So last night, I upgraded the hard drive in my 13 inch MBP (most recent model) I went from a 500GB to 1.5TB. I don't know if I'm imagining things or not, but to me, it seems to take longer to boot up when it has been shut down, but, and this really might be my imagination, here, I think it runs a little faster overall. Is this possible? Should I worry about the longer boot time? I'm also waiting for my new RAM (16GB) to arrive. Will this help/hinder/have no difference?
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Hard Drive upgrade and Speed
- Thread starter dellavoce
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Both what came with it was 5400, but the drive I swapped in is also 5400. As far as I can see the only difference is that I went from 500GB to 1.5TB. I'm pretty sure boot up is slower, but everything else seems a little snappier. Obviously, I'm pleased with the increased speed, but the slower boot up concerns me. Could I have done something wrong when cloning the old drive? I wonder if going to 4GB of RAM to 16GB is going to change anything significantly?
16GB is likely a waste but 8GB wouldn't be a bad idea.
A higher capacity drive (with the same number of platters) is going to be faster than a lower capacity drive, even at the same RPM - the data is packed together more and therefore transfer rates are increased. If you could fit 1GB of data in a track on the HD that goes all the way around the platter, but another drive fits 2GB in that same track, you're going to read it roughly twice as fast.
That's why a new drive will run 100MB/s but an older, lower capacity drive might only read at 40MB/s
A higher capacity drive (with the same number of platters) is going to be faster than a lower capacity drive, even at the same RPM - the data is packed together more and therefore transfer rates are increased. If you could fit 1GB of data in a track on the HD that goes all the way around the platter, but another drive fits 2GB in that same track, you're going to read it roughly twice as fast.
That's why a new drive will run 100MB/s but an older, lower capacity drive might only read at 40MB/s
After installing the new drive and copying the OS and data over, did you go to System Prefs in Startup Disk and select the new drive? If you did not, it will spend 15-20 seconds looking for various boot sources before finding the new drive. This would cause exactly the symptoms you are describing.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. It didn't occur to me that I'd have to change the startup disk since the new drive is physically where the old one was. I did as you suggested, and it is pretty much back to its original start up speed.
Still going to put in the 16gb RAM. I got it reasonably cheap and I plan on keeping this computer a long time, so I'm sure it will come in handy eventually.
Still going to put in the 16gb RAM. I got it reasonably cheap and I plan on keeping this computer a long time, so I'm sure it will come in handy eventually.
I am so glad that you mentioned this. I was contemplating because I bought a 5400RPM 1TB WD Blue instead of a 7200 of another brand (forgot the name).
Do you have first hand experience with WD Blue 5400RPM 1TB?
Grabbed on when they were on sale at a while back. I don't need that much space though.
Good deal.
It uses the disk's drive ID code and not physical location or name, so any drive hardware change requires this to be reset.
If he upgraded from a 500GB to a 1.5TB drive because he ran out of space, an SSD probably isn't in his future.
He might have thought about getting an SSD but I think his concern in the first place is about the HDD space.