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First time hard drive upgrade mid-2009 mbp

G

ghaley09

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 14, 2012
5
0
Hello,
This is my first post on this forum, so I hope it's in the right spot. I own a 13" mid-2009 mbp running 10.7.3, 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo with 250gb stock hard drive. This is my second mac and the first one I've tried upgrading. I've owned it for 2 years now, and I'm doing more video editing and and after effects work, so I've decided to upgrade. I just purchased 8gb of ram which I will be installing when it arrives later this week, and I'm looking to upgrade my hard drive. I'm very interested in the Seagate momentus XT. I'd like to go with the new 750gb version, but I'm not sure if it is compatible with my computer. If it won't work I will probably go with the 500gb version. Any info would be great. I have my computer backed up to a 1TB time capsule drive over wifi, so I'm planning on restoring all my files that way. If there's a better way then I'm all ears. Also, if anyone has any other opinions or tips for a first time hard drive swap then feel free to post. Thanks.
 
SSD all the way if you can afford it. You can even buy a smaller one and take your current HDD and use it as external with a cheap case
 
Thanks for the quick responses. I'm definitely not opposed to a ssd. I'm just trying to keep things simple for my first upgrade. Also I like the higher capacity of the hybrid drive, and its portability. What's a competative option for ssd in the $200 range?
 
ghaley09 said:
Thanks for the quick responses. I'm definitely not opposed to a ssd. I'm just trying to keep things simple for my first upgrade. Also I like the higher capacity of the hybrid drive, and its portability. What's a competative option for ssd in the $200 range?
Click to expand...

If you want to have that small of a drive, fine, but I just installed a Momentus 500 GB in my mid-2009 and had no problems. I didn't do the XT, since I had read about issues with that running down the battery. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive and everything went flawlessly. Oh, and it only cost $109.
 
SSD is not any harder to install than a regular HDD- it might actually be easier. The Crucial m4 and Samsung 830's seem to be good from reviews. Personally, I use an m4 128gb and use my old 750gb as an external in a case. Some people replace their optical drives instead of using an external case, but that's not as simple. The m4 128gb goes for ~$150. If you're looking for something a little bigger, Samsung is on sale at deals news: http://dealnews.com/Samsung-256-GB-SATA-6-Gbps-Internal-SSD-for-300-free-shipping/558197.html. Of course, you won't be able to take advantage of Sata III speeds though.


Edit:
My m4 is crazy fast. I can't believe how much faster it is. Most people here can attest that an SSD upgrade is well worth the money and may be the best upgrade for your machine
 
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Yeah true, if I could find it for $150, the cheapest new one I could find on eBay was $163. Not that $13 is that big of a deal either. But $43 cheaper is worth it as long as the refurb works. Where did you get yours for $150?
 
Check Amazon- Also, you may want to look into OCZ Vertexs that run on SATA II since you cannot benefit from the SATA III anyways. I would wait from feedback from other members or check the sad threads first though as I've never used one. I see they got for about 130 new
 
Thanks. I really like that m4, I'm definitely gonna consider it. I didn't realize you could get a good ssd in that price range. If I do end up going with a hybrid, what specs do I need to look at to decide between the 500gb older seagate and the 750gb new one for my mid-2009 mbp?
 
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