Upgraded RAM and hard drive

I ordered a 250GB Samsung HD and 2GB of RAM, and an ICY BOX external USB case for my leftover 80GB HD from Newegg on Wednesday. On Friday, the package arrived!!

I started the install Sunday around 4:30. I did the RAM first, which was very easy. Turned it back on to check before I did the HD. 2GB, no problemo!! Now, on to the HD. I opted to do a fresh install of Tiger instead of imaging my 80GB. I had one slight problem. When I went to put the new HD in, I put it in upside down, so the mount screws removed one of the side rubber protectors. Then, of course, the HD wouldn't fit in the SATA ports. I couldn't tell. When I turned on my MacBook, the drive wasn't showing. I got worried. Took me about 10 minutes to figure out the problem. Anyways....

The install took about an hour. I'm now loading everything back on. Snapped in my old 80GB in the ICY BOX, hooked it up, plugged it in...BAM...there is my slick, tiny, external 80GB hard drive.

Overall, not a terrible ordeal. Newegg rocks!

Cool, your story gives me a little more confidence about installing a new HD myself. An hour doesn't seem too bad.

hey Army chief, what brand , how much and where did you get your RAM at? I think i want to upgrade my macbook soon, since i deal with alot of photoshop, illustrator, indesign. and when things slow down it's just a waste of time.

I did the same upside down HDD thing with my MB. I finally realized the metal sleeve that screws onto the HDD is suppose to be on facing upwards when the notebook is upside down and opened for the install. Adding OWC's 3GB RAM and 160GB/7200 Seagate Momentus was a 10 minute exercise here. Restoring from Superduper was about 45 minutes from an external FW400 160GB/7200 3.5" enclosure. Sweet.
-Dave

icyx said:

hey Army chief, what brand , how much and where did you get your RAM at? I think i want to upgrade my macbook soon, since i deal with alot of photoshop, illustrator, indesign. and when things slow down it's just a waste of time.

Click to expand...

I got the Corsair ValueSelect from Newegg.com. I think it was about $89 for two 1GB sticks.

I've noticed a difference on the startup time. Can't really tell about anything else...I haven't installed bootcamp/vmware yet. I'm confident it will make a difference there.

Go for the upgrades. You'll be glad ya did.

to reinstall all the software can you just drag the applications on to a dvd (using toast) and then drag them back once you have reinstalled the software ? And if so is this advisable?
Again I would appreciate any help since i am planning on doing a similar upgrade.

If you are running OS X 10.4.* you might consider in investing the $30~60 and get an external enclosure for you old/new hard drive. USB and Firewire connections both work now as target disks on recent OS X 10.4.* installations. Below is what I have found works best for me.
1) Put new drive into external enclosure
2) Use Superduper freeware to clone old (internal) drive to new external drive
3) New drive out of enclosure and into the MacBook
4) Boot new drive and verify it works properly
5) Stash away old/original drive for when the untinkable happens
6) Periodically update old/original drive every month or so
Just a thought.
-Dave

if you use Superduper will that clone all programs directly or will i have to go back in and enter product codes and change the preferances again?

Only one I had to re-enter the code for was Fast DVD Copy 4 as it's code is paired with the CPU of the machine the code was originally issued to. All my Apple and Microsoft apps worked just fine with all preferences (except for some printer and energy saver settings in the OS) intact. I cloned my MBP to an Intel Mini and to a MB with no problems.
-Dave