Advice on upgrading mbp hard drive

[kevingaffney]

Ok heres the deal. I have a 2009 mbp with 300 gig hard drive. Thiss is used for work and at home and consequently only have 20 gig free. All data is vital so cant do any more cleaning up. This machine will be upgraded in 12 to 18 months when finances permit.
My questions are, can I have say a 500 gig hard drive installed. If so, should I have it done at an apple store. What might it cost. Now for the most important bit. It is set up exactly as I want it so after a new hard drive is installed, if I restore from my backup, will allapps be installed or do I have to reinstall stuff like photoshop and illustrator. Lot of questions there, but your help would be appreciated

 

[ezramoore]

If you are saying you have a complete backup (a disk image) of the system, then yes, everything will be just as you left it.

I would always recommend that you have a professional do work like this, especially if you rely on the machine for work (which it sounds like you do).

You don't have to take it to an Apple store, but I would recommend an AASP or someone who is familiar with Macs. Replacing a hard drive isn't complicated, but transferring the data isn't something you want to screw up.

 

[bestthereis27]

This is actually quite a simple thing to do. It will take about 2 hours most of the time will be restoring the data to the new drive. Everything will be exactly the same, except you'll have a lot more space. Since the data is so Vital i'm assuming you already have a backup. It would be foolish to not have a backup if the data is that important. If you do than its pretty simple to do.

1. Take a time machine backup of old drive.
2. Have new Drive ready
3. Unscrew bottom screws on the laptop. Pop off the lid.
4. Find the hard drive unscrew the brace that holds it down.
5. Disconnect the Sata cable from old drive.
6. Unscrew the screw mounts from old HDD
7. Screw mounts into the new HDD
8. Plug Sata cable back.
9. Screw back the brace.
10. Shut the lid and screw back together.
11. Insert OS cd.
12. Go to Disk Utility in top menu > Format the new HDD to OS Extended Journaled
13. Go to the top menu and find restore from backup or something. Pick Time Machine. Select the Backup and restore
14. This will take a while if your old drive was full.
15. Then your done.

Hope that helps...It was a quick off memory list. There are more detailed steps online somewhere. Just need to search for it. Good Luck. Worse case you put the old drive back in.

 

[kevingaffney]

Thanks guys. Im meticulous about once a week backups so thats not a prob. One other thing, anyone any idea what this might cost for a 500gig say approximately

 

[VMMan]

Consider swapping out your optical drive for a 2nd hard drive. I, like many others, have my OS and apps on an SSD and my data on a larger HDD where the optical drive used to be.

 

[kevingaffney]

Consider swapping out your optical drive for a 2nd hard drive. I, like many others, have my OS and apps on an SSD and my data on a larger HDD where the optical drive used to be.

That sounds perfect. Presume my local apple store would be the safest option for this job

 

[RedRallyeZ]

That sounds perfect. Presume my local apple store would be the safest option for this job

An Apple store wouldn't do this altercation. Swapping out an ODD for a HDD is considered aftermarket. There are a few tutorials that are actually pretty good online that walk you through the process Here is one that I used. Even though your laptop isn't a 2010, this covers some basic principles.