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New internal hard disk for Macbook - advice?

T

tjsshanty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2009
5
0
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to get and where to buy?

My internal hard disk is currently a minuscule 80GB. I recently bought a 320GB external for backup purposes and I wondered whether I should buy an internal that exactly matched that capacity (I heard Time Machine works better if there is more space on the external than the internal?).

Amazon sells some cheap ones made by "Generic" at around £40, would any of these do the trick?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Buy a Western Digital Scorpio or a Seagate Momentus 2.5" SATA drive. They will work the best. You might even want to go for the 7200 RPM drive over the 5400, the performance should be noticeably better. I have read the battery life is actually better on the 7200 as well because it is a more efficient drive. OWC/Macsales has the 500GB Seagate 7200 drive on preorder for $159. Pretty sweet deal.
 
If you are going to upgrade, go with the 7200rpm drive.
Time machine will work better if the drive is larger, that way it can store your entire drive + previous files changes.
And as for how to do the change and copy your data, there is plenty of information in the forums.
 
I would recommend Western Digital and Seagate ones. I have a Western Digital HD for my PC and a Seagate HD for my Mac. I prefer the Seagate one, but I am comparing 3.5" drives, not 2.5. Try to get a 7200RPM.
 
I just got a MBP and installed a WD Scorpio (320GB, 7200RPM). Installation was painless. I've only been using it for 12 hours or so, but I haven't had any issues with it.
 
tjsshanty said:
Like this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234449653&sr=1-1

Does look pretty good.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the one.

tjsshanty said:
Does anyone know whether really cheap ones like this are decent?:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Generic-Har...p_ob_ce_title_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1233833381&sr=8-1
Click to expand...


That's a 3.5" drive so it won't fit in your laptop. You're looking for a 2.5". Even if it did fit, I'm not sure that I would buy it.

Edit: It's also an IDE drive. You want a SATA.
 
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This is what I bought a to upgrade mine...

HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 (0A50940) 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive

This turned out to be a great drive. In a nutshell:

1. It ran quieter. Hitachi does a great job with the mechanical components (ie bearings, motor, etc).

2. It ran faster. 7200 RPM AND a 16MB cache brought a noticeably faster boot time on my MacBook. Larger applications open faster and video transcodes faster. NOTE: This ISN'T a spectacular improvement, but you do notice the second or two speed up with certain things.

3. It came highly rated. Go to NewEgg and use the customer ratings. You'll see the duds as well as the stars. ALSO, make sure you look at the shock vibration tolerance. Every so often you'll put your laptop down just a little harder that you planned. It's good to have a drive that can take a little bit more physical pounding. Look at the power specs. A low-power drive means a better battery life.

4. Make sure the physical dimensions of the drive match the MacBook's original drive. An extra millimeter or two might be a problem. I seem to remember that this was a concern of mine at the time. The drive itself is easy to replace.

NOTE: There are better drives out now than there were when I bought this. Seagate and WD have really good reviews this time around. Just match your needs to what you would consider a good price/performance value.
 
O.k., thanks for all your help and patience everyone. I think probably go for the above recommended WD.
 
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