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The best 250 GB Macbook Hard Drive?

Slaky said:
Hey guys - I really hope you can help me. I've just bought the 250 GB WD Scorpio and installed it in my macbook properly. I then went through disk utility to partition the hard drive and I still get the "Mac OS cannot be installed on this computer" message every time I start up. I am using the original Mac OS 10.5.2 disc one that came with the macbook when I bought it.

What else could I be doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

I should add, the original reason I bought the new HD was because I recently got the question mark folder icon and when I tried to remedy that situation, it didn't take. I assumed that the hard drive in the machine was dead.
Click to expand...

Does Disk Util see the drive at all? Might be a bad logic board. Are you able to connect an external drive and install the OS to the external drive?

Are you sure certain the drive is seated properly and is spinning up when you apply power?

Can't think of anything else ATM. Good luck.
 
Also, just FYI, I have a 250GB WD Scorpio in my wife's Macbook (Core Duo, 2GHz), so I know it will work...
If you are sure the drive is good, then it could be the Macbook. When you go to rebuild, put the CD/DVD in the drive and then on boot, push the "C" key and hold it until it boots to the optical drive. Try loading from that point on.
What, if any, is the error you get when it attempts to boot to the rebuild disc?
 
Mr.Gadget said:
Also, just FYI, I have a 250GB WD Scorpio in my wife's Macbook (Core Duo, 2GHz), so I know it will work...
If you are sure the drive is good, then it could be the Macbook. When you go to rebuild, put the CD/DVD in the drive and then on boot, push the "C" key and hold it until it boots to the optical drive. Try loading from that point on.
What, if any, is the error you get when it attempts to boot to the rebuild disc?
Click to expand...

I've held the "c" key - when the OS disc is in at startup, whether I hold the key or not the same thing happens. It goes to choose language, I choose English. Then it comes up with "Mac OS can't be installed on this computer". From there I can either go to disk utility (where the drive is recognized and formattable) or restart the computer from the disc or from a network drive. I've tried, both but the pattern just repeats itself.

It's gotta be something else in the Macbook, doesn't it?
 
New Hard Drive

I bought the white macbook back in 07. How do I know what type of internal hard drive to get if I want to upgrade? Thanks!
 
hans2106 said:
I bought the white macbook back in 07. How do I know what type of internal hard drive to get if I want to upgrade? Thanks!
Click to expand...
As jegbook said, any SATA laptop drive will fit. However, when I upgraded my 2006 MacBook Pro drive I experienced random system freezes. I first tried a Samsung drive and then a WD drive, but only after installing a Hitachi drive that was similar to the original drive the machine was stable again.

So if you want to play it safe, you should look at what brand and type of drive is currently in your MacBook (you can see this in System Profiler) and look for a bigger capacity equivalent of the same brand.

Replacing the drive on the 2007 MacBook is pretty easy. You can find a guide on iFixit.
 
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One nit-picky item. I would argue that not all SATA drives will fit. There are some 1 TB (and maybe 750 GB) drives that are 12mm tall and I don't think those will fit, but that's a physical issue, not a technical one.

I think the 250 GB drive that came in my MBP was a Hitachi, but I had a 320 GB 7200 RPM Seagate already from my MacBook which I used instead. I then switched to a Samsung. I don't know that manufacturer alone should have any effect. But a bad drive can cause problems, and everybody makes a drive that will fail from time to time.
 
Just as a FYI, although you probably know, this thread is old old old, and so brand and model recommendations were given years ago when the model was different, so they may or may not reflect current products :)
 
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