Macbook Pro Hard Drive Upgrade

Hey guys,

My 15" macbook pro (2009) has been making a weird grinding noise for the past little while and have reason to believe it is the hard drive because the noise is coming primarily from just the right of the track pad. I plan to replace by cracking open this Iomega Select 1TB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive : External Portable Hard Drives - Future Shop and popping its hard drive into my macbook. Now my question is, will it fit? It is a 2.5" but have no clue whether or not it is too thick and don't want to break open the thing and find out it's useless. Anybody have any clue?

The HD in your MBP must be 9.5 mm in height. Unless things have changed in the last few weeks, there are no drives larger than 750 GB that meet that requirement. Chances are the drive in that 1 TB portable is 12.5 mm...making it virtually impossible to fit in the MBP.

I would also run a utility to make sure it's the HD failing before you spend money swapping it out (unless you want to upgrade anyway). This is copy & pasted from a post by Kreylonus in another thread I started.

Run the Apple Hardware Test
Depending on the version of Mac OS X that your computer shipped with, the Apple Hardware Test will either be on the Mac OS X Install DVD or the Applications Install DVD. For more information on how to run the Apple Hardware Test, see Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test.

Does your hard disk make any noise, such as a faint and repetitive click? Are these 5 second pauses occurring on an interval (for example, every 15 seconds the computer will temporarily stop responding)?

AUZambo said:

The HD in your MBP must be 9.5 mm in height. Unless things have changed in the last few weeks, there are no drives larger than 750 GB that meet that requirement. Chances are the drive in that 1 TB portable is 12.5 mm...making it virtually impossible to fit in the MBP.

I would also run a utility to make sure it's the HD failing before you spend money swapping it out (unless you want to upgrade anyway). This is copy & pasted from a post by Kreylonus in another thread I started.

Run the Apple Hardware Test
Depending on the version of Mac OS X that your computer shipped with, the Apple Hardware Test will either be on the Mac OS X Install DVD or the Applications Install DVD. For more information on how to run the Apple Hardware Test, see Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test.

Does your hard disk make any noise, such as a faint and repetitive click? Are these 5 second pauses occurring on an interval (for example, every 15 seconds the computer will temporarily stop responding)?

Click to expand...

I've taken it to the apple store, they ran a check and found nothing wrong with anything. I just did a hardware test myself and still, nothing. I can't really describe the sound i'm hearing. It just sounds kind of like a faint "quacking" while something spins. I can't always hear it unless i put my ear right next to the macbook itself. HELP!

Most hard drives that start making a noise fail quite quickly. There is a good chance that this could be the fan.

cowasaki said:

Most hard drives that start making a noise fail quite quickly. There is a good chance that this could be the fan.

Click to expand...

That's what I was going to suggest. Perhaps a small piece of debris got sucked into the machine and is messing with the left fan.

There are many videos on YouTube showing you how to open your machine to clean it out. I suggest you (the original poster) buy a precision tool set that includes a T6 Torx screwdriver and do this.

AUZambo said:

That's what I was going to suggest. Perhaps a small piece of debris got sucked into the machine and is messing with the left fan.

There are many videos on YouTube showing you how to open your machine to clean it out. I suggest you (the original poster) buy a precision tool set that includes a T6 Torx screwdriver and do this.

Click to expand...

I just took the back off of the macbook and turned it on. I can confirm that the sound is indeed coming from the hard drive

Kusie said:

I just took the back off of the macbook and turned it on. I can confirm that the sound is indeed coming from the hard drive

Click to expand...

In that case go for the upgrade. You'll appreciate the added storage space anyway.

Just make sure you get an SATA drive that is 9.5mm in height. I got a 640 GB/7200 RPM Samsung Spinpoint that is working fine after a few months. Got mine from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TCH&Description=sata+hard+drive+2.5&x=19&y=35).

