Get up to 2TB* in your MacBook Pro!

[ayeying]

So apparently there's been a lot of talk lately about putting in the 1TB hard drives in the MacBook Pros.

As attached in the first image, I am running 1.75TB (1TB + 750GB) hard drives in my Core Duo, First generation, MacBook Pro 17"

Here's some information about the larger hard drives (As of April 6, 2010):

- 1TB, Western Digital Scorpio Blue, 12.5mm, 5200RPM, 8MB Cache, Advanced Format drive**
- 750GB, Western Digital Scorpio Blue, 12.5mm, 5200RPM, 8MB Cache
- 750GB, Western Digital Scorpio Blue, 9.5mm, 5400RPM, 8MB Cache, Advanced Format drive**

The drives I'm currently using are the 1TB and 750GB, 12.5mm height running at 5200RPM spindle speed.

So far, only the following systems can support 12.5mm drives in the Hard Drive Bay:

17" MacBook Pro, All Models
15" Unibody MacBook Pro
13" Unibody MacBook (Pro)
13" Unibody Plastic MacBook***

The systems that can support 12.5mm drives in the Optical Bay (Using an Optibay or other enclosures)

17" MacBook Pro, Discrete
13"/15"/17" Unibody MacBook Pro***
13" Unibody MacBook***
13" Unibody Plastic MacBook***

For users who wish not to hassle with 12.5mm height, the 9.5mm height is the industry standard for 2.5" Laptop/Notebook Hard Drives. With a 9.5mm drive, you can put it in the Hard Drive bay or Optical Bay with enclosure without worrying about if it'll fit or not.

As of April 6, 2010, the largest hard drives are as follows:

7200RPM (9.5mm): 500GB
5400RPM (9.5mm): 750GB
5200RPM (12.5mm): 1TB

For performance, with dual drives, you can either use them as dual drives or you can RAID-0/1 the drives together. OSX has the ability to do Software RAID. For more information about RAID, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

The basics for RAID is:

RAID-0 (Striped) is for performance. You get double the bandwidth of hard drives. The drives are also linked. For example, if you have 2x 1TB, in RAID-0, it is viewed as 2TB in Finder/OSX.

RAID-1 (Mirror) is for redundancy. Anything that is changed in Disk 0 is also applied to Disk 1. However, if you have 2x 1TB drives, you only have 1TB of usable space since the 2nd drive is a "mirror" of the first.

See the screenshot for the XBench and AJA System Test of my set up. Note, I am running 1.5Gbps SATA-I connection. I could probably hit the "limit" of SATA-I with this set up. (Note: I have over 700GB of data on the drives. The OS itself was upgraded from Tiger > Leopard > Snow Leopard)

Any problems?

I have not noticed any. I do know that the Optical Bay, during shut down, performs a "hard" shut down of the hard drive.

Remember though, ALWAYS BACK UP. You can never be too careful. RAID-1 is not a good back up solution.

There is no sleep issues, as least from my current uses.

--
* Only certain MacBook Pro models can support dual 1TB drives as of April 6, 2010
** Advanced Format drives are Western Digital's new method of formatting blocks. For more information, see http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=216&type=87
*** Untested, but in theory should work. If any users can comment on this, please post.

 

[Absent]

Great info. Can't wait to Raid0 two 1TBs in my newly refreshed 17.

 

[alphaod]

So is the 15" MacBook Pro (unibody) confirmed to be able to fit a 12.5mm drive in their? I mean I could also go for a Bluray burner too if that's the case…

 

[Relznuk]

Thanks for sharing. Awesome info.

 

[psingh01]

Did you have to do anything to get the 12.5mm drive to fit in the hard drive bay (like remove something to add space)? Damn, I was under the impression that only 9.5mm would work. I've been waiting for 9.5mm 1TB drives for a long time lol

I have a Late 2006 17" MBP, if I can put a 1TB drive in the hard drive bay with no modification then I'm ordering one today!

 

[ayeying]

So is the 15" MacBook Pro (unibody) confirmed to be able to fit a 12.5mm drive in their? I mean I could also go for a Bluray burner too if that's the case…

It's confirmed for the Hard Drive bay but I'm seeing mixed reports for the Optical bay. The 15" models do use a 9.5mm Optical bay but theres always extra room that could fit a 12.5mm model.

Did you have to do anything to get the 12.5mm drive to fit in the hard drive bay (like remove something to add space)? Damn, I was under the impression that only 9.5mm would work. I've been waiting for 9.5mm 1TB drives for a long time lol

I have a Late 2006 17" MBP, if I can put a 1TB drive in the hard drive bay with no modification then I'm ordering one today!

No mods whatsoever. The area for the hard drive bay on a 17" Discrete MacBook Pro has enough room for a 12.5mm.

