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Upgrade Hard Drive

N

nyzwerewolf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 11, 2007
146
15
Long Island, NY
Hey Guys,

I have a 15 inch MacBook Pro. Currently I have a 160GB HDD that came with the laptop. I want to know if i buy a HDD that is 3.0Gbps - would it work?

this is the SATA controller info:

Intel ICH8-M AHCI:
Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

I don't know if it says 1.5Gbps bc the HDD that i have now could be 1.5Gbps...

any idea?

so basically, i want to know if i get a 3.0Gbps HDD will i get the 3.0Gbps throughput or it will run at 1.5Gbps?

thanks guys!!
 
The connector on the MBP is 1.5 Gbps, it will work with a 3 Gbps hard drive but the hard drive will not operate at the full 3 Gbps (not that the hard drive ever really uses so much as to make 1.5 Gbps seem painfully slow).
 
I'm looking to upgrade the 5,400 RPM 250GB drive in my penryn MBP, but I'm pretty nervous about opening my still fairly new computer (just got it in june). How do I go about transferring the data from the old drive to the new? I've also got a windows partition, and I don't want to lose that data.
 
JWest said:
I'm looking to upgrade the 5,400 RPM 250GB drive in my penryn MBP, but I'm pretty nervous about opening my still fairly new computer (just got it in june). How do I go about transferring the data from the old drive to the new? I've also got a windows partition, and I don't want to lose that data.
Click to expand...

Not a complicated process

1. buy an enclosure with your new drive
2 put the new drive in the enclosure
3 download either [URL="http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html"]carbon copy cloner [/URL]or superduper ( these are progs that allow cloning of OS's )
4 format new drive ( GUID partition table & hfs+ format)
5 clone over OS X to new drive
6 boot from new drive ( this is to make sure things are OK )
7 swap the drives

Guides for taking your MBP apart & installing the drive can be found at ifixit.com

oh and for cloning a windows partition you'll need winclone ( provided its NTFS if not you will need to reformat it )
 
Thanks for the info! I'm still a bit too nervous to take this thing apart, I don't want anything to go wrong :p
 
Heh, well I have done various component replacements on smaller electronics (new batteries and displays in iPods, new speakers in my PSP, etc.), so I've got the skill to do it. It's just that macbook pro's are rather expensive, and I've got to think hard about this before putting money down on a new drive and doing the job.
 
If you can do what you mentioned then replacing a drive should be a stroll in the park, honestly its a breeze, undo a few screws unclip a ribbon unplug the old drive plug in new drive reclip ribbon put back screws job done, 1/2 hr to hr tops
 
JWest said:
By the way, will this void my warranty?
Click to expand...

Unofficially if you ask any AppleCare representative, Genius, store manager, or supervisor, they will say no it will not void your warranty; just don't expect to get it on paper from Apple.

Everyone will say if you accidentally damage your computer during the upgrade it will void your warranty, but remember if you accidentally damage your computer USING it, it will void the warranty too!

So…

Unofficially NO.
 
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