Hard drive upgrade advice for mid 2009 Macbook

[thekb]

My white macbook from mid/late 2009 is getting slow and the 250 GB drive is full. I am looking to replace with this 7200, 1TB drive. Is it a good choice?

http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-7200RPM-Mobile/dp/B0097LG9U8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Also, for when I am cloning the current hard drive over before installation, what the best way to accomplish this? Aren't there just cheap cables that I can hook up via firewire or USB to the bare drive? I'll clone it, then swap the new drive in and I should be good to go with no disruption, right? Thanks for any advice.

 

[DaveTheRave]

Basically that's it. Download Carbon Copy Clober, put the new drive in an enclosure with SATA to USB cable, use disk utility to format the drive, then clone the drive. When it's reboot and hold fine option key to boot from the external drive. If all looks good, shut it off and replace drive. After you reboot select the new drive as the startup disk in System Preferences.

 

[Naimfan]

I have one in a 17" MBP and it works well.

 

[thekb]

Thanks for the advice. I don't really want to get an external enclosure, so I was thinking just a cable to connect the bare drive would work. Are either one of these better for this purpose? One says it includes the power cable, the other appears to require connection to two USB ports (a laptop *and* a desktop in the diagram??)

http://www.amazon.com/Patuoxun-Converter-Adapter-Cable-Drive/dp/B008ASF5MC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396142909&sr=8-1&keywords=sata+to+usb+cable

http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Converter-Supply-Activity-EC-AHDD/dp/B00CPGYNV4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396142909&sr=8-2&keywords=sata+to+usb+cable

 

[DaveTheRave]

Here's what I used: http://m.rakuten.com/product/217609202

Make sure you have the correct sized screwdrivers for your machine including Torx 6.

 

[thekb]

I know it won't give quite the same kick as an SSD, but should there be a noticeable improvement in system speed with the increase to 7200rpm?

 

[thekb]

So which drive would give bigger performance bang? A 7200 drive or a hybrid, like a Momentus?

 

[rendyr]

So which drive would give bigger performance bang? A 7200 drive or a hybrid, like a Momentus?

I still suggest you to buy an SSD and move your HD to DVD. You get additional capacity (by moving OS and application to your SSD) and speed increase. This wouldn't work if you are still using your DVD.

If you didn't want to buy SSD, I think the SSHD drive from Seagate will be better in term of application speed because it has small cache inside it. I never tried it, so this is purely my opinion.

Upgrade to 7200rpm will not really increase your speed dramatically, but I also never tried it.

 

[fig]

I still suggest you to buy an SSD and move your HD to DVD. You get additional capacity (by moving OS and application to your SSD) and speed increase. This wouldn't work if you are still using your DVD.

If you didn't want to buy SSD, I think the SSHD drive from Seagate will be better in term of application speed because it has small cache inside it. I never tried it, so this is purely my opinion.

Upgrade to 7200rpm will not really increase your speed dramatically, but I also never tried it.

Seconded, or get an external. An SSD on an older machine is like a new lease on life.

 

[tekameleon]

Thirded this opinion. There's no comparison to the speed bump you'll get from running a SSD.

Here's a benchmark of the difference in my mid-2007 MacBook fwiw
(5,400 320GB --> 240GB SSD)