Installing 640 gb HDD in my MBP

Did it Fit? Did it Work?

I have a Macbook Pro that's about 2 years old and am DYING to put in the Seagate 640.

How'd it go?

I thought the 640GB from Seagate was 12.5mm?

The 640 GB Scorpio Blue (9.5mm) is announced,
but the stores here still have it in order.

I really need to replace my 320GB Scorpio soon 😀

cluthz said:

I thought the 640GB from Seagate was 12.5mm?

The 640 GB Scorpio Blue (9.5mm) is announced,
but the stores here still have it in order.

I really need to replace my 320GB Scorpio soon 😀

Click to expand...

I think it will fit if he has a 17" MBP

zw-gator said:

I think it will fit if he has a 17" MBP

Click to expand...

His sig says 2.4GHz Glassbook pro.
Seems like a 15 inch unibody, since the 17 inch was never made as unibody with 2.4 GHz CPU.

I thought only the latest 15-MBPs could hold 12.5 mm HDs.

My MBP-SR need a 9.5mm tho, hopefully I get the hands on one soon 🙂

Forgive my ignorance...

...but I'm not sure which dimension you're talking about in the case of

9.5mm vs 12.5mm

I busted out a tape measure - is it the length?

I've got a Macbook Pro that was new December of 2007.

I did just get my 640 Freeagent Go, though I haven't opened it yet. Should I return and wait for this smaller drive you're all talking about?

Thanks,


Mnanda

Its the thickness of the drive that matters, most are 9.5mm but because of the way some high capacity drives are made they are thicker, which is fine in some laptops and many external enclosures, but not all. The 12.5mm drive is only known to fit in the unibody 15" MBP, the one generally with the glossy screen.

Gotcha - thanks.

So 2 more questions:

1) Seagate: sounds like people think but aren't sure the FreeAgent Go is 12.5mm, is that right? I looked on Seagate's site and the dimension doesn't seem to be listed. Do we know FOR SURE it's a 12.5mm, or is it speculation?

2) Western Digital: in the thread above, a week ago, people discussed the Western Digital 640 Scorpio Blue and said it wasn't for sale, but I've found it for sale at New Egg - but NOT via their "Mac Hard Drive" link:

http://tinyurl.com/yfhxvcs

And according to this spec sheet at Western Digitial's site: http://tinyurl.com/24zs9j

the drive is compatible with Mac. But seems like the folks here know a lot about this.

I've never really understood the deal with Drive compatibility. Has the 640 WD drive become available in the 6 days since the posts above? OR is the one currently for sale simply not Mac compatible yet. I tried calling WD but they were closed; will try tomorrow, but am posting b/c am curious.

Thanks!

mnanda said:

Gotcha - thanks.

So 2 more questions:

1) Seagate: sounds like people think but aren't sure the FreeAgent Go is 12.5mm, is that right? I looked on Seagate's site and the dimension doesn't seem to be listed. Do we know FOR SURE it's a 12.5mm, or is it speculation?

2) Western Digital: in the thread above, a week ago, people discussed the Western Digital 640 Scorpio Blue and said it wasn't for sale, but I've found it for sale at New Egg - but NOT via their "Mac Hard Drive" link:

http://tinyurl.com/yfhxvcs

And according to this spec sheet at Western Digitial's site: http://tinyurl.com/24zs9j

the drive is compatible with Mac. But seems like the folks here know a lot about this.

I've never really understood the deal with Drive compatibility. Has the 640 WD drive become available in the 6 days since the posts above? OR is the one currently for sale simply not Mac compatible yet. I tried calling WD but they were closed; will try tomorrow, but am posting b/c am curious.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

There's really no such thing as a "mac compatible drive" unless it comes pre-formatted for os x. For the WD one, more than one person said that it had a 9.5mm height,(in their reviews on newegg) which should fit into your computer.

Thanks! That's what I always thought! It never made sense ot me why drives would be labeled as "mac compatible" - It always seemed to me that hardware was hardware and could be made to work with any system. I guess it has to do with pre-formatted plug-in-play drives.

Thanks a bunch!

so what happened?

Anyone knows what happened? was the poster able to install the drive? I am looking to buy a new MBP, but I really want to upgrade to a 750 or 1Tb HDD, but have notice the 12.5 problem now, I really hope Apple takes this into consideration in the next line of MBs and MBPs.

Success!

Update: So I returned the Seagate FreeAgent Go b/c it sounded like it was too thick (12.5mm vs. 9.5) and b/c the Western Digital 640 Scorpio is now available. Also now I'm not voiding a warranty.

I bought it from New Egg, bought an enclosure, cloned my drive using SUPER DUPER which I already owned and then followed an instruction video I found on line from Other World Computing and it all worked like a charm. Then I put my old drive back in the enclosure and now it's a portable drive. You can also use Carbon Copy Cloner which is free.

I'd post link to the video I used, but they have different videos for different models of MBP. Just do a you tube search and you should find what you need for your model. Also, I took really careful notes on the video and printed them with screen grabs so I didn't mess up - I almost forgot that once I opened up the computer I wouldn't be able to go online and follow the video. It's not that it's hard, but I really didn't want to screw it up. It's actually pretty easy. Also, the video I used tells you EXACTLY which tools you need (which they'll happily sell you), and having the right tools for the job really made it MUCH easier.

Only downside is that now that drive is bigger, computer is noticeably slower. I don't know if it's because of 5400 speed vs. 7200, or if it's that the increased size means computer has more to wade through before it finds what it wants. And on my particular model I've installed as much RAM as is recommended. If I had to do it again, I would consider partitioning my drive into 2 smaller sections. Or maybe I'd research that and see if folks think that partitions would make a difference in the speed or not.

Still - I can't believe how much space I have. It's such a treat to not have to worry about having enough room.

If you decide to go for it - Good luck!