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upgrading hard drive for MBP 13"

R

radiocity25

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi All,

New member here since I got my first MBP in March 2010 for my birthday. LOVE IT and wanna say SCREW YOU WINDOWS.

Anyways, I have 4GB of RAM and 160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm. I want to upgrade to the 250 or 320 hard drive. Can I go to the apple store and they do this for me?

Thanks!
 
Yes, but if they are busy you have to wait, maybe even leave it to them for few days. Also, they charge quite much for that, something like 100$ if I recall correctly plus the drive of course. I would buy it from 3rd party e.g. NewEgg and install it yourself, it's very easy and doesn't void the warranty

EDIT: See OWC tutorial and you can't go wrong. It's pretty easy and takes about 10 minutes
 
Hellhammer is right in it is cheaper and the best way to go about it. but if you dont feel comfortable doing it yourself, take it to the apple store.

the best combination would be if you know someone that is handy with this kind of stuff to do it for you.
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
Hellhammer is right in it is cheaper and the best way to go about it. but if you dont feel comfortable doing it yourself, take it to the apple store.

the best combination would be if you know someone that is handy with this kind of stuff to do it for you.
Click to expand...

dammit..i should've done that when I bought the laptop..I guess I will have to do some sleuthing or deal with the 160 hard drive. sigh.
 
radiocity25 said:
dammit..i should've done that when I bought the laptop..I guess I will have to do some sleuthing or deal with the 160 hard drive. sigh.
Click to expand...

Buy e.g. this drive and follow this tutorial and you can't go wrong. If you know which way to hold the screwdriver in your hand, you are able to upgrade it yourself.
 
I would go for the Hitachi 500gb 7200RPM for around $100...speed+capacity 😀
The video makes it pretty easy to upgrade your hard drive...step by step...literally lol 😀
goodluck!
 
Hellhammer said:
Buy e.g. this drive and follow this tutorial and you can't go wrong. If you know which way to hold the screwdriver in your hand, you are able to upgrade it yourself.
Click to expand...

haha thanks for the advice! Well I'm just bummed that I could've avoided the service charge if I decided to have a bigger HD when I bough my MBP. And regarding the hard drive you linked, is it the same brand as in the MBP?

Thank You!
 
radiocity25 said:
haha thanks for the advice! Well I'm just bummed that I could've avoided the service charge if I decided to have a bigger HD when I bough my MBP. And regarding the hard drive you linked, is it the same brand as in the MBP?

Thank You!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure but it works perfectly, no need to use the same brand.
 
radiocity25 said:
haha thanks for the advice! Well I'm just bummed that I could've avoided the service charge if I decided to have a bigger HD when I bough my MBP. And regarding the hard drive you linked, is it the same brand as in the MBP?

Thank You!
Click to expand...

Well instead of the service charge, you would have just paid twice as much for the same parts. 😉
 
alphaod said:
Well instead of the service charge, you would have just paid twice as much for the same parts. 😉
Click to expand...

ah I see. thanks I will def look into that then!

hellhammer thanks for the tutorial, I read some reviews for the drive and its mainly for PS3s?? I just hope I dont get a dead one..
 
i read a thread that indicated that 1TB can be installed in the MBP 13 inch. I am considering doing this but what are the cons? Will a bigger hard drive decrease battery life?? Also is there a fast easy way to move all my apps, docs, music, etc to the new drive?
 
radiocity25 said:
i read a thread that indicated that 1TB can be installed in the MBP 13 inch. I am considering doing this but what are the cons? Will a bigger hard drive decrease battery life?? Also is there a fast easy way to move all my apps, docs, music, etc to the new drive?
Click to expand...

Check out the application Carbon Copy Cloner. Fast is a relative term (but it is easy); speed depends on the interface and drive. If you want to transfer, you're gonna need an external drive. Best idea is to buy an enclosure, put the new drive in, copy over to that drive, then pop it out and stick it in the computer. Unless you already have an external drive handy, I suppose.

Alternatively, you could use Migration assistant- pop the new drive in the computer, toss the old one in the enclosure, boot from either the enclosure or a CD and reinstall the OS, and then migrate your files over. This is usually a better option for SSDs from what I've heard- I don't know if it matters either way for a regular HD.

