 4GB of RAM in your Black 2.16 MB. It will only be able to use 3GB max. My MBP has this same limitation, but I upgraded it to 4GB about 3 yrs ago. The purpose for this is to maintain the dual channel capability. Or, you can just get a single stick of 2GB and call it a day. Your machine also uses DDR2 of the type you linked to and you cannot put the DDR3 Truebassist has for sale into your machine.

Also, I would not advise any of the current crop of 1TB drives in your Mac. They are too tall. You need to stick with 2.5" - 9.5mm drives.

Oefootball70 · Nov 4, 2010

So these are what is compatible with my Mac??

2GBx2 RAM

and

500 GB Hard Drive 2.5 inch x 9.5 mm

bobtomay · Nov 4, 2010

That would be the proper RAM

That drive will work. I, personally, would not buy that hard drive - it is way, way over priced at $140 for that Seagate drive.
Here's the newegg price for a Seagate with 16MB cache instead of that 8MB one - at $70 - link.

If you want a 500 GB, 7200 RPM - I'd look for 16MB cache and a drive at half that price, for example:

WD Black - 5 yr warranty - $75 - I have been using a 320GB WD Black drive in my MBP for a few years and like it. Some have complained about excess vibration and like this drive:
Hitachi - 3 yr warranty - $75 and it has a $15 mail in rebate

Here's a Seagate Solid State Hybrid with 32MB cache for $129 - link.

iggibar · Nov 4, 2010

2 thumbs up for the hybrid from me

True Bassist · Nov 4, 2010

bobtomay said:
...you cannot put the DDR3 Truebassist has for sale into your machine...

No idea why I thought he had a MBP... :S My dissertation writing must be getting to me!

Oefootball70 · Nov 5, 2010

Its all good, I found new 4gb DDR2 for sale on amazon for like 60 ish dollars.

Oefootball70 · Dec 1, 2010

Okay, so if I buy a new hard drive, do you recommend buying the external case that I can swap over the information from one to the other by usb cable? Or can I just pull the old one and install snow on it and recover from my external hard drive back up??

I didn't want to start a new thread for this one question.

I can get that hitachi for like 40 bucks with a gift card I have from before on another website. So if I can keep cost low with out having to buy that case then I can also buy new ram and upgrade everything at the same time.

Oefootball70 · Mar 17, 2011

I am using disk utility to clone my hard drive. only way I could get it to work. I will keep yall updated.

EDIT

Nvm, that was going to take forever. I downloaded CCC and I am in the middle of my clone at this moment. I need to pick up a T8 torx bit tomorrow so I can get this bad boy in

Oefootball70 · Mar 22, 2011

Oefootball70 said:
I am using disk utility to clone my hard drive. only way I could get it to work. I will keep yall updated.

EDIT

Nvm, that was going to take forever. I downloaded CCC and I am in the middle of my clone at this moment. I need to pick up a T8 torx bit tomorrow so I can get this bad boy in

I finally got around to installing the HD. Loving the new found memory so far.