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MacBook Pro Hard Drive Upgrade Question

D

dobomode

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 22, 2008
27
0
Hello!

I recently bought my first mac (MacBook Pro 15'') and I am very happy with it.

At the time, I decided to go with the 120GB hard drive, but I am coming to a realization that the disk is filling up quite quickly!

What are my options? Could I upgrade and replace the hard drive myself? What are some of the good stable drives out there that are not too expensive. I am looking for something in the 200-300GB range and preferably 7200RPM.

Thanks!
 
I'd love to hear what people have to say about this.. I am thinking of ordering more HD space through apple because I know I will run Windows on bootcamp as well + a few windows games that will surely be around 30GB all together.
 
I Am Also Currently Interested In Doing The Same Thing As You Guys But Am Wondering What The Process Is To Store Everything On Your New Hard Drive From Your Old One Before Installing It
 
Sorry to bring a dead thread back from the grave, but has anyone done this first hand? I also have a year old MBP with an 120gb HD, and am interested in putting in a 320gb drive. I've watched time lapses of the process and read ifixit repeatedly, but has anyone had any complications that I should worry about?

While I'm familiar with replacing components in PC Desktops, laptops in general are a new thing for me. I killed my 3G iPod (may she rest in piece) when I attempted to replace the battery in it. Sliced the hold switch clean off and she was frozen that way permanently. So with that in the back of my mind, what are the risks involved in this?
 
luftwaffles08 said:
Sorry to bring a dead thread back from the grave, but has anyone done this first hand? I also have a year old MBP with an 120gb HD, and am interested in putting in a 320gb drive. I've watched time lapses of the process and read ifixit repeatedly, but has anyone had any complications that I should worry about?

While I'm familiar with replacing components in PC Desktops, laptops in general are a new thing for me. I killed my 3G iPod (may she rest in piece) when I attempted to replace the battery in it. Sliced the hold switch clean off and she was frozen that way permanently. So with that in the back of my mind, what are the risks involved in this?
Click to expand...

I've done it twice. You have to be careful pulling off some wires that are stuck to the hard drive, and be careful pulling off the top case: You don't want to snap any of those tabs. Other than that though, if you take your time, it really isn't that difficult. Just be patient.

I'm not some computer whiz. I've worked on desktop PCs and whatnot but if you are reasonably mechanically inclined and can follow directions it doesn't take a rocket scientist (err, genius).
 
luftwaffles08 said:
Sorry to bring a dead thread back from the grave, but has anyone done this first hand? I also have a year old MBP with an 120gb HD, and am interested in putting in a 320gb drive. I've watched time lapses of the process and read ifixit repeatedly, but has anyone had any complications that I should worry about?

While I'm familiar with replacing components in PC Desktops, laptops in general are a new thing for me. I killed my 3G iPod (may she rest in piece) when I attempted to replace the battery in it. Sliced the hold switch clean off and she was frozen that way permanently. So with that in the back of my mind, what are the risks involved in this?
Click to expand...

I've done it over a dozen times in the last month and its fairly straight forward. Two things to keep in mind:

1) You want to take the top case off from the left to the right since most of the clips are over the superdrive. Lift the top case from the back and then move your way down the left side to the front, then start applying force upwards. The clips should pop off cleanly.

2) When putting the top case together, put a couple of business cards (or anything that is paper/plastic) between the metal opening to the superdrive. Make sure it takes up most of the room. Then put the top case on and push down over the superdrive to engage the clip. The business cards prevent you from bending down the metal there and obstructing the drive.

All those horror stories you hear about bent superdrive openings after repairs? Yep, they didn't put anything in between to keep it propped open.

Apart from that, just follow the guides, keep track of the screws and go slow your first time. Its a relatively easy job.
 
I've done the hdd upgrade on my MBP a few weeks ago. The whole process took me ~40 minutes. Just be really careful when unsnaping the keyboard lid (there a wire under it connected to the motherboard).

As for the hard drive, I decided to go with a WD 320gb (5,400rpm -- $200). I preferred space over the performance increase!
 
Good choice

I had the 120 and bought a 250 online and took it to an authorized apple repair shop for the transfer. Cost me $100 for them to swap them out. Worked perfect - only drawback bigger hard drive = more items to fill it with = look for bigger hard drive a year later. LOL.

