2009 MacBook Pro Harddrive Crashed..

[freshness]

My Macbook Pro that I bought in August 2009 is donzo. It was acting funny so I restarted it and it got stuck on the Gray Apple Logo Screen so I put in the System Restore CD and it freezes up once I get to the point of selecting which Hard Drive I want to replace..

Talk to Apple support on the phone, they said I need a new hard drive. I heard it was easy enough to do it myself so I'll do that.

Only problem is I have no idea where to buy a hard drive or what hard drive to buy.. Can anyone help me out?

 

[discounteggroll]

im assuming you are out of warranty?

the hard drive on a unibody macbook pro is 10 screws on the bottom case followed by 1 screw on the hard drive bracket retainer. Easy if you know what you're doing, as well as if you don't. Follow iFixit or bring to to someone who has experience. do a clean snow leopard install if possible, otherwise restore with the DVD's that came with your computer

 

[lavrishevo]

Go for the Seagate Momentus XT SSD hybrid. 500GB drive for $99.00 and it's very fast. Just got mine from Amazon and I'm very happy! A full SSD would be even faster but the price per GB is still rather high. The Momentus XT is the best bang for the buck. Please feel to contact me if you need help updating the drives firmware I can give you the low down. It's very easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momen...BF32/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304677159&sr=8-1

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1146760/

 

[Mac-key]

Check out this website. It's great got internal HD options, BUT more importantly it has video tutorials that show you how to replace your HD. It's very easy.

 

[freshness]

Go for the Seagate Momentus XT SSD hybrid. 500GB drive for $99.00 and it's very fast. Just got mine from Amazon and I'm very happy! A full SSD would be even faster but the price per GB is still rather high. The Momentus XT is the best bang for the buck. Please feel to contact me if you need help updating the drives firmware I can give you the low down. It's very easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momen...BF32/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304677159&sr=8-1

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1146760/

I'm going ahead and purchasing this. It will be here Monday. I wanted to update my OS to Snow Leopard before it crashed and I still do.. and my start up disk is stuck in the old drive so can I just purchase the new Snow Leopard and use that?

 

[cambookpro]

I'm going ahead and purchasing this. It will be here Monday. I wanted to update my OS to Snow Leopard before it crashed and I still do.. and my start up disk is stuck in the old drive so can I just purchase the new Snow Leopard and use that?

What? How can you have a disc in your hard drive?
Discs are put in the SuperDrive. The HD is where your data is stored.

 

[lavrishevo]

I'm going ahead and purchasing this. It will be here Monday. I wanted to update my OS to Snow Leopard before it crashed and I still do.. and my start up disk is stuck in the old drive so can I just purchase the new Snow Leopard and use that?

Good choice, you won't be dissapointed. You can update the drives firmware to the latest version via the links in my other thread I posted in here and make sure to reset your PRAM once you install the new drive. Then boot from the Snow Leopard disk, use disk utility to partition the new drive and your off... Let us know your results once your done.

 

[freshness]

Honestly, I have no idea what you just said haha.

After I put in the new hard drive and I turn on the computer, what do I do at that point? I thought that it would be as if I just purchased the computer and I'd follow on screen directions to set up the laptop, is that not the case?

I went ahead and ordered a copy of the latest Snow Leopard.

Update: I understand the resetting, but the firmware confuses me..

 

[davidlv]

Honestly, I have no idea what you just said haha.
After I put in the new hard drive and I turn on the computer, what do I do at that point? I thought that it would be as if I just purchased the computer and I'd follow on screen directions to set up the laptop, is that not the case?
I went ahead and ordered a copy of the latest Snow Leopard.

Before you "purchased the computer," Apple initialized the HD (formatted it) and installed the OS on the HD for you, but this time you will have to do that yourself.
Insert the Snow Leopard DVD OS X Install Disk in the DVD/CD slot and restart (hold down the power button until the machine turns off and then push it again to start up. As the machine starts up hold down the Option key, which should result in a screen showing the DVD Install disk (it's slow and may take a while before you can select the DVD disk). Select the DVD install disk, and then hit the arrow on the right (meaning proceed).
After the DVD boots up, and after you Select your language, DO NOT PUSH the OK or Continue (forgot which it is) button. Instead, pull down the "Utilities" menu and select "Disk Utility", then select your new HD on the left, and use the menus on the right to create a new partition and the Customize menu to select GUID partition (should be this as the default), aand let DU do its thing. Then quit DU and go through the install procedure (customize it as you will or use the default install.
That should do it.

 

[freshness]

Thank you kind sir. I'll follow those instructions on Monday when the drive and OS arrive.