Anybody upgraded their MacBook Hard Drive?

[BoyBach]

(I guess it's all in the title!)

I think that I'll be upgrading my MacBook's hard drive to a higher capacity in the near future using the DIY section from the Apple website. But I'm nervous about opening up the MacBook myself.

Has anybody on the MR forums done this? What size, model, capacity, speed, etc did you choose? Was it as easy as it looks?

Cheers, Andrew

 

[heatmiser]

Very easy. Any 2.5" drive 9.5mm in height should do. You can search for them @ Newegg. Buy an external enclosure so you can clone your current drive to the new one with Carbon Copy Cloner.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

I upgraded my 60GB drive to a 5400 RPM 120GB Seagate HDD (i don't know it's model name, sorry)

It really was easy. It was even easier than the RAM, because you didn't have to put too much force into removing and replacing the drive.

 

[legacyb4]

Waiting for prices to drop just a little more for the 250GB's and I'll spring for one. Works out well because my current 120 will be perfect for doubling the capacity on my 60GB PS3.... ahh, cascading hardware, gotta love it!

 

[~J~]

I upgraded my 2.33 MBP from a factory 160GB to a Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm. Took about 20 min to take it apart, install, test, & reassemble. Im pretty tech savvy... but its actually not a difficult operation. Well worth it... my MBP loves having 250GB of space!

 

[dukebound85]

very very very very very easy. easier than ram

will need like an eyeglass screwdriver and a torx 8 screwdriver (found at a sears)

i replaced the stock 80gig with a 250 wd scorpio drive

 

[BoyBach]

Waiting for prices to drop just a little more for the 250GB's and I'll spring for one. Works out well because my current 120 will be perfect for doubling the capacity on my 60GB PS3.... ahh, cascading hardware, gotta love it!

Sounds like a good, and cost effective, plan!

 

[~J~]

Waiting for prices to drop just a little more for the 250GB's and I'll spring for one. Works out well because my current 120 will be perfect for doubling the capacity on my 60GB PS3.... ahh, cascading hardware, gotta love it!

Yeah ya do! Put the factory 160 from my MBP into my Mini...

 

[heatmiser]

Yeah, unlike memory, drive prices only go down, not up. I'm waiting until 500gb drives are <$50 before purchasing. Since I plan to keep my laptop for 59 more months, I can wait... :^)

 

[Krafty]

Yeah, I have to upgrade mine again after going from 80 to 120GB.

 

[djellison]

I've done it twice - each time buying a Western Digital Passport external drive, opening it up, and using that in the MB, and taking the MB drive and putting it into the WD enclosure.

Couldn't have been easier really.

Doug

 

[IDANNY]

what about putting a faster drive in? maybe a 7200 or something.

 

[BoyBach]

what about putting a faster drive in? maybe a 7200 or something.

That's something I'm considering with my purchase. Would fitting a faster drive drain the battery more quickly?

 

[drewdeezee]

I swapped out the stock 80gb drive for a 200gb 7200rpm Seagate. The above post is right. A hard drive swap seemed easier than a ram swap.

 

[ETID]

I just bought a 250gb wd drive for my macbook and hoping to fit it at wekend. It seems a pretty painless process but how come some people say you need 2 types of screwdriver while in the apple guide only one is said to ben needed. Sorry if this has been covered before but i thought it was pretty relevant.

 

[heatmiser]

You need a second screwdriver to remove the drive caddy from the old drive and attach it to the new one.

 

[ETID]

why would they omit that part from the guide. Strange. Thanks for the heads up. What screwdriver isneeded for that?

 

[Neil321]

why would they omit that part from the guide. Strange. Thanks for the heads up. What screwdriver isneeded for that?

Torx 8

#00 phillips

 

[Fezzasus]

why would they omit that part from the guide. Strange. Thanks for the heads up. What screwdriver isneeded for that?

I think they expect you to have a replacement apple hard disk to hand, which would have the cage and screws already attached.

You will need a T8 screwdriver

 

[Anderson3133]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uuyi-NWLLz4

Enjoy

 

[markjones05]

Im interested in doing this for my macbookpro 17" is it as easy? Or is there an istructional video for it as well?

 

[stvfisher]

I did not have the right torx screwdriver when I swapped out my drive (to a Western Digital 320GB 5400RPM) and was forced to use a very small flathead to fit into the torx. Not recommended, but it worked.

 

[Neil321]

Im interested in doing this for my macbookpro 17" is it as easy? Or is there an istructional video for it as well?

If you can use a screwdriver these guides are all you
need,take your time,watch were all the screws go,
keep grounding yourself

Macbook pro = Torx 6 & #00 phillips

Takes about 15mins

http://www.ifixit.com/

 

[IDANNY]

I swapped out the stock 80gb drive for a 200gb 7200rpm Seagate. The above post is right. A hard drive swap seemed easier than a ram swap.

did it increase the speed much?

 

[xraydoc]

Im interested in doing this for my macbookpro 17" is it as easy? Or is there an istructional video for it as well?

There are videos, but getting to the hard drive of a MacBook Pro is a major pain. About 25 screws of varying sizes to remove. Have to take off the entire top panel (with the keyboard and trackpad). You'll feel like you're doing major surgery.