As replacing the internal Hard Disk Drive (HDD) of a MacBook (MB) or MacBook Pro (MBP) is an ongoing issue, I decided to make a small guide on how to replace the HDD on those machines and how to properly get your data and even the Operating System (OS) to the new HDD.
The same can be applied for replacing an HDD with an SSD, but further precautions may have to be taken to get an SSD to properly work. MRoogle will offer many threads on this.
The same can be applied for replacing an HDD with an SSD, but further precautions may have to be taken to get an SSD to properly work. MRoogle will offer many threads on this.
0. Identify your MacBook or MacBook Pro
1. Getting a new HDD
- All MB/MBPs accept 2.5" S-ATA HDD/HDDs, but there is also the "maximum height" issue to consider, as bigger capacity HDDs (currently the 1TB ones) are 12.5mm high and the HDDs offering smaller storage are 9.5mm high. All current Unibody MB/MBPs (white and aluminium) accept 12.5mm HDDs, the white/black MacBooks (from 2006 to 2009, the one with Firewire) and the aluminium 15" MacBook Pros (2006 to 2008) only accept 9.5mm HDDs. The 17" MBP (2006 to early 2009) does allow 12.5mm HDDs though.
Example of 12.5mm HDD: 1.0TB WD Scorpio Blue 5200RPM SATA
[*]www.macsales.com and www.newegg.com are good places to get 2.5" HDDs for low prices, but they are rather US centric, thus feel free to add more online shops to the list.
Currently there are 2.5" HDDs on the market of up to 1TB (12.5mm), though often only a 750GB HDD can be used due to the height (9.5mm).
2. Guides to replace the internal HDD with a newer one
- White/Black MacBook (2006 to 2009):
- Aluminium Unibody MacBook (late 2008 to mid 2009):
- White Unibody MacBook (late 2009 to ....):
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
- Aluminium 15" MacBook Pro (2006 to 2008):
- Aluminium 17" MacBook Pro (2006 to early 2009):
- Unibody Aluminium 15" MacBook Pro (late 2008 to mid 2009):
- Unibody Aluminium 13", 15" & 17" MacBook Pro (2009 to ... - models with built-in battery):
3. Transferring data from the old HDD to the new HDD
- Making a clone (1:1 copy)
A "clone" is direct 1:1 copy of the contents of one HDD to another HDD and allows the target HDD to be bootable.- In order to clone your old HDD to the new HDD, you need to get an enclosure for your new HDD. If speed is not an issue, any USB 2.0 enclosure for S-ATA HDDs will do (examples of USB 2.0 enclosure).
- If you move around a lot of data or need a faster interface, you can also go for enclosures with a Firewire 800 interface (examples of Firewire 800 enclosure).
- There are also eSATA/USB docks for 3.5" and 2.5" S-ATA HDDs (example).
After you put the new HDD into your MacBook or MacBook Pro and put the old HDD into the enclosure (you can do it the other way around too), you need to boot from your old HDD via holding down the OPTION/ALT key right after the Startup Sound chimes. After you successfully booted from the old HDD in the external enclosure you either get CarbonCopyCloner (CCC) (free) or SuperDuper (SD) (free, but buying it gives you additional options) and install them appropriately.
- How to use CarbonCopyCloner
CCC offers you to select a SOURCE DISK, in this case your old HDD, and a TARGET DISK, in this case your new HDD. After you made your selection, there is only the CLONE button to click and to enter your account password. There are more options of course, but they are meant for backing up instead of making 1:1 copies. - How to use SuperDuper
SD offers you to select the source disk (COPY ...) and a target disk (TO ...). It has additional options for backing up only system or user files and to create a disk image and some more, but for the cloning process the above will do and the free version will suffice.
[*]Using Time Machine and the Migration Assistant
If you use Time Machine as means to back up, you can just replace the old HDD with the new one and re-install Mac OS X via the Restore or Upgrade or Retail DVD and select the connected Time Machine HDD via the Setup Assistant to import ll your data and even your entire Mac OS X (if you backed it up too).
If you didn't use Time Machine and want to start with a fresh installation of Mac OS X, you can either use the Setup Assistant during the installation process to import some of your data (including applications) or you can use the Migration Assistant to import the data after the installation is finished.
Further reading upon Time Machine and Setup and Migration Assistant:
[*]Deleting the old HDD's content
If you want to use the old HDD for storing other data than your OS or using it as Time Machine, manual deletion can be quite a hassle. Thus it is easier to delete the HDD's content via Disk Utility.
Therefore start Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility, select your old volume on the left side (not the actual HDD, but the part below that, the volume, which is indented to the right), go to the ERASE tab and click the ERASE button. The following message only tells you, that you are about to erase all data on that volume.
If you want to use the old HDD in the external enclosure for Mac OS X only, the standard settings will do, if you want to use it with Windows too, look at the guide GGJstudios provided on file systems.
- How to use CarbonCopyCloner
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