Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

WD 640GB External HDD for internal in uMBP?

1

10-Dee-Q

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 10, 2006
511
32
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia & Singapore
Hi, sorry , i have no where to ask
so i thought i might as well aksed you people here for some opinions.
im in need of large capacity HDD for my uMBP. and i want the 640GB WD cause i heard good review for it, however the WD distributor in my country haven't stock it yet, and they say it might be a little bit as late as early january :(
cause i need it urgetnly, here the question, the WD distributor in my country do have stock for 640GB but its the external one, the My Passport Essential
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=701

and what i need or wanted is the internal scorpio blue one
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=683

i have bad experiences in online shopping cause in my country the custom is terrible, and they took very long time to scan for shipment, so i thought is it okay if i buy the wd external one then i pry open the casing and put the harddisk inside my umbp ? are they basically the same drive ? and is the casing ( after opened) can be used with my older hard disk to be used as external one ?

sorry for my broken english, but i need the answer as son as possible, thank you very much.
 
The WD 640GB external should fit into the Unibody Macs no problem even if it is one of the slightly thicker drives, It sould still have enough room in the computer. I ended up just going with the 500GB as I feel that at that capacity the drive would be more stable as the 640GB drives in the 2.5" form factor are still new and not sold standalone in the mainstream for laptops drives yet.
 
WD6400BEVT inside 640GB Elements Portable (WDBAAR6400ABK)

I just installed the drive from a 640GB Elements Portable in an early 2008 Macbook Pro; the drive inside was the one you're interested in. I would imagine that the 640GB Passport contains the same drive.
You may want to remove the RPS jumper from the drive before installing it.

BTW, it's a standard 9.5 mm thick drive, i.e. not the thicker kind.
 
I haven't opened a Passport, but the Elements Portable was really easy.
You should be able to use the enclosure for your old disk - unless you break something, of course :)
 
- 42 - said:
I haven't opened a Passport, but the Elements Portable was really easy.
You should be able to use the enclosure for your old disk - unless you break something, of course :)
Click to expand...


hi, thx
btw i look into the wdc home page but im a bit confused cause for external HDD it only have passport essential for the 640GB, and for the elements it stated maximum size of only 320 .
are you sure yours is elements one ?

btw what the difference between elements and passport ?
 
I have the Elements Portable (WDBAAR6400ABK-NESN), which they for some reason don't list on their website. Newegg has it here.
There's a comparison chart on WD's website, where you can see the differences between Passport and Elements Portable.
 
With the new WD My Passport Essential SE drives- 1TB and 750GB - you cannot remove the drive and re-use it internally. The USB port is attached to the drive itself and there is no SATA connector.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct09/101209.html

Not saying this applies to the 640GB version you are looking at, but I would be prepared for a potentially nasty surprise if you try it.


Also consider the notes in the Youtube video linked a couple posts up:

UPDATE: This is the Revision Number B7B version of this model. There is a R/N: B8B with the same model number Which does not allow the removal of the USB controller as it is built onto the drive.
 
austinpike said:
With the new WD My Passport Essential SE drives- 1TB and 750GB - you cannot remove the drive and re-use it internally. The USB port is attached to the drive itself and there is no SATA connector.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct09/101209.html

Not saying this applies to the 640GB version you are looking at, but I would be prepared for a potentially nasty surprise if you try it.


Also consider the notes in the Youtube video linked a couple posts up:

UPDATE: This is the Revision Number B7B version of this model. There is a R/N: B8B with the same model number Which does not allow the removal of the USB controller as it is built onto the drive.
Click to expand...

The 750GB and 1000GB is different drives.
They are not 9mm 2.4" drives, but 12.5mm drives.
A 12.5mm drive won't fit inside the WD Passport enclosure
 
Hey - 42 -: What drive is in that WD Elements WDBAAR6400ABK?

Can you confirm that it's the "standard" drive with the SATA interface?

I got hosed on the Passport 640, it's the micro-USB-only sans SATA. From your post, it sounds like the Elements still has the SATA adapter?

TIA
 
Yep - my WDBAAR6400ABK had a WD6400BEVT drive with a removable SATA-USB adapter.
 
pinkpank said:
Can you confirm that it's the "standard" drive with the SATA interface?

I got hosed on the Passport 640, it's the micro-USB-only sans SATA. From your post, it sounds like the Elements still has the SATA adapter?

TIA
Click to expand...


so you mean you have the paspport essential 640GB and it only use USB built in and cant be used as internal SATA drive ??
(i mean the external enclosure is of course only provide a mini USB port, what we meant here is that if you open up the casing and see the drive inside , does the USB is built into the HD permanently OR you can just take out the USB - sata adapter so that the HD can be used directly into internal hard drive using its SATA connector?)

sorry my enlish is not that good.

so is it better to buy the elements one then ?
 
Correct - the Passport Essential has just micro-USB inside

No SATA whatsoever. So I had to buy the bare drive, which was ~$125 one week and then went on sale at Newegg for $89 on "Black Friday". :eek:

There's a picture here:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct09/101209.html

(This is from the 750/1000GB drive, but the 2-platter 640GB in the Passport Essential looks the same!)
 
pinkpank said:
No SATA whatsoever. So I had to buy the bare drive, which was ~$125 one week and then went on sale at Newegg for $89 on "Black Friday". :eek:

There's a picture here:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct09/101209.html

(This is from the 750/1000GB drive, but the 2-platter 640GB in the Passport Essential looks the same!)
Click to expand...



took the plunge
buy the elements 640 GB
hopefully it can be opened and used as internal :p

anyway i really wonder what the difference between wd element and passport
 
- 42 - said:
I just installed the drive from a 640GB Elements Portable in an early 2008 Macbook Pro; the drive inside was the one you're interested in. I would imagine that the 640GB Passport contains the same drive.
You may want to remove the RPS jumper from the drive before installing it.

BTW, it's a standard 9.5 mm thick drive, i.e. not the thicker kind.
Click to expand...

btw what is the RPS thingy ?
 
Get the elements, I got it off new egg, its easier to open than the essential and the usb-sata adapter comes off, I installed the drive into my uMBP recently, works great put my old 320 gb back in the enclosure.
 
RPS - Reduced Power Spinup. The USB powered external drives use this feature to limit the power being drawn from the USB port during startup. When mounting the drive internally, RPS is not necessary. The jumper configuration for the drive is available here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back