Upgrading MPB HDD?

Hey guys,
I have the macbook pro that was right before the unibody design.

I REALLY want more storage on the laptop, and i'm wondering if i could upgrade to something like...

Western Digital Scorpio Blue
1TB 5400rpm
8MB cache
2.5" SATA (oem)

I've not yet seen any 1TB capacity "laptop" drives that are 9.5mm. Most are 12.5mm, which is too big for a Mac.

I've heard stories of people stuffing one in there anyway, followed shortly thereafter by reports of problems. I'd recommend sticking with the largest 9.5mm drive (750GB) for that reason.

Another alternative: figure out what's eating up all your space, and better manage that by offloading to an external drive.

the.gosine said:

Hey guys,
I have the macbook pro that was right before the unibody design.

I REALLY want more storage on the laptop, and i'm wondering if i could upgrade to something like...

Western Digital Scorpio Blue
1TB 5400rpm
8MB cache
2.5" SATA (oem)

Click to expand...

Yes its quite easy, check youtube for some video tutorials, thats all you should need.

thanks for the quick reply,

I realized that the hdd that i had picked out was a 2.5" SATA but it was 12mm

Can anyone recommend a place for me to find harddrives?

the.gosine said:

thanks for the quick reply,

I realized that the hdd that i had picked out was a 2.5" SATA but it was 12mm

Can anyone recommend a place for me to find harddrives?

Click to expand...

Newegg.com

Thanks everybody,

I did some reading and i think i'm going to go with a Seagate Momentus 500gb 7200RPM, 16mb cache, 2.5" SATA (9.5mm)

Does that check out?

the.gosine said:

Thanks everybody,

I did some reading and i think i'm going to go with a Seagate Momentus 500gb 7200RPM, 16mb cache, 2.5" SATA (9.5mm)

Does that check out?

Click to expand...

Would help if you posted a link to it. >_>"

I looked around are you asking about this one?

If so, then yes.

the.gosine said:

Thanks everybody,

I did some reading and i think i'm going to go with a Seagate Momentus 500gb 7200RPM, 16mb cache, 2.5" SATA (9.5mm)

Does that check out?

Click to expand...

Thats the drive I installed in my 2008 silver key MacBook Pro last year.
It's a great drive and super fast.

I used a eSata to USB cable plus Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my original drive to the new one. Installed the drive and it was like nothing was changed, well except I know had 500GB of space. I got the cable from Other World Computing (macsales), along with an external encloser for the Original drive. I now use it as a portable storage HD. I will post links at the bottom.

Be sure to reset your PRAM (google it) after you install the new HD.
Many people including my self notice the boot up times were very slow until you reset the PRAM.


Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter -... (U2NV2SPATA) at OWC

OWC Express 2.5" Portable USB 2.0 Enclosure... (ES2.5BPU2S) at OWC

Its this drive

and i wanted to get a decent fw enclosure for the previous drive (so i can daisy chain my fw drives), i was thinking of this one

why not just get a large external HD?

perhaps buy a a cheap 7200 rpm desktop HD, stick it in an enclosure and connect via usb.

The $/GB ratio would be much better.

adnoh said:

why not just get a large external HD?

perhaps buy a a cheap 7200 rpm desktop HD, stick it in an enclosure and connect via usb.

The $/GB ratio would be much better.

Click to expand...

Most 1TB external HD's are 3.5 form factor, which also means most of them will require an external power source.

You can get a 500GB external 2.5 HD for cheap but I personally find it easier to just have a large internal drive and not have to worry about carrying another drive and possibly losing it.

As of now, SATA 2.5" x 9.5 MM drives are limited to 750 GB. WD is supposedly going to come out with a 1 TB model that has the same form factor and therefore will fit in a MacBook and MacBook Pro.