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Should I get a 500 GB and install it myself?

U

unknown0

macrumors member
Original poster
May 16, 2010
30
0
I am buying a 13 inch MBP when the BTS starts. I want to upgrade the hd of the base model but not sure if I should have apple do it, or do it myself. I have never owned a mac and have also never upgraded a hd before (I have upgraded RAM on my laptop and desktop). Which website is reliable to get a hd? Any links on instructions in how to do this?

By the way apple is charging me $135 to upgrade to a 500 gb 54,000 rpm drive but I kind of wanted the 72,000 rpm drive.
 
unknown0 said:
I am buying a 13 inch MBP when the BTS starts. I want to upgrade the hd of the base model but not sure if I should have apple do it, or do it myself. I have never owned a mac and have also never upgraded a hd before (I have upgraded RAM on my laptop and desktop). Which website is reliable to get a hd? Any links on instructions in how to do this?

By the way apple is charging me $135 to upgrade to a 500 gb 54,000 rpm drive but I kind of wanted the 72,000 rpm drive.
Click to expand...

If you have installed ram, you can upgrade the HDD. Its super easy. Apple even provides instructions in the MBP box. Takes 20 minutes tops.

Newegg is a great place to get hard drives, check out the scorpio drives.

Youtube has a plethora of videos to show you how.
 
lionheartednyhc said:
If you have installed ram, you can upgrade the HDD. Its super easy. Apple even provides instructions in the MBP box. Takes 20 minutes tops.

Newegg is a great place to get hard drives, check out the scorpio drives.

Youtube has a plethora of videos to show you how.
Click to expand...

now now we both know it only takes 5 mins haha
 
Definitely a do it yourself. You can get a better drive for half the money and still have the other one as an external or spare. Finding the screwdriver to get the thing open is the hard part, after that, it's a breeze.
 
Would I need to transfer data from the old drive to the new drive? I plan on doing this as soon as I get the MBP.
 
If you're okay with taking things apart and putting them back together again, you'll be fine doing it yourself. I've been replacing HDs in my MBPs for years. It used to be more complicated, but they're much easier to take apart now.

I just replaced a HD in a 13" mbp and it only took about 10 minutes. You will need a Torx T6 screwdriver and a mini phillips screwdriver. The phillips screwdriver is easy to find but you might have to search a bit harder for at Torx screwdriver.

You'll also need the system disks (or a retail version) to reload the OS on the new drive or you can use Carbon Copy to copy the original hard drive.

You can also purchase a FW enclosure for the old HD and use it as extra storage or a backup.

Here are some instructions... http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/...13-Inch-Unibody-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1337/1


p.s. why stop at 500GB? The 1TB hard drives fit into the unibody MBPs.
 
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i am in the same boat as you from my failing macbook pro 15 inch
hard drive went poop poop so i gotta get a new one!
500gb seems about perfect
 
I just did this with my 2006 Macbook, and it was easy peasy. I bought a hard drive, enclosure and tool kit from One World Computing. They call them "DIY Kits." This is the guide I used:

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/tech_tips/sparedrive.cfm

When you have all the tools and follow the instructions, it's almost impossible to mess up. The basic steps I followed were: Place new drive in enclosure and attach to Macbook. Format the new drive. Install Mac OS X on the new drive (I bought the $29 Snow Leopard "upgrade" disk and it worked fine; you would use the system disk that comes with your new computer.) Migrate old data to the new drive. Remove old drive. Install new drive in laptop. Place old drive in enclosure for use as external storage.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but that's the method I used; it was simple and it worked.

Edited: you'll be buying a new computer so there won't be any old data to migrate if you do this right away. But I think you may need to format the disk and install the operating system before you put it in your MBP.
 
unknown0 said:
So I wouldn't need to format the drive or anything? Just put the new HDD in and then when I boot the mac use the boot disk?

I was thinking of getting this drive (thanks to the 1 TB comment :)):

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...10TPVT/dp/B0034ZD5P0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Hmm, I can't seem to find a 1 TB drive that runs at 7200 RPM.
Click to expand...

When you boot from the boot disk, you can still use disk utility. That will allow you to format the disk (Mac osX Extended - Journaled). Once it is formatted, you can do the install.

FYI, I just swapped out my HDD again. Took me like 6 minutes. Super easy.

One thing to note, slow and steady when you are screwing/unscrewing the bottomcase. Those screws can strip pretty easily.
 
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unknown0 said:
So I wouldn't need to format the drive or anything? Just put the new HDD in and then when I boot the mac use the boot disk?

I was thinking of getting this drive (thanks to the 1 TB comment :)):

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...10TPVT/dp/B0034ZD5P0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Hmm, I can't seem to find a 1 TB drive that runs at 7200 RPM.
Click to expand...

You won't find a 7200 RPM 1TB drive. The fastest they make those is 5200 RPM I believe. Biggest 7200 RPM I have seen is a 500 gig.
 
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