HDD upgrade MacBook Uni late 2009

[Nathmonn]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to upgraded my HHD in my Unibody 2009 MacBook from the standard 250gb to 500gb. I've been doing my research and found this HDD on sale:

Seagate Momentus 5400RPM SATA-II

Only thing thats puzzling me is the SATA-II part, will this work fine in my Macbook? Ive had a scout on Everymac.com, and it says my model Mac has a 3gb SATA interface; is that what SATA-II means that it has 3gb interface? as apposed to SATA's 1.5gb?

Basically I don't want to encounter any sluggishness from file loading, id like to keep my Mac as speedy as possible too.

If anyone has any other recommendations I'm all ears.

Thanks for your time

 

[monokakata]

If you don't want sluggishness, stay away from 5400 RPM drives.

If you like Seagate, look into the Momentus XT series (7200 RPM plus some SSD goodness).

I've installed about half a dozen of them in various Macbooks, and all have worked very well.

 

[Nathmonn]

Thanks for the suggestion, I was looking into the 7200RPM models too, but read that they tend to be a little more noisy and can vibrate the mac, is this true?

 

[designs216]

What about the Crucial M4?

I just put the 256GB model in my 2009 MBP and it was a fantastic upgrade. It does well in reviews and the price has been trending downward in recent months. It is absolutely silent and you should see greater battery life. The only other upgrade that you may consider is going to 8GB RAM which is dirt cheap ATM.

 

[MrMacBookPro]

What about the Crucial M4?

I just put the 256GB model in my 2009 MBP and it was a fantastic upgrade. It does well in reviews and the price has been trending downward in recent months. It is absolutely silent and you should see greater battery life. The only other upgrade that you may consider is going to 8GB RAM which is dirt cheap ATM.

My 8GB should be here tomorrow but going back and forth between a larger HD or SSD? Seeing that the SSD come in less GB than the computer comes with would the HD be a better choice? OR stick with a 256GB SSD?

Thanks

 

[Nathmonn]

Hey guys,

I've already upgraded the ram, that was done a while ago, but my standard 250HDD is becoming clogged with work and music, so am in much need of a larger drive.

Id love to get a solid state, but I wouldn't get much change from £400 for a size that would suit my needs. I'd rather put that money towards getting a newer model MBP.

Any suggestions off this site would be beneficial as they're just up the road from me and I plan on calling by tomorrow

Thanks for the help so far though

 

[monokakata]

Thanks for the suggestion, I was looking into the 7200RPM models too, but read that they tend to be a little more noisy and can vibrate the mac, is this true?

I've never noticed it, and nobody whose drive I've changed out has complained.

That's not the same as claiming that they aren't potentially noisier and don't vibrate more than the 5400 rpm drives -- only that in the real world, in my experience, these aren't issues.

 

[Nathmonn]

Ok I've got a problem I'm hoping one of you guys can help with, heres the situation:

I've purchased the Western Digital Scorpio Black 500gb Sata-II 16mb, replaced the stock Hitachi 250gb HDD that comes with the Mac, and I'm wanting to put a clean install of Snow Leopard from CD, however when it boots up with the installation progress and to choose an install location the drive isn't recognised.

Ok so maybe I need to format it through disk utility I think, so I load up disk utility and the drive purely reads as "Media" and states that it's 0bytes in size.

Ok so maybe I need to add a partition to install on, and again I hit the same problem.

All of the options in disk utility are greyed out. So I remove the drive and re-insert it thinking maybe I had a loose connection, and I hit the same problem.

So I hear maybe the drive needs to be formatted externally first, and an OSX installed on to it before inserting the drive into the machine. So I load up my old hard drive, and connect the Scorpio Black into a USB caddy and get the following alert:

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

I can go back to disk utility but again all the options are greyed out and it's only appearing as "media"

Also worth noting is that when the drive boots up or is accessed it gives off a beep/clicking sound for a minute and goes quiet before being prompted with the above prompt.

I'm a bit puzzled on where the problem lies, is the drive DOA? Is it not compatible with my 2009 White 2.26ghz Mac? Is there something I need to do with jumpers> (Ive read something about getting the drive to boot up in 1.5ghz instead of the 3ghz, but I must say I was a bit confused by this as I don't even know what jumpers are??)

Any info on this would be brilliant, I'd like to know if its a fault with what I'm doing, before looking silly in the shop tomorrow when I take it back lol

 

[tbobmccoy]

Ok I've got a problem I'm hoping one of you guys can help with, heres the situation:

I've purchased the Western Digital Scorpio Black 500gb Sata-II 16mb, replaced the stock Hitachi 250gb HDD that comes with the Mac, and I'm wanting to put a clean install of Snow Leopard from CD, however when it boots up with the installation progress and to choose an install location the drive isn't recognised.

Ok so maybe I need to format it through disk utility I think, so I load up disk utility and the drive purely reads as "Media" and states that it's 0bytes in size.

Ok so maybe I need to add a partition to install on, and again I hit the same problem.

All of the options in disk utility are greyed out. So I remove the drive and re-insert it thinking maybe I had a loose connection, and I hit the same problem.

So I hear maybe the drive needs to be formatted externally first, and an OSX installed on to it before inserting the drive into the machine. So I load up my old hard drive, and connect the Scorpio Black into a USB caddy and get the following alert:

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

I can go back to disk utility but again all the options are greyed out and it's only appearing as "media"

Also worth noting is that when the drive boots up or is accessed it gives off a beep/clicking sound for a minute and goes quiet before being prompted with the above prompt.

I'm a bit puzzled on where the problem lies, is the drive DOA? Is it not compatible with my 2009 White 2.26ghz Mac? Is there something I need to do with jumpers> (Ive read something about getting the drive to boot up in 1.5ghz instead of the 3ghz, but I must say I was a bit confused by this as I don't even know what jumpers are??)

Any info on this would be brilliant, I'd like to know if its a fault with what I'm doing, before looking silly in the shop tomorrow when I take it back lol

Sounds like a drive malfunction. Send it back and get a new one.

 

[Nathmonn]

Sounds like a drive malfunction. Send it back and get a new one.

Thanks for the reply buddy,

I'm almost certain its a dead drive, I just wanted to check before looking foolish tomorrow when I took it back.

There should be no issues with my Uni 2009 Mac running this drive & SATA-II? I can't seem to find anywhere telling me whether it's capable of running SATA-II drives.

 

[tbobmccoy]

I have the model of shock you speak, and it runs a SATA-2 drive stock. SaTA 3 would be a problem, but 2 is just fine. The drive would be fine, but should definitely not click, and should register as actually a drive

 

[Nathmonn]

Thanks dude,

I'm thinking of taking it back for an exchange on this drive drive:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-262-SE

Would that run in my Mac?

 

[J&JPolangin]

I'd go with an SSD, it will breath new life into your MBP!

I have a whitebook from 2009 (model 5,2) and I put a crucial M2 SSD in it a year ago and gifted it to a family member...I would have kept it for myself if it was a little lighter with all the other work gear I carry around when traveling but speed-wise, the SSD really made the difference!