Replacing a unibody MacBook pro hard drive

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My current hard drives totally knackered and needs replacing, I'm just wondering if I can buy any 3.5' sata hard drive and plug it in would it work and e compatible with the laptop?
 
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Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
Yes it will work, you will need to boot from your restore DVD or retail OS X disk and format it to mac

iFixit does guides on how to replace the drive
 
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Yes I am having the same issue. I can put back the old HD and it will show up again, but when I switch to the new HD, I can't see it. I know the new HD is working because I tried it with another laptop and it was able to recognize it.
 
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Is it a western digital hard drive and did you try it in another of or a mac?
 
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I tried several HDs actually, it wouldn't recognize any of them (from previous laptops). I tried a WD Scorpio, Seagate momentus, and a fujitsu. The one in my mac originally is a hitachi. It would not recognize any of them except the original hitachi one.

The only thing i noticed that is kind of different is that all the others have like four pins on the side of the SATA connector, and the hitachi one doesn't seem to have it.

Nope, I only have one mac. I would like to try it in another one and see too.
 
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You need to reformat it. I had this problem too with my other drives. It needs to be formatted to "GUID partition table" scheme and with the format of Mac OS Extended(Journaled). However, you first need to connect the drive via a usb cable/enclosure so that it can be read. Then you will be able to format it via Disk Utility. Don't worry, it's not your computer. This happens on all systems.
 
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So, what you suggested worked. I was able to see the drive and format and install osx on it. However, when I move the drive back inside to the computer, it no longer recognizes it. But the computer will still recognize the old hd.
 
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So, what you suggested worked. I was able to see the drive and format and install osx on it. However, when I move the drive back inside to the computer, it no longer recognizes it. But the computer will still recognize the old hd.

Did you try holding down the option key while booting?
 
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Yep. I held down option too, and I would only see the cd.

Did you get it working?
 

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