1st post. Hard Drive question

[PosterNutBag]

Hello - just joined this forum, poked around for awhile and saw all kinds of interesting stuff. I don't really know specific ins and outs of computers. I have a couple questions that I'm sure are answered somewhere deep in this site but hoped someone could give me advise. This is what I have:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB

I'm sure that's not all relevant, but don't know what is. I was told recently that my hard drive is on it's last leg. I know it's pretty easy to replace and am planning on doing so. I see Western Digital is recommended a few times on here. My question is if I'm going to replace this now and in a couple years I get to a point that I need to, or want to, get a new MacBook, is it likely that the hard drive I buy today will be obsolete? If it's not, will it be transferrable? Basically, how's my money best spent on this new hard drive?

Also, I would like to have more memory. Pretty much just for music, family pictures and family videos. I have an external hard drive, but would like the ability to have it at my fingertips on the computer and have the external as a back up more than storage. Is that related to the hard drive or is that something altogether different?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[eman]

I love WD hard drives. If your hard drive is on it's last leg, then you need a new HD; your new hard drive could be obsolete in two years.

Video, music and pictures are stored on the hard drive and not in memory.

 

[GfulDedFan]

The MacBook line has always used a 2.5" HD and the storage space that's measured in Gigabytes (GB) has no restriction as to the size. In theory, the hard drive used in a first generation MacBook (May '06) will work in a current release MacBook and visa versa.

With this in mind, if you were to purchase a hard drive today, chances are it will work in a future product; however, in the example above, the May '06 hard drive was 60-80GB. To install it into a current MacBook would be a downgrade in size. Likewise, a hard drive purchased today may be a downgrade for a future machine. Obsolete - no, transferable - probably, but it wouldn't be practical because the sizes and the need for space keep growing.

A few years ago, it was a novelty to store a whole movie onto a hard drive. Now, some folks are storing their whole dvd collection.

 

[PosterNutBag]

Time machine

Awesome, thank you both for the input!

I do have another question for anyone who can answer. Just want to be 100% I know how time machine works. I will back up onto time machine one last time and then when I replace my hard drive I can reset everything to the way my computer is the last time I back it up? I've never done it before and am a little freaked about losing all my pics and videos of my daughter.

 

[GfulDedFan]

Check this: Restoring From Time Machine

 

[zeroq]

I have a Late 2007 Black Macbook 2.2GHz with 4GB RAM and 160GB HD that I want to swap to bigger HD too. However I've read that Apple recommends 250GB max for these Macbooks ( http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for.html ) so I'm concerned and haven't made a choice yet.

I could be safe by just going to 250GB... it's still addition of 90GB. I was looking into getting - Samsung S2 250 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive HXMU025DA/M22 - to swap out with my MB's 160GB HD.

Also would upping the HD help these Macbooks from sounding like a jet engine? I'm at 115GB of 150GB available right now and it sounds like a busy airport. Or is this an issue of graphic card being part of the main CPU or some such thing? Perhaps I should abandon Macbooks altogether to avoid this and cracking issue and go with a Macbook Pro?

 

[eman]

Your macbook can run whatever size hard drive you want, as long as it is 2.5" laptop HD and 9.5MM tall. I have run macbooks with 320Gb and 500Gb hard drives with zero issues.
As far as the "Jet engine", sounds like your cpu fan is running at high rpm. Check activity monitor, for clues on the cpu fan speed.