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Western Digital Passport drives for internal use?

N

Nuks

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 25, 2006
504
0
Hey everyone, just a few questions about a new hard drive

I'm looking to increase my internal storage, and right now I'm potentially looking at buying a 2.5" external drive, and then taking out the 60 gigs in my macbook now and doing a switch. While I'd love to have two drives of equal capacities for time machine, the funds just aren't there right now.

Anyway, I was looking at this drive: WD 160gb Passport

Am I able to take this apart and put my current 60gb drive in it? And then use the 160gb for an internal? Or would it make more sense to buy an internal drive and an external enclosure..

Also, should I instead get the Seagate drive, which is the same price, 40 less gbs, but a 5 year warranty. How likely are these things to break?

Also, how does one go about switching the drives? I know the physical aspect of it, but how do I make sure OS X runs the same? I have a time machine backup right now, am I able to use that for a complete restore?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Cave Man said:
Your MacBook takes a SATA. The external could be either SATA or PATA and the only way to know is to open the enclosure. It's probably SATA, but you cannot be certain.
Click to expand...

For externals, its more likely to be PATA.

unless you paid top dollar for your external hdd, then there's a chance it would be SATA.

OT: i always prefer to buy the enclosure and hdd separately and then fix them together: at least you know what interface your hdd uses. Its much better than getting on of those ready-sealed ones and start guessing PATA or SATA.
 
Sage Harupyuia said:
For externals, its more likely to be PATA. unless you paid top dollar for your external hdd, then there's a chance it would be SATA.
Click to expand...

SATA drives are now less expensive to manufacture than PATA drives, so I wouldn't bet on it. If you check prices of 500 gig 3.5" drives, the PATAs are usually about $20 more. I don't know of any manufacturer who puts PATA drives in their computers now. Only Apple TV ships with one in Apple's line up.
 
According to this, it works. Just ignore the music. I plan on doing this with my macbook, once i get it.
 
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Ah, yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Well, double the size for only 60 dollars more...
 
The 160GB drive that was in my WD Passport is SATA and is now inside my wife's MacBook Pro and the 100GB 7200 RPM from the MBP is now inside the WD Passport case.
 
Not Compatible Anymore!

Today I bought a passport, hoping to get the Scorpio internal drive, and a nice little enclosure for 5 dollars more. However, once i took it apart, the internal is some new stranged 2.5" drive, that wasnt SATA. it actually had the USB component soldered in, and no SATA connectors. It wasnt ATA either, and ive seen lots of drives, i think WD custom makes these guys to fit in such a small case, the USB connector is literally attached directly to the drive.

Also it came with this software, WD Smartware, so overall, save yourself the headache, and if you are looking for an internal, just get the scorpio blue (or black) internal.
 
Please read the post above yours - WD drives have the USB bridge soldered to the drive - so no you won't be able to take it apart and use the drive in your MacBook !!
 
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