Upgrading Hard Drive on Aluminum MB

Upgrading your hard drive takes about 5 minutes, max.

Just take off the battery cover, use a small philips head to take it out, then a T6 Torx screwdrive to take the screws off the hard drive. Follow steps in reverse with your hard drive, done.

It does not void your warranty with Apple.

this is exactly what I did. I had bought a WD My Passport 500GB external drive for $160 a week before I ordered my new MB. When it arrived, the first thing I did was swap the drives (500GB into MB, stock 320GB into WD external enclosure). No problems whatsoever, just pop off the battery cover and follow the instructions. 5mins.

mikey8270 said:

this is exactly what I did. I had bought a WD My Passport 500GB external drive for $160 a week before I ordered my new MB. When it arrived, the first thing I did was swap the drives (500GB into MB, stock 320GB into WD external enclosure). No problems whatsoever, just pop off the battery cover and follow the instructions. 5mins.

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How easy is it to take apart the WD Passport?

nomad01 said:

How easy is it to take apart the WD Passport?

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Well, that was a bit of a pain actually. I basically tried to pry the top/bottom off, and then saw that I could slide the drive out to the side. I ended up breaking a few pieces of internal plastic support, but was able to put the new drive in and close the case back up no problem. It does not feel loose or damaged externally.

My advice is to go slowly and remember that the hard drive and hard drive cage SLIDE out together laterally. Dont try to peel off the top/bottom cover and get the drive out that way, just loosen it from the hd cage and slide and you shouldn't break anything like I did 😎

Also, if you are going to make this swap it is important for performance reasons to remove the jumper that is on the WD drive. I'm not sure what the function of it specifically is, but I think it has to do with it being an external drive/power savings. I just remember reading that people were having to open up their (not always so easy) laptops again specifically because they did not remove the jumper and performance was suffering.

jaw3net said:

So my new MB just arrived and I'm considering upgrading the hard drive from 320GB to 500GB. Is this possible? How easy/difficult is it to change it out? What brand should I go with? Will this void my warranty?

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If you get the 500 gig, can I buy your 320? shoot me a price.