As for battery life, a bigger hard drive won't hurt battery life- theoretically, it might improve it slightly because the data will be closer to the edge of the drive. A faster hard drive might- results may vary- and an SSD will most likely improve battery life, depending on your tasks.

One more thing, OP: this might be greedy me talking, but you should look into upgrading to the newer model. It's worth a shot for a free extra 50 GB, better battery, faster processor, and slightly faster graphics chip. If you can, call or pop into an Apple store and see what they can do for you- we've heard good things about upgrading when a newer model is released.
 
breathesrain said:
Check out the application Carbon Copy Cloner. Fast is a relative term (but it is easy); speed depends on the interface and drive. If you want to transfer, you're gonna need an external drive. Best idea is to buy an enclosure, put the new drive in, copy over to that drive, then pop it out and stick it in the computer. Unless you already have an external drive handy, I suppose.

Alternatively, you could use Migration assistant- pop the new drive in the computer, toss the old one in the enclosure, boot from either the enclosure or a CD and reinstall the OS, and then migrate your files over. This is usually a better option for SSDs from what I've heard- I don't know if it matters either way for a regular HD.

As for battery life, a bigger hard drive won't hurt battery life- theoretically, it might improve it slightly because the data will be closer to the edge of the drive. A faster hard drive might- results may vary- and an SSD will most likely improve battery life, depending on your tasks.

One more thing, OP: this might be greedy me talking, but you should look into upgrading to the newer model. It's worth a shot for a free extra 50 GB, better battery, faster processor, and slightly faster graphics chip. If you can, call or pop into an Apple store and see what they can do for you- we've heard good things about upgrading when a newer model is released.
Click to expand...

thanks a lot for the info, i'll look into the apps.

as for the exchange, I will most definitely go to the apple store tomorrow and see. I bought my MBP on March 12, its kinda off but will it matter? I was thinking of chatting with customer service before I go to ensure anything.

thanks
 
breathesrain said:
Check out the application Carbon Copy Cloner. Fast is a relative term (but it is easy); speed depends on the interface and drive. If you want to transfer, you're gonna need an external drive. Best idea is to buy an enclosure, put the new drive in, copy over to that drive, then pop it out and stick it in the computer. Unless you already have an external drive handy, I suppose.

Alternatively, you could use Migration assistant- pop the new drive in the computer, toss the old one in the enclosure, boot from either the enclosure or a CD and reinstall the OS, and then migrate your files over. This is usually a better option for SSDs from what I've heard- I don't know if it matters either way for a regular HD.

As for battery life, a bigger hard drive won't hurt battery life- theoretically, it might improve it slightly because the data will be closer to the edge of the drive. A faster hard drive might- results may vary- and an SSD will most likely improve battery life, depending on your tasks.

One more thing, OP: this might be greedy me talking, but you should look into upgrading to the newer model. It's worth a shot for a free extra 50 GB, better battery, faster processor, and slightly faster graphics chip. If you can, call or pop into an Apple store and see what they can do for you- we've heard good things about upgrading when a newer model is released.
Click to expand...

I do have an external drive where I can put all my files. So I would use the Migration and not need Carbon Copy? What type of enclosure should I buy? I guess I will use the drive currently in my MBP as an external once I upgrade my drive. So which enclosure would fit that? Also would I simply install the new drive and insert the Mac OS CD? Since the drive is blank, it prob doesn't have a OS on it. So I just turn it on and insert CD and the computer will read the CD and install everything?

Sorry for the many questions.
 
Enclosure

Go to NewEgg.com and look for a 2.5" Firewire 800 enclosure. That'll be the best and fastest. USB comes in second, their cheaper and plentiful, but slow.

You need to use Time Machine and copy your stuff to your current external drive. (Keep it simple, he doesn't need a carbon copy).

So plug in your current external, use time machine.
Open the laptop, Yank the old drive.
Stick the new drive in.
Stick the old drive in a new external enclosure if you wish.
Plug your old external drive in, stick the OSX DVD in and turn the computer on.
install OSX then restore from time machine.

Done.

A few days later, decide what to do with your hard drives now, you'll have two. Keep the bigger one, give away or do away with the older one if you want.