Here is the biggest online.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD3200BEVT/

I have read other forums where people played the search game. I even found one guy who put a 500Gb in his MBP, but it took alot of work on his part. Hope this helps.
 
After checking New Egg, Crucial, OWC and a few other sites, it appears the biggest 7200 RPM replacement HDD I can get for an MBP is 200gb.

Ideally, I'd be able to throw a 320gb HDD in there, but I do a lot of music editing so need that 7200 speed. Has anyone come across anything bigger at 7200?
 
a4abt said:
I've done the hdd upgrade on my MBP a few weeks ago. The whole process took me ~40 minutes. Just be really careful when unsnaping the keyboard lid (there a wire under it connected to the motherboard).

As for the hard drive, I decided to go with a WD 320gb (5,400rpm -- $200). I preferred space over the performance increase!
Click to expand...

Let us know when you find a terabyte drive. Then I could throw all of my video onto the laptop. I have some sort of interference around here that makes my WLAN slower than it should be (I'm maybe 25 feet away from the AEBS with 2 walls). Streaming to play is usually OK, but doing any editing (file names or whatever in iTunes) is S-L-O-W.
 
joeliethegoalie said:
After checking New Egg, Crucial, OWC and a few other sites, it appears the biggest 7200 RPM replacement HDD I can get for an MBP is 200gb.

Ideally, I'd be able to throw a 320gb HDD in there, but I do a lot of music editing so need that 7200 speed. Has anyone come across anything bigger at 7200?
Click to expand...

What speed is your original HD? Mine was a 5400 so going with the 250 and the 5400 didn't matter for me at all. I understand everyone always wants the fastest thing out there, but it may be awhile before you see the right size with the right speed.
 
dquack said:
I had the 120 and bought a 250 online and took it to an authorized apple repair shop for the transfer. Cost me $100 for them to swap them out. Worked perfect - only drawback bigger hard drive = more items to fill it with = look for bigger hard drive a year later. LOL.

Here is the biggest online.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD3200BEVT/

I have read other forums where people played the search game. I even found one guy who put a 500Gb in his MBP, but it took alot of work on his part. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I think the guy who said he put a 500gb in may have been telling porkys
as the only 500gb drives available at present are 12.5mm thick so he would
have needed a crowbar to get it to fit
 
I just had mine done...

A week ago, my computer fell, and it dented the bottom case up pretty bad. So, I took it in for repair, and had them go ahead and upgrade me to a 250 GB, 5400 RPM, Hard Drive. I LOVE it. Ghosting the drive to the new one makes it feel like nothing has changed. I love the extra space.

As a question, does having the larger HD make my computer run any faster? It's the same RPM as my last computer, but it feels noticeably "snappier" right now..
 
Yes & no, if your old drive had less than 10% free space it would also by installing a new drive you have no crud laying around,but you state you cloned so that rules that bit out.All that said when i
upgraded my HD i had more than 10% space but like you things were i hate to say it snappier
 
dquack said:
What speed is your original HD? Mine was a 5400 so going with the 250 and the 5400 didn't matter for me at all. I understand everyone always wants the fastest thing out there, but it may be awhile before you see the right size with the right speed.
Click to expand...

Well, right now I'm on a PB G4. Just checked the Profiler and can't seem to determine the HD speed. I'm not looking for a drive for the PB though. I'm getting ready to buy an MBP and want to put in the biggest 7200 rpm drive I can find once I get it.

Currently, I've got about 130gb of music on an external FW800 drive, plus the whole rest of my system taking up about 80 of the 100gb on my internal HD. I'd really like to get away from using the external drive and keep everything all in one, but it looks like the tech for that ain't here yet. I think a 250gb drive would fill pretty quickly.
 
Warranty - Apple Care Issues?

I'm new here. Does replacing the hard drive in a MBP void the warranty or Apple Care?
 
neil321 said:
Unless you use Final Cut/rendering theres no point in getting a faster HD
all your doing is making your machine hotter for no reason
Click to expand...

I hear you. However, I do a lot of music editing and there's a lot of back and forth with the drive. I spend a lot of time waiting while editing on my current PB and am really looking forward to a faster machine.

Anyone know what the standard drive speed is on a later gen 1.5ghz PB G4? Maybe it's a lot slower than 5400 so the 5400 on a MBP will seem a lot faster compared to it.
 
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