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Seagate's 320 or 500 GB internal hard drive?

gusanitoverde

gusanitoverde

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 12, 2003
283
0
Northern California
I made my homework, and I am quite tired of searching...

I am still confused. :(

My computer:
My MacBook Pro Intel
2.33 Core 2 Duo
17" Display
160 GB Hard drive.

I need a lot of space and a fast HD, so I saw excellent reviews on the 320 GB, 7200 RPM hard drive from Seagate, so excited, I was about to purchase it, but...

First Diemma:

I was looking to buy the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 Hard drive (300 GB, 7200 RPM)
There is 2 versions: ST9320421AS and ST9320421ASG
What is the difference and does it affect me?

Second dilemma:

I found this hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Hard Drive (500 GB, 7200 RPM)
I found only one version: ST3500630A
Would this HD fit and work with my Mac Book? Should I purchase this one instead of the 320 GB?

Thank you!
 
gusanitoverde said:
First Diemma:

I was looking to buy the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 Hard drive (300 GB, 7200 RPM)
There is 2 versions: ST9320421AS and ST9320421ASG
What is the difference and does it affect me?
Click to expand...

The second one has a G-Shock protection which is the same as the free fall safety thing, so you don't want that model as it will conflict with the one built into the computers already.

Second dilemma:

I found this hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Hard Drive (500 GB, 7200 RPM)
I found only one version: ST3500630A
Would this HD fit and work with my Mac Book? Should I purchase this one instead of the 320 GB?
Click to expand...

Barracudas are all 3.5" desktop drives. (In answering your question, it won't fit)
 
Thank you so much...

That leaves the Seagate 320 GB as the best hard drive to buy for my MBP?

And thank you for the clarification on the difference with the G model.
 
I have a simillar question - what is the difference in the 7200 rpm and the 5400 rpm?

Where would I see improvements?
 
jfull15 said:
I have a simillar question - what is the difference in the 7200 rpm and the 5400 rpm?

Where would I see improvements?
Click to expand...

You will see improvements all around, but mostly you will notice faster program start times and improved start times of OSX. At least it did for me, or it could just be my imagination. :)
 
The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drives are coming out Q4 this year apparently. So if you can wait and afford these brand new 500gig 7200 rpm 9.5mm laptop drives then it should be worth the wait.
 
sammich said:
The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drives are coming out Q4 this year apparently. So if you can wait and afford these brand new 500gig 7200 rpm 9.5mm laptop drives then it should be worth the wait.
Click to expand...

Oh sounds nice, but will all new things will be pricey at the beginning. I just paid $100 for my scorpio black about two weeks ago, would of waited if I knew that though. :p
 
sammich said:
The Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drives are coming out Q4 this year apparently. So if you can wait and afford these brand new 500gig 7200 rpm 9.5mm laptop drives then it should be worth the wait.
Click to expand...

hmm any idea on the price range?
 
It might be expensive as most latest and cutting edge technology.

But considering that the HD that will be replaced will become an external HD, there is quite a bit to play with.

Doesn't the Seagate Momentus drive already come with an external firewire enclosure?
 
I have another question.

If I didn't want to clone my HD but start from scratch, I have a Leopard CD and the original restore disks.

How do I get started?

my guess would be...

1. Replace HD (Do I need to format at this point? How?)
2. insert the restore disks and hopefully come up with any type of installer.
3. Install leopard.
4. restore my programs
5. restore my data
 
gusanitoverde said:
If I didn't want to clone my HD but start from scratch, I have a Leopard CD and the original restore disks.

How do I get started?

my guess would be...

1. Replace HD (Do I need to format at this point? How?)
2. insert the restore disks and hopefully come up with any type of installer.
3. Install leopard.
4. restore my programs
5. restore my data
Click to expand...

Before you do anything, backup your computer somewhere so you have a copy.

Depending on what you wanted to do with the original data on the drive you are replacing you can either: get an external case to keep it as extra storage or mail it in to OWC for a rebate (as someone already mentioned above). For the latter, I'd recommend you do some level or 'zero-data' under formatting.

But once the new drive has been installed properly, insert your leopard CD, and select the new drive and select the 'erase and install' option.

Then you may do whatever you want from there once you boot into the desktop: install programs etc.
 
sammich said:
But once the new drive has been installed properly, insert your leopard CD, and select the new drive and select the 'erase and install' option.
Click to expand...

@OP: More specifically, the Leopard install program will not recognize the new drive until it has been formatted. From the "Mac OS X Install" menu bar, run Disk Utility (in "Tools", I think) and partition and format the new drive. Since there's nothing to "erase", your option will be "Install Mac OS X" ("Installs Mac Os X for the first time."). Business as usual from there.
 
xpovos said:
@OP: More specifically, the Leopard install program will not recognize the new drive until it has been formatted. From the "Mac OS X Install" menu bar, run Disk Utility (in "Tools", I think) and partition and format the new drive. Since there's nothing to "erase", your option will be "Install Mac OS X" ("Installs Mac Os X for the first time."). Business as usual from there.
Click to expand...

I was going to add that in my post, but I was under the impression that the Leopard Installer can format the drive when it wasn't correct. Iirc it formatted my passport to the correct partition format when I installed with that erase option.

Then again my memory is fuzzy lately :eek:

Follow quoted advice :D
 
gusanitoverde said:
If I didn't want to clone my HD but start from scratch, I have a Leopard CD and the original restore disks.

How do I get started?

my guess would be...