If I were you I'd go with the Biggest WD harddrive you can afford. 7200 RPM is nice but most of the 5400 RPM WD HDDs are FASTER. And you can get them upto 750GB. They make a 1TB WD HDD, but that is three platters, I personally don't like that one because it's more moving parts (more likely to go wrong). I'll stick with two platters thanks.
 
radiocity25 said:
ah I see. thanks I will def look into that then!

hellhammer thanks for the tutorial, I read some reviews for the drive and its mainly for PS3s?? I just hope I dont get a dead one..
Click to expand...

It works with PS3 as well but works fine in MBP. They are very popular so of course there are some defective ones too

radiocity25 said:
i read a thread that indicated that 1TB can be installed in the MBP 13 inch. I am considering doing this but what are the cons? Will a bigger hard drive decrease battery life?? Also is there a fast easy way to move all my apps, docs, music, etc to the new drive?
Click to expand...

It's 5200rpm drive so wont affect battery. If you have a TM backup, you can use that, if not, get an external HD and do one!

Here is the 1TB
 
Kingcodez said:
Go to NewEgg.com and look for a 2.5" Firewire 800 enclosure. That'll be the best and fastest. USB comes in second, their cheaper and plentiful, but slow.

You need to use Time Machine and copy your stuff to your current external drive. (Keep it simple, he doesn't need a carbon copy).

So plug in your current external, use time machine.
Open the laptop, Yank the old drive.
Stick the new drive in.
Stick the old drive in a new external enclosure if you wish.
Plug your old external drive in, stick the OSX DVD in and turn the computer on.
install OSX then restore from time machine.

Done.

A few days later, decide what to do with your hard drives now, you'll have two. Keep the bigger one, give away or do away with the older one if you want.

If I were you I'd go with the Biggest WD harddrive you can afford. 7200 RPM is nice but most of the 5400 RPM WD HDDs are FASTER. And you can get them upto 750GB. They make a 1TB WD HDD, but that is three platters, I personally don't like that one because it's more moving parts (more likely to go wrong). I'll stick with two platters thanks.
Click to expand...

Ah you bring up more questions for me. I want to stick with 5400 RPM because its the standard for my model and I feel 7200 might be too fast and be a problem. I really want the 1TB WD HDD but you mentioned it will mess up more? So the safest solution is a 750GB HDD with 5400RPM?

Also your method of reinstalling my OS is to first use my external for time machine. For time machine, I back up to external and then I can unplug it? Or does it need to be plugged in the whole time?

If I want to do a clean do over, I would just install OSX from the CD and reinstall everything? I don't have much on my laptop so I don't mind starting from scratch. I can just backup my files and then move em back later.
 
For the TM, plug in the drive, use TM, unplug. You are done. The TM is slow and takes awhile, I'd use a firewire drive but I've done a SSD-HDD TM and it also was appallingly slow.

A clean install of OSX is best.

More moving parts=more likely to go wrong.
I'm not saying it would, but a VW Jetta is more reliable than a Lambo.

750GB 5400 RPM @ 2 platters is going to be the best bet.
You can do the 7200 RPM drive, but most tests show that it's slower then the 5400. (Or at least the SAME) 7200 uses a tad more power also.

But do you NEED 750GB lol?
Look into installing a SSD into the optibay, and keeping your old HDD OR upgrading it to a 500GB. Your computer will scream.
 
sorry to revive the thread but I gave it some thought and have a game plan. ok so here's the deal. I plan on buying the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB drive for my MBP 13 inch. Do I need 1 TB? no not really, but if I am going to upgrade my hard drive I want to do it big. And I plan to use this laptop very long so it will accumulate data. So I have a couple questions...
1. What external enclosure should I buy to put my current drive in when I do the swap?
2. I want to start from scratch with the 1TB drive, seeing as I don't have many apps installed right now I can just do it over again. I don't mind. So how do I go about setting it up. After installation of the drive, I just turn on the laptop and pop in the OSX CD? Do I need to press any button as it starts up? Sorry I am a Mac n00b.
3. How do I wipe my current drive completely clean? I want it to be a fresh drive so I can use it as an external.

Thanks for your help so far guys.
 
I really wish you guys would help! Please?

I just got an idea! I will use my current drive for Time Machine when i install the new OS. Now I can have 1TB of data on my laptop and 160GB for my time machine! great ahhh..should I use a firewire enclosure for 160GB? or USB?
 
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