Replacing HDD and RAM - Some Questions

[maclovin']

So I bought a Black Macbook 2.4GHz laptop around this time last year....and it's time for some upgrades. It's currently stock....2GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD. I basically want to double both of those and get 4 gigs of RAM and a 500 gig HDD. The RAM as far as I know is simple...take out the old, and put in the new.

I'm not completely sure how exactly to upgrade the HDD though. I'm pretty sure I'll need an external enclosure for the new HDD so that I can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper(which one is better?) to create what I believe to be a bootable backup of my existing drive. Is that it? Then I just swap out the old HDD for the new one, and it'll boot up just as my current one does, except it'll be double the capacity? That seems too easy to be true.

Finally, this is what I have in my shopping cart for NewEgg.ca...

HDD
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314

RAM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134661

HDD Enclosure
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392019

Will everything above be compatible with my Macbook/each other? Also if anyone has any better (Canadian) prices for the above items(or similar), feel free to let me know.

Thanks Alot!

 

[jbrenn]

So I bought a Black Macbook 2.4GHz laptop around this time last year....and it's time for some upgrades. It's currently stock....2GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD. I basically want to double both of those and get 4 gigs of RAM and a 500 gig HDD. The RAM as far as I know is simple...take out the old, and put in the new.

I'm not completely sure how exactly to upgrade the HDD though. I'm pretty sure I'll need an external enclosure for the new HDD so that I can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper(which one is better?) to create what I believe to be a bootable backup of my existing drive. Is that it? Then I just swap out the old HDD for the new one, and it'll boot up just as my current one does, except it'll be double the capacity? That seems too easy to be true.

Finally, this is what I have in my shopping cart for NewEgg.ca...

HDD
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314

RAM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134661

HDD Enclosure
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392019

Will everything above be compatible with my Macbook/each other? Also if anyone has any better (Canadian) prices for the above items(or similar), feel free to let me know.

Thanks Alot!

That will work fine in you macbook.

 

[shady825]

Everything you listed will be fine.
I just did exactly what your doing but to my unibody.
Crucial 4GB
Seagate 7200RPM 500GB

I used supeduper with NO problems what so ever.

It's amazing the difference a 7200 500GB & 4GB of RAM made. Feels like a new machine!

If you have any other questions about installing the equipment feel free to ask. I just did mine less than a week ago so everything is fresh in my mind.

Just a little tip, on the battery cover it shows about taking the screws out for the HD & RAM, when you take the screws out place them on the battery cover on the picture where the screw came from. That will just make it easy to remember where they go. There is 3 sizes I think.

 

[maclovin']

Alright, so a new question then. Would it be better to install the new hard drive first and have osx do all it's formatting and stuff, and then copy over all my stuff afterwords? Or does it really matter?

 

[jbrenn]

Alright, so a new question then. Would it be better to install the new hard drive first and have osx do all it's formatting and stuff, and then copy over all my stuff afterwords? Or does it really matter?

It does not matter. Ignore the comment about screws being different lengths that is for the unibody.

 

[ElijahPost]

once your new HD is installed, enclose the old one. Boot up from the Startup disk and install OS X to the new drive that's in your computer. Use the Migration assistant at the setup screen (Transfer file from Mac to Mac). It will reconise the old, now external drive, as a Mac OS X drive and allow you to transfer your files and setting in one fell swoop. Now you have an extra external drive that you can use for whatever, and you have saved the money on buying extra software.

For the RAM just make sure that it's the right size as well as bus speed (i think in your case it's either 667Mhz or 800Mhz), and your set to go.

 

[maclovin']

once your new HD is installed, enclose the old one. Boot up from the Startup disk and install OS X to the new drive that's in your computer. Use the Migration assistant at the setup screen (Transfer file from Mac to Mac). It will reconise the old, now external drive, as a Mac OS X drive and allow you to transfer your files and setting in one fell swoop. Now you have an extra external drive that you can use for whatever, and you have saved the money on buying extra software.

For the RAM just make sure that it's the right size as well as bus speed (i think in your case it's either 667Mhz or 800Mhz), and your set to go.

Will migration assistant copy over all the applications that I have as well? Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner are free to download and use...."purchasing" only unlocks certain features. I would think that doing a fresh install of OSX on the new hard drive would be cleaner though. If migration assistant copies over settings and applications, that'll definitely be the way to go. Thanks for the advice.

 

[ElijahPost]

Yes. It will copy everything but the kitchen sink and the unneeded/duplicate system files. And it's faster.

 

[Wicked1]

I just upgraded my uMB 2.4/2/250 this weekend to 4GB Ram and 500GB HDD

I bought the 4GB Ram from NewEgg it was on sale for $60

I found the cheapest Western Digital 500 Blue running 5400 rpm at BestBuy for $89

The Ram works perfect it is the Crucial DDR3, and the Western Digital HDD is quiet even though I was always a Seagate or Hitachi HDD person, I made the move to the WD 500GB Blue because it was so cheap.

I have not had any issues with either, so good luck

 

[Mike Aimer]

Since we're talking about my machine basically, I have a question.

I had already upgraded from 1G ram to 2 but now I want to go to 4G.
Can anybody tell me if my black macbook will take another 2G card or if I have to buy the single 4G one?