1. Replace HD (Do I need to format at this point? How?)
2. insert the restore disks and hopefully come up with any type of installer.
3. Install leopard.
4. restore my programs
5. restore my data
Click to expand...

The easiest way is to back up using Time Machine and restore via Time Machine.

Basically run the installer disc and then choose Restore from Time Machine from the tools menu.
 
Did this in my MBP just a few months ago. Same drive.

Get a SATA/USB2 drive enclosure. Get a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner. Put new drive in enclosure. Format with disk utility. Use CCC to clone MBP drive to new drive. Swap drives and reboot. Done.:)
 
Well, to say the truth

I have been downloading free programs and I have been noticing the OS doing weird things. Not so much to say that it is unstable, but annoying. Just in case, I'd like to start fresh and new. I will recuperate all my files, re-install all my programs, and at that point clone my drive for future recovery.

That's why I don't want to start from a copy, but I want to build from ground zero.

Now, if I install our of Leopard installer DVD and not from the Recovery discs, will these disks become obsolete? :confused:
 
gusanitoverde said:
I have been downloading free programs and I have been noticing the OS doing weird things.

Now, if I install our of Leopard installer DVD and not from the Recovery discs, will these disks become obsolete? :confused:
Click to expand...

Some of the posts above are good info. Just put the new drive in, use disk utility to partition, and install the OS from the DVD. Don't restore in your case, with what you are wanting.

Then, use Software Update to get to the latest OS X 10.5.5.

Then install the apps you need. Might want to think of using one of the app zapper apps to help if you ever want to delete an app. Once finished to a point you're where you want, then use CCC to start a backup routine.

My MBP is a business machine, so it's only got the apps necessary (I can pretty much name all the apps installed on 10 fingers). No junk. Then backed up daily.

Your installer/recovery disks don't get 'obsolete' in that you can't use them again. They do get behind in revisions though, that's why you have to use Software Update to get to the latest 10.5.x version.

HTH.
 
alphaod said:
The easiest way is to back up using Time Machine and restore via Time Machine.

Basically run the installer disc and then choose Restore from Time Machine from the tools menu.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't this just basically put the copy of your disk on the new one. I am like the original poster on here that wants to do a fresh restart and not move the jumble that builds up overtime on the disk.

The only problem I see is having to reinstall some of the applications.

If I am wrong about this please let me know because this would save me a lot of time as well.
 
My Macbook Pro Is Screaming!!!!!!

It's so fast now.

New drive, mean and lean fresh installed OS! It roars. Makes me feel that I have a new computer.

I installed the drive with the help of this video (even though the details differed a little bit of what I found - nothing to be scared of -):

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/macbookpro_late08_unibody/hd/high.html

Also Richard's Notes helped me quite a bit:

http://www.richardsnotes.org/archives/2006/12/26/macbook-pro-hard-disk-replacement/

After, I booted from my external image, I went into Disk Utility, formatted the drive, and installed. Loaded my files, installed my programs...

READY TO GO BABY!!!!

Thank you all!!!!! I love the Mac Rumors Community!

Thanks guys!
 
I got a 500gb hard drive for christmas. Space is more important then speed to me at this moment in time.

I'm looking for a relatively easy way to migrate my data over without reinstall the 100s of bits of software I have on my mac.

I have two partitions on my mac. One OSX and one Windows XP. I want to copy my 250gb hard drive over to my 500gb one and change the partition size of the XP drive from 80gb to 100gb. How would I go about doing that without formatting that partition? If I need to I will just go ahead and do that, but I would like to exhaust all of my options first.
 
areusche said:
I'm looking for a relatively easy way to migrate my data over without reinstall the 100s of bits of software I have on my mac.
Click to expand...


100's of bits of software...must be rough. I've got 100,000,000,000's of bits of software to move...grrr. (~8000 bits in a single Kilobyte, 1,000 Kilobytes in a Megabyte. ~8,000,000 bits in a Megabyte. I've got gigs of data to move. ~8,000,000,000 bits in a Gigabyte)

Sorry, don't mean to be a smart a$$...it just comes naturally :p
 
I also have an XP partition

But rather decided to re make the partition in the new hard drive.

In your case, I would use SuperDuper to clone your Mac Partition. Then after you install the new drive restore your Mac image and re-do the XP partition. Even though there might be software out there to clone the Xp partition too. In my case, I didn't considered it worth.

I don't know of this is possible, but you may use your old drive as an external and keep your XP machine there.
 
nicfargo said:
100's of bits of software...must be rough. I've got 100,000,000,000's of bits of software to move...grrr. (~8000 bits in a single Kilobyte, 1,000 Kilobytes in a Megabyte. ~8,000,000 bits in a Megabyte. I've got gigs of data to move. ~8,000,000,000 bits in a Gigabyte)

Sorry, don't mean to be a smart a$$...it just comes naturally :p
Click to expand...

Hehe, No worries bud. I would've done the same. Boy do I feel dumb ;-)

I think what I am going to do is do a time machine backup and restore it from the restoration DVDs then recreate the partition manually using the oh so awesome bootcamp program. As a precaution I'll do a clone of the drive onto my external so I have a fall back in case time capsule fudges my drive.

Edit: @gusanitoverde
It definitely is possible. I had XP on my 500gb external drive for awhile. I had to edit the install cd so the USB drivers would quit on me, but it wasn't that bad. I just like having the ability to boot into windows on the go and play a little sim city or zombie panic. ;-)
 
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