is it easy to replace the hard drive?

[azngamer808]

i'm getting the 200gb now because none of the stores in oregon will put the 250gb in the base model. (i'm driving down from washington, trying to avoid tax so i can't order it online). I think that 200 would be enough but if down the road i realize that i want a bigger hard drive, is that easy to replace? Does it void the apple care warrenty? What's the best way to get all of the information from the old hard drive to the new one? (sorry for my noobness but idk how i would get the computer started and running since the new hard drive wouldn't have anything on it).

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

 

[Stampyhead]

Are you talking about the Macbook or the Macbook Pro? Replacing the hard drive on the Macbook is easy and you can do it yourself without voiding the warranty. Instructions on how to do it are available on Apple's website. Changing the hard drive on the Macbook Pro isn't quite as simple. It's recommended that you take it to an Apple Authorized technician to do it. It's possible to do it yourself but it's tricky and you will void your warranty if you're not an Apple tech.

 

[Neil321]

Are you talking about the Macbook or the Macbook Pro? Replacing the hard drive on the Macbook is easy and you can do it yourself without voiding the warranty. Instructions on how to do it are available on Apple's website. Changing the hard drive on the Macbook Pro isn't quite as simple. It's recommended that you take it to an Apple Authorized technician to do it. It's possible to do it yourself but it's tricky and you will void your warranty if you're not an Apple tech.

it'll only void the warranty if you screw something up

 

[azngamer808]

thanks for the reply! a couple other questions. how much would the authorized apple tech charge to replace the hard drive? and is there a specific brand of hard drive that i would need to buy? this is for a macbookpro

 

[Hls811]

thanks for the reply! a couple other questions. how much do they charge to replace the hard drive? and is there a specific brand that i would need to buy? and this is for a macbookpro

I'm not sure what you mean by replace the hard drive, but if you're asking if you can pay for someone at the Apple store to do it, then the answer is usually no. (I've read a few threads where its been done, but its not standard policy and they aren't supposed to - you might have to get lucky and find a store that will do it.)

There are 3rd party vendors who'll do it and it costs about $150 for the labor - to me, its not worth it. I upgraded my previous MBP to a 320GB drive and it was much easier than I thought. I followed these instructions and was done in about 20 minutes.

I only got the 250GB in my new MBO yesterday because I know I'll upgrade eventually - I've did a cleanup so I've got about 50GB free now, but I wouldnt' hesitate to do the surgery myself again.

 

[Hls811]

Oh - and as far as a brand - its not so limited to that, but moreso the size and connector - as long as you got a SATA drive with a 9.5mm height you'd be alright.

The 320GB I had was a Western Digital. As long as you stuck with a name brand you should be alright.

 

[overheated]

simple stuff

there is nothing hard about replacing the HD in a MBP. i replaced mine this weekend with the Hitachi k500 500gb drive and it might have taken me all of 15 minutes. there are a couple of good guides out there but it all becomes pretty self-explanatory one you get it cracked.

the difficult part is when you realize that your plan of making your newly expanded MBP take the place of your MP is just not going to work and you are dropped off where you started.... one MP at work and one MP at home - files scattered everywhere in between.

 

[alphaod]

thanks for the reply! a couple other questions. how much would the authorized apple tech charge to replace the hard drive? and is there a specific brand of hard drive that i would need to buy? this is for a macbookpro

No specific brands, just you have to make sure the drive is 9.5mm maximum high; if you have a 17" MBP then it's 12.5 mm maximum. In other words any drive except the Hitach 5K500 will fit in the 15" MBP.

 

[JMax1]

I replaced the HD in my G4 Ti powerbook. It was really easy to do and I don't think I did anything wrong.

The only problem is I can't seem to load an OS on it. I was using someone's powerbook install CD, as my old powerbook CDs are a few states away in storage. I don't know if it was because of the install CD, but I couldn't get anywhere past the grey screen when installing.

Turning it on in target mode works, only when hooked to my iMac. So right now I have a external-hard-drive-powerbook. It's kind of tickling me right now, in not a nice way.

If anyone has some thoughts on how to make it tickle me in a nice way, that'd be great!