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Revlefty

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 18, 2006
176
1
I can't seem to get my Macbook to start up, it rarely gets past the load up screen but when I ran disk utility from the install CD it said the drive is fine, I can't seem to get it to start in safe mode either. I've been having some trouble with the thing lately and know it's time to replace the HD but i'd like to get it running while I order a new one and wait for it to get here. It would also be nice to move a few files to my external HD to.

Can anyone help?
 

upaymeifixit

macrumors 6502a
Feb 13, 2009
787
1
Take it to apple.

If you take it to an apple store and get an appointment they should fix it.
 

SHADO

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
968
0
Beach
Have you tried resetting your PRAM by holding down command+option+P+R on startup? And have you tried using a program like DiskWarrior or Drive Genius 2 to de-frag your directory?
 

Mpulsive81

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2006
401
0
McKinney, TX
I won't matter, any 2.5" SATA drive will work fine.

As I've recommended to in all the recent HDD threads, get yourself a 7200 rpm 320 HDD. Since the new 500gb hdd's have kicked the 320's down a notch in terms of king of size (and we all know that size matters! :p), the 320gb hdd's have become stupid cheap. I wouldn't recommend the drive you mentioned up top. Why? Lets compare:

Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320gb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336
Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200 320gb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

So for another 20 bucks you upgrade from a 5400 to a 7200, which I think is a worthwhile investment. Whether you go Seagate or WD is a matter of preference and whether you get it from Newgg, OWC, or eBay is a matter of preference as well. I will say that tend to lean towards the WD due to the 5 yr warranty, whereas Seagate only offers a 3 yr on it's 7200.3.

Here's a quality read on a comparison, starting from page 6: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-6.html

My own experience is that I lost a TON of data on the original 60GB Seagate when it went south so I was reluctant of getting another one. I ended up getting a great deal on a 160Gb Seagate Momentus and it ran perfectly. I also picked up a WD Studio external for backups. I finally replaced the seagate 160 for a bigger 320, even though the 320 was only a 5400 rpm drive. Why? Because size matters!!
 
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