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QUiKSR20

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 12, 2008
66
0
Neptune, NJ
Hello All,

I am going to be doing a 1TB HD Upgrade to my buddies computer next week the model he has is listed as :

  • 15" MacBook Pro 5,3
  • 2.8GHZ Core2Duo
  • 500 GB
I found the guide which looks pretty easy ( im an IT admin for a living ) so im not too concerned : http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook...2.53+GHz+Mid+2009+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1518

What I am concerned about is having an issue cloning the drive and having it work correctly, My buddy is a DJ and I assured him this will only take me a few hours to complete max.

The issue im trying to avoid and seeking advice on is the drive cable etc, When doing some research on this model laptop people have said that newer SATA II and III drives cause issues and that Apple had an issue with the cables that were revised. I cannot afford to run into this issue and my buddy be out of his machine he uses for work.

Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved via software or will I still have to purchase a cable such as this ?

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Cable-MacBook-Unibody/dp/B00456S0IO

Also if not will it work with the latest SATA firmware or will I have roll back like others have had to do : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2267098?start=0&tstart=0

For something thats usually a piece of cake this looks like it could be a pain in the rear without researching first which I am trying to do 100%

Any help you guys can share would be greatly appreciated, The drive I was looking to purchase is the same specs for the most part : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136927

Thanks,
 
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I have run into this issue once (and I have installed a lot of hard drives in macbooks) I did solve the issue by replacing the cable. If you end up needing to get a new cable (which what I would recommend over downgrading firmware), why can't he keep using his old hard drive? And when the cable comes in, it will just take a minute to put the cable in and pop in the hard drive.

Also, I would recommend using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the hard drive. Works like a charm and dead simple.
 
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