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Upgrading my Macbook HDD...

M

matfield

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2009
5
0
Ireland
Hi guys,

i'm looking to upgrade my stock macbook HDD (120gb) with a shiny new Western Digital 500GB and doing a fresh install. I'm jus curious is it as easy as removing the old hdd and placing the new one in and re-installing OS X..? or is there more too it and i'm gonna be plagued with problems? This is the Drive i'm looking at
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/product_info.php?products_id=498
i'm just not sure what i'd have to do or is it really that easy?

Thanks a million
 
it's easy! the only thing that some people get held up on is that the installer doesn't detect the HDD, this is because it is (usually) unformatted when you buy it.

to solve this, simply go into DISK UTILITY from the Mac OS X Installer disc and format it through there.
 
My god you guys are quick!!

Dukebound85; Its a plastic white macbook... i've actually had the HDD out before but thanks for the hardware advice!! Much Appreciated!

Petemwah; thats all i have to do... there's no drivers or anything to install... all i have to do is format the drive in disk utility and then reinstall leopard and my files and i've got 5 times more space!!! If i knew it was that easy i'd have done it years ago!!

Thanks for the replies!!
 
matfield said:
My god you guys are quick!!

Dukebound85; Its a plastic white macbook... i've actually had the HDD out before but thanks for the hardware advice!! Much Appreciated!

Petemwah; thats all i have to do... there's no drivers or anything to install... all i have to do is format the drive in disk utility and then reinstall leopard and my files and i've got 5 times more space!!! If i knew it was that easy i'd have done it years ago!!

Thanks for the replies!!
Click to expand...

thats it lol
 
and can i use any 2.5" SATA 5400 HDD? once its SATA? I know i sound like i'm answering my own questions but i'm 100% sure how it works...
 
matfield said:
Hi guys,

i'm looking to upgrade my stock macbook HDD (120gb) with a shiny new Western Digital 500GB and doing a fresh install. I'm jus curious is it as easy as removing the old hdd and placing the new one in and re-installing OS X..? or is there more too it and i'm gonna be plagued with problems? This is the Drive i'm looking at
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/product_info.php?products_id=498
i'm just not sure what i'd have to do or is it really that easy?
Click to expand...

All MacBooks (not MacBook Pro) are easy. The new MacBook Pros are easy. The old MacBook Pros are challenging.

Just make sure that the spec for the 500GB drive says "9mm high" and not "12mm high". 12 mm high won't fit.

Edit: The one you linked to says "9.5mm high", so that would fit. You might consider buying one in a case. Plug it in, use Disk Utility to format it and copy your internal drive over, then swap the drives and you have your computer running as before plus a spare external drive.
 
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