Upgrading my Black Macbook Hardrive with a SATA3 drive?

[erikcw]

Hi all,

I have both a Black Macbook (3-4 or so years old) and a new aluminum Macbook. I just upgraded the Aluminum macbook's harddrive to 500GB and thought I'd upgrade the older black macbook's original 60GB drive with this spare 250GB drive.

Problem is, the connectors appear very different. The old 60GB drive has a male type power port and is missing the plastic border around the SATA port.

It was my understanding that SATA3 drives were backword compatible with SATA1.5. Is this not the case? Did Apple use some sort of proprietary connector in the older macbooks? Do I need some sort of adapter?

Thanks!
Erik

 

[jav6454]

Hi all,

I have both a Black Macbook (3-4 or so years old) and a new aluminum Macbook. I just upgraded the Aluminum macbook's harddrive to 500GB and thought I'd upgrade the older black macbook's original 60GB drive with this spare 250GB drive.

Problem is, the connectors appear very different. The old 60GB drive has a male type power port and is missing the plastic border around the SATA port.

It was my understanding that SATA3 drives were backword compatible with SATA1.5. Is this not the case? Did Apple use some sort of proprietary connector in the older macbooks? Do I need some sort of adapter?

Thanks!
Erik

I was proven wrong by Google.

 

[logana]

MacBooks have never had PATA hard drives........

Just swap the old MacBook drive for the new one and plug it in. Sata 1.5G and 3G are backward compatible and the physical connections are the same - there should not be a problem....

 

[OS X Dude]

I don't think SATA3 is out, I think you most likely have a SATA2 drive.

In any case, your old MacBook might be a PATA drive. I am sure (to my knowledge) that SATA drives are backwards compatible so any incompatibility might be cause by old PATA connections.

I think the only Mac to use a PATA drive is the MacBook Air.

 

[nick9191]

I think the only Mac to use a PATA drive is the MacBook Air.

The new one uses SATA, the RevA used PATA.

 

[sammich]

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP31 - specs on the very first macbook.

So yes, a SATA drive will work in any macbook.