Changing macbook HD : pain in the wing dings

SO.. i figure this will be a cinch, right?

swap in , swap out.

No.


i get the hitachi 160gb from newegg. i take the existing one out... then i'm noticing that there's no bootable drive except for the USB i've connected.

i pull it out. this thing is tough to get out.

well the rubber pads on each side are poorly glued and have come apart.

so i figure, okay, maybe this is keeping the contacts from working.

nope. still don't work. now i have to deal with the pain in the wing wang of a return and blah blah blah.


and about the rubber things? i dunno. apple won't cover it on warranty, right?

How do you mean 'no bootable drive except for USB'? Did you actually install OS X or copy over your old stuff to the new drive? If you boot with the OS X install disk and run Disk Utility, could you see the drive?

Rubber things ... no idea. If it was a *really* tight squeeze, could you have a drive that's physically too big? I know there are 2 sizes of 2.5" drive and the macbook takes the smaller of the two ...

You have to tuck the "Rubber" thingy's in with a small card...ie credit card can help them push back into place. (had to do this when i upgraded my ram. And you must boot with the OSX disc and run disk utility to format the hdd to apple specifications. you may have to reboot th computer a few times just to get it to recognize the drive. No biggie thou. it will show up. as long as its one of the certified to work in apple's. I forget where that actual site is to look them up.

Hope this helps you out

disk utility can't see the drive.
it's gotta be the one that works with Macs... the comments on NewEgg stated "got this for my mac book blah blah blah"
i don't think its getting any power or something like that. I think its a bum drive.

it seems to be missing the three pronged part ..... thats really had to explain without pics.

The connector should look like this:

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/mobile-hdds/plugs.jpg

If it's just a single row of pins in two rows then it's a standard IDE drive, and won't fit in the macbook.

thats what it looks like..


NOW... look next to the pins... its cut off in the pic, but there are three prongs .. i think its the power supply

this hitachi doesn't have those prongs on the left that are sort of cut off in the pic.

i called new egg. i just have to ship it back and buy a new one. we'll see what happens. heck, maybe i'll wait a few weeks and the prices will come down.

edit

there on the right. the three pins.
they don't have pics of the hitachi i have but the seagate i'm replacing in my mac and those in the pic have that three prong connector.

Thanks for the heads up!