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Installing new HDD on 13" MacBook Pro

H

hldomster

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2009
70
0
Hi,

I've just finished installing a new HDD on my MacBook Pro. However, the new HDD moves about slightly as it's not a snug fit, and this makes a noise when moved. How can I fix this? On the instructions it says 'Make sure 4 rubber grommets are seated in top case before installing the hard drive'. What are rubber grommets, and are these already in the laptop or do I need to buy them from a hardware store, and are these what is required to make the drive fit snugly?

Please help me out, particularly anyone who has fitted a new HDD to one of the new 13" MBPs.

Oh, and FTR, it's a 500GB WD Scoprio Blue that I have fitted.

Thanks.
 
Their should be two small phillips screws to release the bracket holding the HD in place. Once that is removed the HD can come out and be disconnected. Just make sure you move the side hex screws from old HD to the new HD. The clear tab isn't needed because once the bracket is undone it will come out anyway.
 
I didn't notice any rubber grommets when I did mine. The printed instructions that came with the machine didn't mention them, either. I thought maybe that was referring to a different model.

But, you do have to make sure you transfer those four mounting bolts on the sides of the old drive to the new one. I needed a Torx T6 screwdriver to do this (which the instructions didn't mention).

Make sure the mounting bolts line up, and then put that rubber bracket back on top of the drive, and it should be secure.
 
incandenza said:
I didn't notice any rubber grommets when I did mine. The printed instructions that came with the machine didn't mention them, either. I thought maybe that was referring to a different model.

But, you do have to make sure you transfer those four mounting bolts on the sides of the old drive to the new one. I needed a Torx T6 screwdriver to do this (which the instructions didn't mention).

Make sure the mounting bolts line up, and then put that rubber bracket back on top of the drive, and it should be secure.
Click to expand...

Their should only be 2 torx screws on the side of the HD.
 
Chad H said:
Their should only be 2 torx screws on the side of the HD.
Click to expand...

Nope, there were definitely four; two on each side.

The printed instructions state this explicitly and even show a diagram.

From the printed instructions:

"Important: There are four (4) mounting screws on the sides of your hard disk drive. If your replacement drive doesn't include mounting screws, remove the ones from your old drive and mount them on the replacement drive before you install it."

And then it shows a little picture of all 4.

Inside the machine itself, the bottom two screws slide into little slots below the drive (as you insert it at an angle), and the top two sit in these little half-circle holders above the drive.
 
incandenza said:
Nope, there were definitely four; two on each side.

The printed instructions state this explicitly and even show a diagram.

From the printed instructions:

"Important: There are four (4) mounting screws on the sides of your hard disk drive. If your replacement drive doesn't include mounting screws, remove the ones from your old drive and mount them on the replacement drive before you install it."

And then it shows a little picture of all 4.

Inside the machine itself, the bottom two screws slide into little slots below the drive (as you insert it at an angle), and the top two sit in these little half-circle holders above the drive.
Click to expand...

incadenza is completely right.

I installed a 500GB seagate right the moment I brought my new 13" mbp home, and forgot about those mounting screws. I had the rattling noise when I moved my mbp and then read the instructions.

Those mounting screws are essential if you see the inside of the hdd mount. There are little soft plastics that act like a cushion and you have to install them.
 
I think the PDF instructions on support.apple.com are a little flawed. They talk about the four rubber grommets, which don't seem to be there, but they don't mention the mounting screws on the sides of the drive at all, which are very important. So I'd recommend following the instructions from the printed booklet that came with the computer instead.
 
I will be replacing the stock 160GB HDD from my MBP 13" with a Scorpio Black, OEM. Does the new HDD come with the metal plate to cover it, or do I need to take that off the old one and put it on the new?

Also, once I take the metal plate off the old one, can I just put it in like that in an external enclosure? Or do I need to do anything to it first?

Sorry for the non-technical terms!!
 
kuklachica said:
I will be replacing the stock 160GB HDD from my MBP 13" with a Scorpio Black, OEM. Does the new HDD come with the metal plate to cover it, or do I need to take that off the old one and put it on the new?

Also, once I take the metal plate off the old one, can I just put it in like that in an external enclosure? Or do I need to do anything to it first?

Sorry for the non-technical terms!!
Click to expand...

There is no metal plate. All you have to do is transfer the 4 T-6 screws from your current drive to the new one. These screws act as pins to support the drive in rubber bushings inside your 13 MBP

You might want to check out this test report of WD Scorpio Blue. It consumes less power and is almost equal to the WD Scorpio Black ...

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010
 
Thank you for the clarification. I did look into the Blue vs Black, but I bought it from amazon and the Black happened to be cheaper than the corresponding blue at the time.

When I put the old HDD in the external enclosure, I can just put it in the way it is after having switched it out? Nothing else I need to do?

Thank you again!
 
kuklachica said:
Thank you for the clarification. I did look into the Blue vs Black, but I bought it from amazon and the Black happened to be cheaper than the corresponding blue at the time.

When I put the old HDD in the external enclosure, I can just put it in the way it is after having switched it out? Nothing else I need to do?

Thank you again!
Click to expand...

I would install the new drive into your external enclosure first, and then use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your current drive to the new drive. After you've cloned it you can install the new drive in your MBP and you'll be good to go.

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

edit: I should have mentioned that you need to use Disk Utility to format your new drive to Mac OS Extended (journaled) before you clone to it.
 
Thank you both. I actually am waiting until I get my new drive (tomorrow) to even put anything on the computer. I want to be able to skip the cloning step and just start fresh. Right now I'm calibrating the battery, and tomorrow will install the new HDD and RAM.

Once I install the new HDD (since it will have NOTHING on it), do I start up the computer and then put in the install disk? Or do I HAVE to install the new HDD in the external enclosure, plug it into another computer and load OS X on it first?

Thank you!
 
You can just put in the unused new drive and install Leopard from scratch using the DVD. In fact, that is probably better than cloning, given that you have nothing on the drive yet. The problem with cloning is that if you do a 'file-level' clone, it slows down the boot time on the resulting disk (due to the files being laid out in a different pattern). You can correct that by doing Archive and Install later, but why bother?

Later, you can put the old drive in the enclosure and reformat it and use it for whatever you want--Time Machine or anything else.
 
miles01110 said:
A T6 torx is only needed if you want to do it to the letter. A properly sized flat-head screwdriver does perfectly well if you don't have one immediately at hand.
Click to expand...

I also have taken these screws off (and put them on a new drive) with a Vise-Grip or similar clamping device.
 
Rubber Grommets

My MB 13" unibody didn't have Rubber Grommets, just plain metal. the WD Scorpio Black I put in is making it vibrate quite a lot now. Anyone know where one can buy rubber grommets (in the UK pref.)?

Cheers
 
There aren't any rubber grommets, there are just the four metal mounting screws that go on the sides of the drive, and a rubber bracket that clamps down on one side. If you use all four screws and mount them properly (the bottom two slide into slots on the bottom, and the other two are held in by the rubber bracket), it really shouldn't vibrate that much.

Then again, you could just be more sensitive to the normal vibrations than most or something like that (and of course a 7200rpm drive is going to be slightly louder than a 5400rpm).

These days (a change from when this thread was started), the best answer is to get an SSD anyway :)

BTW: I think the mention of rubber grommets was outdated info in one of the manuals. I found that the instruction booklet that came with the computer had the best instructions.
 
Drive Vibes

Rubber grommets or not WD have said they don't think the vibrations are normal and they're taking it back... something others may want to consider.
 
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