I want to upgrade my macbook hard drive

Dingo Dave 69 said:

I got my macbook a few years ago and the hard drive is getting full. I plan on buying a bigger drive, running superduper to copy the contents from my existing machine over to the new drive and then replacing it, will this work?

Also, how can I find out what drive I need to get for my macbook and how big it can be?

The macbook I have is a 2.16 GHz Intl Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM. Also, is that the most RAM this macbook can have?

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It will max out a 4gb or Ram.

Your Macbook takes sata, any 2.5" sata drive will fit. the biggest i know of is 500gb.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/Pro/Core2/

Yes, a superduper clone works fine. But you'll need a 2.5" enclosure and cable to temporarily house the new drive for the transfer. (When you're done, put that old drive in the enclosure and use it for whatever you want).

Just about any 2.5" sata drive will work. Check NewEgg. Most will specifically say it works in a macbook. The largest size you can get though is 500gb so go ahead and get it over with. Don't try to save $20 and settle for something smaller. You don't need the 7200rpm drive either. 5400 works just fine (that's what you have in your macbook now).

Your macbook can also handle up to 4gb ram which is also cheap.

Hard drive and ram upgrades are pretty straightforward and it looks like you've researched this already.

Edit: Negrit beat me to it. What he said.

Dingo Dave 69 said:

I got my macbook a few years ago and the hard drive is getting full. I plan on buying a bigger drive, running superduper to copy the contents from my existing machine over to the new drive and then replacing it, will this work?

Also, how can I find out what drive I need to get for my macbook and how big it can be?

The macbook I have is a 2.16 GHz Intl Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM. Also, is that the most RAM this macbook can have?

Click to expand...

What size HD do you have now? What is saved on it, music, photos, etc?

Dingo Dave 69 said:

I got my macbook a few years ago and the hard drive is getting full. I plan on buying a bigger drive, running superduper to copy the contents from my existing machine over to the new drive and then replacing it, will this work?

Also, how can I find out what drive I need to get for my macbook and how big it can be?

The macbook I have is a 2.16 GHz Intl Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM. Also, is that the most RAM this macbook can have?

Click to expand...

Hi, I just wanted to give you a quick suggestion regarding drives, since I did this about a month ago.

From Amazon, I got a 2.5" Western Digital 500GB drive for about $99. I love this drive; it's extremely quiet and runs very fast even though it only operates at a speed of 5400 RPM.

If you don't need a full 500GB, you could buy a drive of smaller size. However, I just decided to get the biggest one possible for the cheapest price per GB. It was a great investment.

mathcolo said:

Hi, I just wanted to give you a quick suggestion regarding drives, since I did this about a month ago.

From Amazon, I got a 2.5" Western Digital 500GB drive for about $99. I love this drive; it's extremely quiet and runs very fast even though it only operates at a speed of 5400 RPM.

If you don't need a full 500GB, you could buy a drive of smaller size. However, I just decided to get the biggest one possible for the cheapest price per GB. It was a great investment.

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I would love to swap mine out, I am sure I can do the actual swap but I am not to sure about the data part, I do not want to cause any problems, I have a 120 gb HD and have 84.7 GB free, I have a 1 TB external for saving music photos etc, so I don't think I would see a benefit of upping it right now.

I did see where Snow Leopard will actually use 6 GB less space, so thats a plus!

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Meant to add, I only have 15GB left and the lack of space is beginning to become a problem.

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Ok, do you need all the files, photos, etc that is on your HD left on the HD, for example do you take your Macbook with you to work or school or wherever and use those files?

If I were you I would either buy a portable 500GB external HD if you need to take it with you or a 1tb external for home use and just transfer the files to the external and clear up the internal hd on your Mac

Dingo Dave 69 said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Internal-OEM/dp/B001JSSDGU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246065655&sr=8-3

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The above will work.

and an enclosure. Would this be ook? It wouldn't be noiser or any slower that my mac currently is?

