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It's not bad - just more tedious than the TiBooks. Also, a GOOD quality Phillips screwdriver is a must. The little dress screws can get damaged easily. Then, it's lots of fun, as they use a tiny bit of thread lock compound on the screws.

I've done it many times, between my 17" PB and 17" MBP, for hard-drives and optical drive upgrades (in the case of the PB). My last was 200GB 7200RPM for the MBP the week before Leopard's release.

Fun video to watch! Thanks for posting!
 
Hi Guys & Gals ;-) Thanks for posting :-D

It took me app. 40min to complete the swapping (it could be done in 20-30min) but with hands shaking over the rather pricey and beloved piece of equipment it's better not to rush things 🙂
When i was in elementary school (in Poland age 7-15 in my time) i used to play much with PC and from there i have the basic of what to do while having my hands close to electronic stuff.
BUT if You do not have any experience AND You will follow the ifixit.com guide AND be gentle <taking off the boxer gloves could do miracles> ;-) the swapping is doable 🙂


if You like my VIDEO please digg me ;-)
 
that was a pretty cool video, although i am too scared to ever take apart my MBP. perhaps give me a couple years. 😀
 
Give me a 750 or 1TB, I am game. Until then, I'll stick with my 200. It would be nice to crack a case with screwdrivers again though, the mac mini putty knife is nerve racking the first two times. But then again, I could buy four of them for the price of my penryn.
 
Give me a 750 or 1TB, I am game. Until then, I'll stick with my 200. It would be nice to crack a case with screwdrivers again though, the mac mini putty knife is nerve racking the first two times. But then again, I could buy four of them for the price of my penryn.

hmm, can I hear octo-core tower....

My worst hard disk changing experience was on my old iBook. The MacBook is a piece of pi... cake 🙂
 
Did mine the other week using the ifixit guide. Worked like a treat but glad I ordered a spudger from eBay first.

All went smoothly until I had the obligatory screw left and had to take it all apart again to find where it was missing from!! DOH!! 🙄
 
I just finished the same upgrade on my 17" Macbook pro. I thought it was very simple once you see where the screws are you need to remove. I noticed I didn't have to deal with the flat cable being in the way because my bluetooth module was on the left side of the drive. The flat cable was taped to the drive but once I lifted the tape I could move it completely out of the way. I didn't time it but I think it was about 40 minutes as well and I was very slow and careful. It also appeared you had more trouble removing the keyboard and stuff. I actually didn't need the assistance of a flat screwdriver or anything for it to come up. (thankfully!)

I also found a macbook pro upgrade guide on ExtremeTech.com and the pictures of the screw locations were super helpful.
 
quick questions... i plan on buying the same hard drive and replace my full 120gb HD that came with my MBP. i also have a WD external hard drive with all my stuff backed up. when replacing the old HD, do you have to reinstall everything (OSX, photoshop, office, etc) with discs or can i install the new HD, plug in my external HD, and simply drag and drop one of my time machine backups with all my info?
it was real nice when i upgraded my ibook to the MBP because all i had to do was connect the two and everything copied (internet bookmarks, passwords, etc) so i didn't have to worry about setting up anything. i'm hoping switching hard drives and using one of my time machine backups will do the same.

thanks!
 
quick questions... i plan on buying the same hard drive and replace my full 120gb HD that came with my MBP. i also have a WD external hard drive with all my stuff backed up. when replacing the old HD, do you have to reinstall everything (OSX, photoshop, office, etc) with discs or can i install the new HD, plug in my external HD, and simply drag and drop one of my time machine backups with all my info?
thanks!

It's quite simple - all you need to do is it the new hard disk, then boot from your Leopard install DVD (as you mention Time Machine, I guess you are using Leopard).

Use the "Disk Utility" to partition the new disk (doesn't matter what you name the new partition, as it will be over-written by restoring from Time Machine) then you can choose the "Restore from backup" option to restore your Mac from the last Time Machine backup - it is all automatic, no draging-and-dropping required.

I did mine yesterday; took about 40 minutes to fit the new disk, then two hours to restore everything from my external USB drives' Time Machine backup.

A reboot, and then all was back to normal. The only 'caveats' are that on the first reboot, Spotlight has to rebuild its indexes, so that takes a few minutes (and there is a slight hit on performance while it does so) and the first time you run Mail, it will re-import all your messages (took about two minutes to import 3,500 mails for me...)
 
Wow that was the only Instructional Video I've ever seen to actually enjoy. Thanks a lot that helped out a friend a lot 😀
 
The iFixit instructions were spot on. I used a plastic toothpick from my Swiss Army Knife in lieu of a "Spudger" and it worked fine. I'd expect a plastic spoon might work also.
 
I just finished the same upgrade on my 17" Macbook pro. I thought it was very simple once you see where the screws are you need to remove. I noticed I didn't have to deal with the flat cable being in the way because my bluetooth module was on the left side of the drive. The flat cable was taped to the drive but once I lifted the tape I could move it completely out of the way. I didn't time it but I think it was about 40 minutes as well and I was very slow and careful. It also appeared you had more trouble removing the keyboard and stuff. I actually didn't need the assistance of a flat screwdriver or anything for it to come up. (thankfully!)

I also found a macbook pro upgrade guide on ExtremeTech.com and the pictures of the screw locations were super helpful.

The upgrade on the 17" is a lot easier than the 15". Like you noticed the bluetooth is on the side, not to mention the latches above the super drive don't exist on the 17", only more screws.
 
Just have it done at Best Buy for $39

- Takes 1 hour and they are an Apple Authorized Repair Center.

Got some shopping done, while I was waiting😀
 
Just have it done at Best Buy for $39

- Takes 1 hour and they are an Apple Authorized Repair Center.

Got some shopping done, while I was waiting😀

I'm not spending $40 on something I can do in 10 minutes.
 
Cool thanks for sharing!

I'd do it in a sec, but I have yet to see a comprehensive guide to backing up/transfering with a bootcamp partition..
 
Cool thanks for sharing!

I'd do it in a sec, but I have yet to see a comprehensive guide to backing up/transfering with a bootcamp partition..

I know exactly how to do that. I will post how I do it...

I guess I'll do when I upgrade the 500GB since I will need do it anyways.
 
Just have it done at Best Buy for $39

- Takes 1 hour and they are an Apple Authorized Repair Center.

Got some shopping done, while I was waiting😀
Best Buy finally started working on macs? I was not aware of that, Last time I asked, they pretty much told me they would not touch them. But then again, I would expect them to not even know their own policies. From my experience though, they are morons, and I don't think I would want them touching my macs anyway.
 
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