problem replacing internal hard drive on macbook core duo 2

[gma]

Hi, I have a real problem replacing my old internal hard drive of my Macbook Core Duo 2 (mid 2007, 2,1). Originally it has a 120 GB Hitachi and I bought a 2.5" WD Scorpio Blue 500Gb 5400rpm, etc all supposed to be compatible. The thing is when I begin to format it using disk utility and the Mac OSX CD (the grey one that came with the mac, Tiger) it is recognized as to have 3,4 TB of memory and it cannot be partioned, displaying an "input/output error". I searched all throughout teh web and it is said that these macbooks only support 250 Gb replacement. Others say that two of the pins must be jumped (I tried this and did not help)


Anyone has any clue what is happening and more important what can I do about it?


Thanks in advance.

 

[kaydot]

No idea what's happening, but I have a 500gb single partition in the same model macbook, so the 250gb limit you've read isn't right. The only difference is that I'm running Leopard (10.5). I did not do any pin jumping to do the upgrade. Good luck!

Hi, I have a real problem replacing my old internal hard drive of my Macbook Core Duo 2 (mid 2007, 2,1). Originally it has a 120 GB Hitachi and I bought a 2.5" WD Scorpio Blue 500Gb 5400rpm, etc all supposed to be compatible. The thing is when I begin to format it using disk utility and the Mac OSX CD (the grey one that came with the mac, Tiger) it is recognized as to have 3,4 TB of memory and it cannot be partioned, displaying an "input/output error". I searched all throughout teh web and it is said that these macbooks only support 250 Gb replacement. Others say that two of the pins must be jumped (I tried this and did not help)


Anyone has any clue what is happening and more important what can I do about it?


Thanks in advance.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I've seen some of that info out there but I'm thinking kaydot is right...it should work. Best way to be sure is to try formatting it with another Mac (or even a PC to see if it's "DOA"). Get one of those $8 USB housings they sell on Newegg.com. You can always use it for the old drive.

Or...take/send it back for a different model. There's anecdotal evidence out there about problems with that model.

Also, think about upgrading to Snow Leopard.

 

[gma]

Yes, I want to upgrade to snow leopard but to start the formatting with snow leopard I need the cd, which I do not have. How can I do this without the cd or where can I get the cd?

Changing topic, I tried to format the new HDD externally using Disk utility and the former HDD and the Scorpio Blue 500Gb is via USB not recognizable. Is this a matter of the HDD or the Macbook?

 

[minifridge1138]

I just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

Your MB had a 120 GB drive.
You want to replace it with a 500 GB drive.
You put in the 500 GB drive, but disk utility won't let you format it.

You put the 500 GB in a USB enclosure, but it doesn't show up in disk utility as a drive.
You put the 120 GB drive in a USB enclosure, but it doesn't show up in disk utility as a drive.

Is that correct?

Why did you want to replace the 120 GB drive?
Do you have access to a 2nd mac that you could try and use to format the drive?
Do you have a 3rd hdd that you could use with your USB enclosure to see if it is recognized?

My first thought would be a bad drive.

As for Snow Leopard, you need to buy the update disc. They're $30 from Apple (if you're a mobile me customer, then you can get one for free).