Replacing hard drive, couple questions

[randomguy033]

Hi everyone. I plan on replacing my hard drive on my MacBook Pro. I found a few good online tutorials that I think should allow me to do it okay. I have a question about how the computer will act and be like after the install.

Is it just like having a new computer in that all programs have to be reinstalled? I ask this because of the RAM part of the installation where I saw a guy removing it before getting to the hard drive. Honestly, I want all the potential trojan horse stuff, viruses, stuff I didn't mean to download, off my computer once and for all. Some of this stuff is on there because of looking at porn sites. Will all that stuff be gone after a new hard drive? RAM doesn't hold anything, right?

Thank you in advance for the help.

 

[msevild]

Permanent information is stored on your hard drive. RAM is used mainly for temporary storage. So replacing a hard drive will be like buying a new computer. In this respect, yes you will have to reinstall any software you want to run on your system as well as installing a copy of the operating system on it as well.

 

[MacDawg]

RAM does not hold anything and the new HD will be blank

You will need to reinstall everything and you have several options for doing that

Clean install of everything... OS/Apps/etc.
This is the only sure way to ensure you are "clean"

Time Machine backup
Migration Assistant
Clone from SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner

I am sure there are other options

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[randomguy033]

When I do the reinstall, does it offer the clean one as you mentioned? I don't have much on this computer. Everything I really need is on my work computer. I only care about Internet access and maybe a few random programs like poker. I'm hoping that when I get it going with a new hard drive my wireless Internet will work after I find it on AirPort and put in the access code.

I'm not sure what the Migrations Assistant and Clone/Copy mean or if that will also be an option. Can you elaborate on that?

Also, when I go to the store to buy another hard drive, do you have any recommendations? I have a 15 inch widescreen notebook MacBook Pro. Other specs on the book say "3MB shared level 2 cache, 2GB of 667 MhZ DDR2."

It also says "200 GB 5400-rpm hard drive." Is that what I look for? Can anyone tell me exactly what I should get and what stores usually have it?

Thank you very much.

 

[MacDawg]

Any 2.5" SATA hard drive should work
It depends on what you are looking for
I recommend the Western Digital personally
Either the 320 GB Scorpio Black or the 500 GB Scorpio Blue
I got mine through Amazon, but you can use NewEgg or a number of places

Once you install the HD, you will use either the disk that came with your computer or a retail version of Leopard to do a clean install of the OS

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[randomguy033]

Thanks for the info. I have the disks here. Have a good day.

 

[Tesselator]

If I read what you're saying correctly you DO NOT want to use Migration Assistant nor Clone from SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner! Just install everything a new!