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Can I swap the HDD from my UMB to my old Blackbook??

Lurchdubious

Lurchdubious

macrumors 65816
Original poster
K here's the deal: My wife uses our old intel blackbook from 3 ½ yrs ago, still running Tiger with a 120GB HDD and 2GB RAM. I'm upgrading her to snow leopard, and I am wondering if I can swap my 250GB HDD in my unibody macbook into her blackbook, and buy a 320GB 7200 rpm drive for my UMB. I use more memory than she does, and I would love a snappier drive in the 7200. Both of our current macbooks are 13" and both drives are 5400 rpm drives.

This is the best deal I've found on the drive I want. Good deal??

Thanks a TON for any help.
 
Yes, you can put your UMB hard drive into the Blackbook. The drive you found on NewEgg should work fine. Some people say the Scorpio Blue is faster than the Black. I personally don't see a difference.
 
Intell said:
Yes, you can put your UMB hard drive into the Blackbook. The drive you found on NewEgg should work fine. Some people say the Scorpio Blue is faster than the Black. I personally don't see a difference.
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Thank you! I've been reading reviews on the one I posted above for a half hr. Some say that the drive doesn't work well with macbooks? Because of the feature in OSX that makes the drive spin up every 10-20 seconds? I've noticed that in my OEM drive in the UMB (annoying!). Would I be better off going with the Blue? Or is Seagate better?
 
I've never used the Hitachi HD you have there, but I do have the first Seagate one you have listed there, it is fast and preforms well. My Scorpio Black one works fine in my Blackbook, so did the Scorpio Blue. In Macbook's you want to stay away from drives that have a free fall or motion sensor. It can cause confusion with Mac OS X and the built in one. For the Seagate drives make sure you pick one that doesn't end with the letter G. Those ones have a sensor which you do not want. The cheap Seagate appears to be the same as the other one but no box. Just the bare drive.
 
Intell said:
I've never used the Hitachi HD you have there, but I do have the first Seagate one you have listed there, it is fast and preforms well. My Scorpio Black one works fine in my Blackbook, so did the Scorpio Blue. In Macbook's you want to stay away from drives that have a free fall or motion sensor. It can cause confusion with Mac OS X and the built in one. For the Seagate drives make sure you pick one that doesn't end with the letter G. Those ones have a sensor which you do not want. The cheap Seagate appears to be the same as the other one but no box. Just the bare drive.
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This is great info, thank you! So do I not want just the bare drive? Will that not work for me? Sorry, I'm a total noob at this. Also, what tools will I need for operating on both my unibody and black macbooks?

Do you prefer Seagate, or Western Digital? I have 3 external WD drives and they've been fine for me, but they see little use.
 
Oh, and did you notice any decreases in battery life, or increases in noise/vibration with the 7200 rpm drives over 5400?
 
In the Seagates I noticed a bit more heat but not much. By Blackbook's battery is so old I don't notice any decrease from using the 7200 rpm drive. And the vibrations happens if the drive isn't seated securely enough in the Macbook. You want just the bare drive. Its cheaper and greener for the environment (if your into that stuff). To remove the drive from the Blackbook you'll need a small Phillips head screw driver with a short shaft. The Unibody you'll also need just a Phillips head. I prefer the Seagates, but others swear their lives over WD's. It's all a matter of personal opinion. Do you like Hunt's ketchup or Heniz? It's stuff like that. I will only eat Heniz. You may want to take a look at the guides on iFixit.com for how to do this.
 
Intell said:
In the Seagates I noticed a bit more heat but not much. By Blackbook's battery is so old I don't notice any decrease from using the 7200 rpm drive. And the vibrations happens if the drive isn't seated securely enough in the Macbook. You want just the bare drive. Its cheaper and greener for the environment (if your into that stuff). To remove the drive from the Blackbook you'll need a small Phillips head screw driver with a short shaft. The Unibody you'll also need just a Phillips head. I prefer the Seagates, but others swear their lives over WD's. It's all a matter of personal opinion. Do you like Hunt's ketchup or Heniz? It's stuff like that. I will only eat Heniz. You may want to take a look at the guides on iFixit.com for how to do this.
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Now I'm really liking this one, at 500 GB for just a few dollars more… Hitachi

I read the reviews only focusing on macbook installations, and they all seem pretty favorable. I wouldn't mind spending a few bucks more to get almost 200 more GB of storage.

Also, doesn't Apple use Hitachi in pretty much all macbooks now? My current UMB has a Fujitsu drive, but I read that Apple has started using more Hitachi drives?
 
Lurchdubious said:
BUMP ~ Can anyone else chime in, about Hitachi vs Western Digital for my unibody aluminum macbook?
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I got a Hitachi 160gb 5400rpm drive for my MacBook back at the end of 2006 and it died in the summer of 2008. Replaced it with a 320gb 5400rpm Western Digital and have had no problems.

It was probably an isolated case, but all things being equal I would avoid Hitachi.
 
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