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Macbook Aluminum Harddrive upgrade to 500gb western digital scorpio blue question

M

mashimaro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 15, 2008
9
0
Hi, I'm looking to get a Macbook Aluminum 13 inch next week and I have already ordered the following with an intention to upgrade the laptop's hard drive once I have received it:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...500gb&lp=4&type=product&cp=1&id=1218018140789

A Western Digital Passport 500gb Essential Edition Portable Harddrive.

I browsed around for hours and I am a bit skeptical about my hard drive purchase. From what I have read (can't find the link anymore), the encasing contains a 500gb 9.5mm Western Digital Scorpio Blue hard drive (My intention is to extract the harddrive of course). I want to ask those who have upgraded their macbooks with this hard drive if this is true. Another question I would like to ask is if the beeping problem has been fixed for this hard drive. Youtube shows the following:
http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=WD5000BEVT&search_type=

Some other questions:
1. How is the vibration and noise level compared to the Hitachi it came with
2. Cons of the 500gb passport hard drive?
3. Would you choose a different brand and model, like the Seagate Momentus?
4. Any recommendations?

Thanks all! :D
 
I personally favor SeaGate drives. WD seems shaky since there have been Mac related issues in the past. You should be fine, but if the drive is spinning at 7200rpm, you will notice it more than the 5400rpm drive stock. Other than that, it's all good in my eyes. I just have one little question, why not buy a bare hard drive instead of extracting from a enclosure? :confused: I mean, it's a little cheaper, which doesn't make a difference since you will not be using the enclosure, not to mention easier? Just pop out and pop in. :rolleyes:
 
mashimaro said:
3. Would you choose a different brand and model, like the Seagate Momentus?
Click to expand...

I initially chose the Seagate Momentus 500GB for my new MacBook Pro. The drive was uncharacteristically loud and then failed completely within two weeks. I obviously had a bad unit but felt uneasy about replacing with another Seagate. I now have the Scorpio Blue and am very pleased. Near-silent operation, pretty comparable in motor noise level to the stock Hitachi.
 
I got the passport because I can put the Hitachi into the casing and use it as an external ;). xpovos, does yours happen to beep? And SnowLeopard2008, I think it's 5400 rpm for the Scorpio Blue.

Oh, and I'd like to reiterate, is the hard drive in the passport the same as the scorpio blue???

Thanks for you replies everyone :D
 
mashimaro said:
I got the passport because I can put the Hitachi into the casing and use it as an external ;). xpovos, does yours happen to beep? And SnowLeopard2008, I think it's 5400 rpm for the Scorpio Blue.

Oh, and I'd like to reiterate, is the hard drive in the passport the same as the scorpio blue???

Thanks for you replies everyone :D
Click to expand...

I hope that you are aware of the fact that the passport drive has much smaller cache than your old drive or the scorpio blue drive. These passport drives seem like a good deal, but you have to realize that the cache is mere 2 MB, or at least that's what I have been told. Normal scorpio blue has I think 8 MB.

Just my 2 cents
 
500 GB Western Digital External My Book...

I have owned the 500 GB WD My Book Firewire/USB 2.0 for 4 months now and love it. Not only have I dropped it twice from over 4 feet onto a wood floor (still works flawlessly) but I also transfer a ton of stuff constantly. I can't imagine a hard drive working after a fall of the magnitude of the falls I experienced and mine fell twice. Unreal. Highly recommend!! I just bought a simpletech 160 GB BLueberry portable for $25!!! at office depot on sale. Originally $100. Used it a ton tonight and I love it.
 
Like the OP asked, has anyone taken the 500gig drive out of the Passports shell and inspected it to see if it is in fact a WD Scorpio Blue or as another poster said possibly a different model with just 2meg cache.
 
I put a new WD Caviar 500gb drive in my macbook - went in, worked like a charm, restored from a time machine backup. USB cases are under $10 on ebay these days - why not just do that, and not worry about the Passport extra cost and compatibility?
 
didn't realize the external enclosures were so cheap, ill get one when i replace the one in my mb
 
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