Macbook Pro HDD upgrade

Hi all, I got my Macbook Pro last summer with a 160gb harddrive built in, but I recently noticed that this is running out at an alarming pace.

Basically I want to stick in a 320gb HD in there while I upgrade my ram to 4gb. I know how to do it as I have read enough guides seen pictures etc but I'm not sure how this will void my guarantee? As far as I can tell there is no seal to be broken. Is it simply because should it need repairs, they would notice that I am not using a stock disk?

Also, with single use software like my Office and Photoshop, would they recognise the system they were registered to and just install on the new disk without an issue?

did a similar thing last night. it is very easy to do. i know if you use superduper it will retain all the programs no problem. the only password i had to re-enter so far was my personal email account password.

do plan on spending a couple of hours in back up if you are using superduper. i had about 60gb of programs and files and it took 2 hours to transfer to a western digital passport.

I've asked two Apple sales reps and an Apple guru as he was checking out my laptop if changing the drive yourself voids the warranty. They all said it does for a Macbook Pro. Apparently if you have a certified Apple tech do the switch, your warranty is not voided.

Apple needs to make a Macbook Pro that allows the end user to swap the drive without voiding the warranty, just like the smaller Macbook!

By the way, it is time consuming and a little tricky. Print out the instructions you find on the web or have another computer with them displayed. Before you start, make sure you have the right tools.

If you Mac ever needs service while under warranty, you could always put in the older drive if you keep it.

Where did you find your 320GB HDD?

i picked up a 320gb western digital passport on sale at best buy. it was acutally cheaper to buy the passport on sale than to buy just the hard drive.

the hardest part was cracking open the case and figuring out where all the tabs were.

I would pay attention to both size and speed. If you are going to go to all the trouble of replacing a hard drive, you may as well put the fastest one possible in. Some quick poking around reveals that Seagate's Momentus 7200.3 drive, a fairly new drive, looks pretty good. Up to 320 GB, 16 MB on board cache, and a sustained transfer rate of 80 MB/s. This is the fastest one I found in a quick search.

It is not all the easy to find just yet, but I found one at PC Connection for $95.00. However, that was an IDE interface, not a SATA interface, so you would need to keep looking. Nonetheless, this give you a relative price point for it.

Other readers, do you know of a bigger, faster 2.5 inch notebook drive?

i really like new egg, unfortunately for whatever reason, right now biggest sata's they got in 7200rpm are 200gb, thats only an extra 40gb...sigh.....

didnt see much better on tiger direct either....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N=2030150380+1035507776+1309722571&name=200GB

the biggest sata interface seageat momentus 7200.3 i found was 200 gb. their (seagate) website says they offer them up to 320 gb