2006 Mac book Pro - freezing, new SSD drive ?

Hi all,

new to this forum although have read posts for months, but not needed to register until now.

Have a Aluminium 15" MBP (2006) and until recently i almost had the 120gb HD full of music and images and then iphoto became unreliable and kept freezing and wouldnt move files to my ext HD and so i removed all pics and music and docs of the HD to free memory, but still issues. So re-installed with newer version of Snow Leopard, but its still freezing on tasks like installing ilife 11, so i am not sure if i need a new HD or if there are any other issues. I have installed and run Mac Keeper and that says everything is ok. Someone else suggesting Disc Warrior, but thats £80 !!!

Any ideas or clues ? thank you well in advance.

First, get rid of MacKeeper as it's junk-ware. Not really harmful, but it literally does nothing and uses resources. Uninstall it.

It would appear you likely need a new hard drive. Don't waste your money on Disk Warrior (it's a great application) when changing out the hard drive is easy and less costly. Follow the directions for swapping out the hard drive at iFixit: The free repair manual.

chscag said:

First, get rid of MacKeeper as it's junk-ware. Not really harmful, but it literally does nothing and uses resources. Uninstall it.

It would appear you likely need a new hard drive. Don't waste your money on Disk Warrior (it's a great application) when changing out the hard drive is easy and less costly. Follow the directions for swapping out the hard drive at iFixit: The free repair manual.

Click to expand...

Thats great advice, thank you. I am just deliberating whether to go with a 5400 WD drive, or risk the heat and go with a Hybrid SSD as there is much discussion regarding these drives and some say they are great, most say they get too hot and can be unstable. My current 120GB just doesnt cut the mustard as i do lots of photography and CS3 isnt responsive, Iphoto falls over when the HD is 90% full, so looking a min 500gb drive.

Would a RAM upgrade help too ?

Any recommendations ?

Thank you again.

Yes, a memory upgrade would certainly help. Also, you might want to consider purchasing a 7200 RPM drive for faster access and speed. The hybrid drives can be troublesome. We have several folks including one of our staff members who have had difficulties using one. I would stay away from the hybrid drives and instead go with a standard 7200 RPM drive of large capacity.

I'm tried and actually still have one of those hybrid drives that is used only for backup now. It didn't stay in my Mac for a month. That's the only time I've ever pulled a new drive out of a machine that wasn't due to it being dead.

The WD black 500GB 7200rpm that replaced it boots my late '06 model MBP from press of button to login screen in as little as 19 seconds. The hybrid was a pitr. There are some here that have had success with them.

The 7200rpm drive is about the best upgrade you can do to one of those old machines. If you haven't done it, max out the RAM also. I put 4 GB in mine even though it can only use 3GB to maintain it's dual channel capability.

Have heard good reports about the new Hitachi drives also.

OK, So the new WD BLUE 500GB 5400 Turned up today £44 from Amazon, didnt want to risk the 7200 as heard reports of them getting hot. Just swapped it over with the 120gb Fujitsu which wouldnt even boot up tonight at all and just kept clicking.

So ive installed it and switched her on to make sure everything went back together ok, and realise that there is nothing on the HD yet and cant see me cloning the old drive as its clearly not working, so i'll have to reinstall Snow Leopard on Monday when i get into work.

Is it correct to see it boot up and have an image of a file in the middle of the screen ?

Just so i am sure everything is ok with the new drive.

Thanks.