Changing to a harddrive with more room

[propel40]

I bought the white unibody macbook last march with 120gigs thinking that I could never fill it up and and, low and behold, I'm almost out of room and would like to be able to get bootcamp up and running for school and give it a good amount of space among other things. So this got me thinking that I should just altogether change the harddrive to something that I won't be able to fill up for a while (or at least big enough to handle all the stuff I want to always be on my macbook's hard drive and not only on my external one)

So I've been reading up on this forum and researching the subject and have a general idea of what I need to do, but then again since I'm really not that great with computers I would just like to get a confirmation that what I'm about to do will work from people with more knowledge than me on the subject

So from what I understand the new hard drive I'm going to purchase should be SATA 300? Is this the only thing I have to look into when buying one (apart from the size specifications)? Are there any specific models you guys can recommend? I'm looking for something in the 500gig range.

Aside from that, I went to my apple store and they said that they couldn't do it in store and that I had to have it done at a computer boutique. Is this normal? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like that big an operation but given how little I know about the insides of computers I don't feel comfortable doing it myself.

Sorry if I come off as a bit of a newb, I just want to make sure that I'm doing it properly and don't end up blowing up my macbook or something

Thanks

 

[propel40]

It seems that there is another thread on exactly the same subject lol, well I guess my question is answered. I'm going to go with the WD Scorpio Blue
500 GB SATA 3 Gb/s 8 MB Cache 5400 RPM.

Any last thing I should know before I go buy it and bring my mac to the store to have it done?

 

[Jman6439]

I was going to saw the exact thing haha. I hope everything turns out well! I just bought the Scorpio Blue 500GB after a million reviews/research. Now im experiencing a little wooshing sound and a lag ever so often.

Could you tell me what you experience when you get it? Thanks

Cheers

 

[propel40]

Alright, well I'm going to have it done in about a week and a half (I have exams next week, gotta stay focused lol)

I still can't decide between the WD scorpio 5400 500 gig or the Seagate 7200 500 gig. I've heard a lot of fishy things about the Seagate drive, but the guy at the genius bar I spoke to today said he used the seagate HD and that it worked perfectly. But anyways, I'll let you know.

Which reminds me, for anyone who might be interested, I went to my apple store today and they said that the reason they don't offer changing of the HD is simply because of the agreement they have with the certified apple shops that will do it.

Also, another thing that I didn't mention here, I had lost my Leopard install disk but can get a new one by calling apple for 20$ or, since I have my serial # on my computer and proof of purchase, I could just go down to the apple store and have them install leopard on my new HD for me .

Not that anybody seemed to be asking but I thought I'd share what I learned today

 

[Jman6439]

I still can't decide between the WD scorpio 5400 500 gig or the Seagate 7200 500 gig. I've heard a lot of fishy things about the Seagate drive, but the guy at the genius bar I spoke to today said he used the seagate HD and that it worked perfectly. But anyways, I'll let you know.

Alrighty I hope I can clear things up for you. I was in the same situation as you, but I ended up returning the Scorpio Blue because of the wooshing sound it consistently made. I decided to take a risk a test the so called "risky" seagate that alot of people mention. It turned out as quiet and non-vibration as the original hitachi my macbook came with. Its noticeable fast than the Scorpio Blue also, at least to me.

 

[propel40]

Alrighty I hope I can clear things up for you. I was in the same situation as you, but I ended up returning the Scorpio Blue because of the wooshing sound it consistently made. I decided to take a risk a test the so called "risky" seagate that alot of people mention. It turned out as quiet and non-vibration as the original hitachi my macbook came with. Its noticeable fast than the Scorpio Blue also, at least to me.

Which model seagate did you end up getting though? Was it the Momentus 2.5 7200? If so how many gigs? Anyways, the clerk I spoke to was reassuring about the seagate HD. I'm really on the fence for this one. Anyways, thanks for the replies Jman

 

[Jman6439]

yeah i ended up getting the Seagate 2.5'' 7200.4 500GB harddrive.

I can't really force you or tell you to get it, its really up to you. But from my experience, after 4 other harddrives in the past week, the seagate is the only one that vibrates as little as the original harddrive and is whisper quiet. way faster than any other also. Bootup 10-15 seconds faster, and applications open up 1/2 as fast.

Goodluck.