Upgrading HDD questions

[Hit]

I have some questions I really want an answer to about upgrading the harddrive

1.Can my macbook read a 500GB HDD(What is the max?)
2.Does my macbook require more battery power when using a different HDD(From 160GB to 500GB)
3.Do all brands work, and which would be the best
4.How does it work, I mean how do I get all content from previous harddrive on my new harddrive, or do I need to do a fully new installation(By the way I have an 160GB USB Drive, maybe I can put a backup on there and fully restore on my new drive or isn't that possible?)

Please if anybody could answer those questions I'd really appreciate it

 

[Noels]

Hit,

Your Macbook would be OK with a 500GB as long as it's designed to fit into the Macbook - SATA, 2.5". It would use more power, but I think that would be negligible. All brands should work, but I think there's only one 500GB to date... http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...uct_Code=MSP500GX&Category_Code=STORHDLTMBMSP

As for changeover, you would have to backup your current Mac hard drive, if you haven't already. Download and use SuperDuper to do that - it's bootable. Get SuperDuper here: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/ Then change your drive and restart the Macbook while holding down the C key. When it starts, find Disk Utilty and then your backup drive. then restore from SuperDuper.

Here’s another forum member’s advice: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45292&highlight=replace+hard+drive

Hope this helps,

Noel

 

[Hit]

Thanks noels!
I have seen ones from Fujitsu from Samsung and Hitachi actually all around€140

 

[wytwolf]

Yeah just watch out because some of the 500GB 2.5 drives will not fit. They are just slightly too thick. You need a 9.5mm thick drive a some of the 500GB drives are 12.5mm thick.

 

[WalktheFaded]

Yeah, and if you are going to even attempt to do it yourself I would definitely suggest you take a look at some of the how-to tutorials online.

This is a really good tutorial.
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/130

 

[Hit]

Thanks for all the info's
Unfortunately most stores don't provide info on how thick the drive is I might go with a 320GB or 400GB, also as actually 400GB is twice as cheap as 500GB
And http://www.macinstruct.com/node/130 is a really nice tutorial indeed
When I still had a PC I upgraded my PC with a new 500GB Harddisk too so I think I should be able to do this on my laptop too

EDIT:
I actually found samsung HM500LI (500GB) is 9.5mm thick so that would be perfect but I don't want because of that it cost €160 and samsung HM400LI (400GB) also 9.5mm thick costs only €85 which looks like a much better option
But samsung HM400LI uses 0.3Watt more then samsung HM500LI oh well
But both drives actually use more power then the current Fujitsu MHY2160BH (Standard 160GB with macbook) uses only 1.9 watt and Samsung HM400LI uses 2.6Watt!
And the Fujitsu MHZ2 BH(320gb) only uses 1.9Watt(Compared to samsung its less I guess)
Well I don't know if 0.7Watt is much when using battery9(Running time loss), maybe somebody can tell me that

 

[proxy]

get the wd 320gb black its the fastest drive at the mo if u dont count ssd and nice and big as well also low power usage and works very nice on the macbooks and the pro's

 

[Hit]

get the wd 320gb black its the fastest drive at the mo if u dont count ssd and nice and big as well also low power usage and works very nice on the macbooks and the pro's

Actually I don't really mind about the speeds 5400RPM is fine to me
The Western digital is 2.50Watt and I really do care about power usage because of portability
The Fujitsu 320GB only uses 1.90Watts which is exactly the same as the current 160GB Fujitsu so it would guarantee me power usage won't be less

 

[ventrj]

get the wd 320gb black its the fastest drive at the mo if u dont count ssd and nice and big as well also low power usage and works very nice on the macbooks and the pro's

are you talking about the 320gb 7400 rpm WD drive? I have read on other forums that it gets loud and makes the computer vibrate when running it, also some said there is a clicking noise and it gets really hot. what do you guys think?

 

[wytwolf]

I bought the WD 320GB passport external drive. U then used super duper to clone my contents to the external. After that i just swapped the drives. Worked great. Drive is nice and silent and actually faster then my apple drive when benchmarked.