 

[hypermog]

What do you mean RAID-1 is not a good backup solution?

 

[Jaro65]

What do you mean RAID-1 is not a good backup solution?

It is a good protection against an HD failure, but not against accidental deletion and such.

 

[alphaod]

It's confirmed for the Hard Drive bay but I'm seeing mixed reports for the Optical bay. The 15" models do use a 9.5mm Optical bay but theres always extra room that could fit a 12.5mm model.

Interesting… well because of the spindown issue, I'm going to move my SSD into the optibay and the 1TB HDD into the HDD bay.

 

[Gabriel GR]

It is a good protection against an HD failure, but not against accidental deletion and such.

It's as much protection as you can have in a single disk array...

 

[DoFoT9]

nice and all, but there is already the optibay thread going around with 700+ posts.

 

[jamesryanbell]

It's as much protection as you can have in a single disk array...

I was about to say the same thing.

User error is not what I'd be worried about. I'd be thinking about disk failure.

 

[DoFoT9]

I was about to say the same thing.

User error is not what I'd be worried about. I'd be thinking about disk failure.

then either backup more to an external drive or create a mirror with the 2x1TB HDDs. cant be that hard can it?

 

[Gabriel GR]

then either backup more to an external drive or create a mirror with the 2x1TB HDDs. cant be that hard can it?

Two mirrored drives within the same portable device protect you against drive failure but not against loss, theft or other disaster.

I use fileserver with a RAID-5 array.

 

[DoFoT9]

Two mirrored drives within the same portable device protect you against drive failure but not against loss, theft or other disaster.

I use fileserver with a RAID-5 array.

good, then all you need is that RAID5 + Time Machine (or clone) and you're sweet!

 

[JasonR]

2 Questions:

1) For those with two drives, are you mainly using the second drive as a back up? What do you use to back up the main drive (Time Machine, etc)?

2) Again, if you have two drives, when you need to use the CD/DVD drive, what do you do?

 

[DoFoT9]

havent needed to use the DVD drive for years

 

[headfuzz]

I are drooling

 

[spetykowski]

2 Questions:

1) For those with two drives, are you mainly using the second drive as a back up? What do you use to back up the main drive (Time Machine, etc)?

2) Again, if you have two drives, when you need to use the CD/DVD drive, what do you do?

1) I currently have two drives in my 15" Macbook Pro. I have one 500BG 7500RPM as my boot drive which holds my apps and OSX. It is also partitioned as a scratch drive for when i am using photoshop. The second drive is a 500GB 5400RPM. That I store my photos, and music on. I have both backed up to a 2tb harddrive Fantom Drive with Time Machine.

2) When i purchased the Optibay It came with a free DVD enclouser and USB cable. So when ever i need to use the DVD Drive I just simply plug it in.

 

[DoFoT9]

^^ you're using your boot drive as a scratch disk

great performance there!

 

[iLog.Genius]

^^ you're using your boot drive as a scratch disk

great performance there!

I was thinking the same too I mean unless you're using a fast HDD or SSD, wouldn't that decrease performance?

 

[DoFoT9]

I was thinking the same too I mean unless you're using a fast HDD or SSD, wouldn't that decrease performance?

yup pretty big decrease in performance.

 

[Dozerrox]

1) I currently have two drives in my 15" Macbook Pro. I have one 500BG 7500RPM as my boot drive which holds my apps and OSX. It is also partitioned as a scratch drive for when i am using photoshop. The second drive is a 500GB 5400RPM. That I store my photos, and music on. I have both backed up to a 2tb harddrive Fantom Drive with Time Machine.

2) When i purchased the Optibay It came with a free DVD enclouser and USB cable. So when ever i need to use the DVD Drive I just simply plug it in.

You'd be better putting the scratch onto the secondary drive.

 

[dekka007]

I cannot get the 12.5mm to fit in the optical bay of the following machines:

Macbook Unibody
Macbook Pro 15"
Macbook Pro 13"

Using maxupgrades optical bay kit. 12.5mm will only fit in the drive bay.

 

[ayeying]

2 Questions:

1) For those with two drives, are you mainly using the second drive as a back up? What do you use to back up the main drive (Time Machine, etc)?

2) Again, if you have two drives, when you need to use the CD/DVD drive, what do you do?

No, I'm using RAID of both drives.

I have 750GB Partition of the 1TB along with the 750GB for a RAID-0 of 1.5TB Total space. The rest of the hard drive space (250GB) is for Boot Camp with Windows Vista

I haven't needed the CD/DVD drive ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard and installed Windows Vista. However, I do have Remote Disk (OSX Feature that originally came with the MacBook Air) so if i really needed it, I could use that.