You may also want to get an enclosure on Amazon (i bought one for just $5). This will allow you to copy your current hard drive onto the new one. then you simply open up your MBP, take out the old, put in the new, and hit the power button.

AUZambo said:

In that case go for the upgrade. You'll appreciate the added storage space anyway.

Just make sure you get an SATA drive that is 9.5mm in height. I got a 640 GB/7200 RPM Samsung Spinpoint that is working fine after a few months. Got mine from Newegg (Newegg.com - sata hard drive 2.5).

You may also want to get an enclosure on Amazon (i bought one for just $5). This will allow you to copy your current hard drive onto the new one. then you simply open up your MBP, take out the old, put in the new, and hit the power button.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the help. Do you think it would work if i got a 750gb or 500gb external portable hard drive and used the hard drive of that, instead of the 1TB hdd?

Kusie said:

Thanks a lot for the help. Do you think it would work if i got a 750gb or 500gb external portable hard drive and used the hard drive of that, instead of the 1TB hdd?

Click to expand...

As long as the drive in the external portable is a 2.5" SATA drive that is 9.5mm in height it should work. If the external enclosure is one of the bulkier ones I would guess the drive would be for a desktop and not a laptop. If it's one of the slimmer, slide in your back pocket, types then it may fit in your MBP.

Is there a reason you're wanting to buy an external and take it apart rather than just buy the internal hard drive?

AUZambo said:

As long as the drive in the external portable is a 2.5" SATA drive that is 9.5mm in height it should work. If the external enclosure is one of the bulkier ones I would guess the drive would be for a desktop and not a laptop. If it's one of the slimmer, slide in your back pocket, types then it may fit in your MBP.

Is there a reason you're wanting to buy an external and take it apart rather than just buy the internal hard drive?

Click to expand...

Appreciate the adivice. I just figured it might be cheaper to by an ext.HD then an internal, but I've already purchased an internal so that's out of the way. Now I have another problem I'm hoping you or someobody else could help me with.

So I installed my new hard drive, turned on my macbook and found out that I needed to reinstall theOS. Urg. So I did, but have been having a HUGE headache trying to get the data off of my old drive onto my new one. I have everything backed up from the old one onto an ext.HD, but copying everything over onto my new HD from it has been a pain in the *** (trying to replace existing things like libraries, applications, etc that were installed when reinstalling the OS with the old ones from my previous drive. Do you have any suggestions on what could make the transfering of data more simple? Will using an external enclosure still work now that I've gone and reinstalled the OS and have pretty much made a huge mess out of everything?

Assuming your old hard drive is still intact and you haven't wiped it clean I would use a program called Carbon Copy Cloner to make an exact copy of your old drive onto the new one. It will make an exact copy of your old hard drive, including all files, applications, keychain stuff, etc. Carbon Copy Cloner is a free download and is pretty easy to use.

Put the old drive in the enclosure and plug it into the USB. There is a way to boot from the external (bypassing the internal). When you boot off that one you can run carbon copy cloner to copy the external onto the internal. You'll need to completely reformat your internal before doing this...there are plenty of videos on youtube showing you how to do this.

I can't remember the key combination you have to hold to boot from the external...a quick search makes me think you have to hold command+option+shift+delete while the computer is starting up. It'll give you a screen where you can select which drive you want to boot with, and you'll select the external. You can also go to system preferences and choose the external as the primary start-up disk...you'll just have to remember to change it back to the internal when you're through.

I've only done this once, and I did the carbon copy cloner program before swapping out the hard drives so what I did was a tad different. I probably have just told you enough to be confusing! Maybe someone with more experience can drop in to give you some pointers.

Hold down the <option> key when you power up the mac. You will get the option to boot from any eligible device - internal or external (USB).

I have used Carbon Copy to do exactly what you are suggesting several times. I am in the middle of the process right now.

Ditto for Carbon Copy Cloner. As a brand-spanking new MBP owner (My first Mac ever.) I used CCC to upgrade my HD on day one. Super easy.