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You didn't list any. This will work:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/2-5-SATA-USB-External-Enclosure/dp/B001EL0SQ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246067751&sr=1-1

Also, does changing the hard drive invalidate any warranty?

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No. Neither does upgrading your RAM.

Keep in mind you'll still need a USB cable and a special screwdriver to access the hard drive bay in your macbook. This video is really helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp47AQinUM8

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Thanks guys for all the help.

I have an external drive I can use but I would rather it was all in my macbook and this way it would be backed up with time machine too.

I checked on crucial and they said that my macbook can take a maximum of 2GB ram so looks like I cant go any further with that.

Out of curiosity what is all the different speed measurements on the hard drives for? Is this how fast it can write to it? Is the one listed previously on Amazon good for speed and for quietness? My current mac hard drive is very quiet and I wouldn't want it becoming noiser.

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Your macbook can officially take 2 gigs max, but you can put in 4 gigs. The early c2d's can use 3.something gigs of ram. DDR2 is cheap, so you may as well get all the ram you can out of it, and gain the dual channel performance boost as well.

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Thanks guys for all the help.

I have an external drive I can use but I would rather it was all in my macbook and this way it would be backed up with time machine too.

I checked on crucial and they said that my macbook can take a maximum of 2GB ram so looks like I cant go any further with that.

Out of curiosity what is all the different speed measurements on the hard drives for? Is this how fast it can write to it? Is the one listed previously on Amazon good for speed and for quietness? My current mac hard drive is very quiet and I wouldn't want it becoming noiser.

Click to expand...

Do you mean the 5400 rpm vs the 7200 rpm? The 7200 will spin faster, but it creates more heat and you should see a difference in boot up and retrieving files. It will use more battery power and may be a little louder.

I found this review...

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9378/1

Dingo Dave 69 said:

I have an external drive I can use but I would rather it was all in my macbook and this way it would be backed up with time machine too.

Click to expand...

Maybe I don't understand this comment. Why would you want to back up your files to the same internal drive?

This is what I put in my BMB 2.2.
http://www.runcorestore.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=8000001C-1234904402
It is now amazingly fast, I know, I know, it was $900 freaking dollars, but I am retired, and now running my new business, and using the BMB to do so. The speed is beyond belief, so is the price, but...................THIS is how fast all computers should be!
Buh bye spinning beachballs!
If I were you, I'd get a 320 Gb 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA drive, and enjoy!

Dingo Dave 69 said:

Sorry what I meant was if I have all my files on my macbook then it will all be automatically backed up on time machine too.

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But if you have them on the external and not the Mac HD they will still be there, just not in Time Machine, which doesn't make a difference because if your Mac HD goes and you lose it all you wold have it in Time Machine or just the files saved External in their own folder.

RDM3 said:

Do you mean the 5400 rpm vs the 7200 rpm? The 7200 will spin faster, but it creates more heat and you should see a difference in boot up and retrieving files. It will use more battery power and may be a little louder.

I found this review...

http://techreport.com/articles.x/9378/1

Click to expand...

I have the 7200.4... Seagates 500GB drive @ 7200rpm. Had it a few months and i havent noticed ANY difference in heat, battery, or noise. Never heard my old drive, never hear this one.

I do however notice that Photoshop loads up completely in about 2 seconds. I could tell it was a faster for the first week, then it just became normal. I have my old HD (250GB Apple OEM) in an enclosure, but i plan on buying another of the Seagate drives on friday when i get paid. Great investment to get even more out of my Blackbook.

Won't Install OS on 500GB HD in MacBook...jt

I just installed a 500 gig HD, in my MacBook 1.1 w/ 2 gigs of memory.

The install went perfectly, until I went to install Tiger. It recognized the drive but said that in could not install the os on this drive (Seagate SATA 2.5"; 500 GB 7200 rpm). Why? And what can I do to reinstall OSX on this drive?