Will a 500GB harddrive work in a MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa)

[MattMK45]

would something like that work in an alu powerbook g4?

 

[GraphicRhino]

You shouldnt have any problems

 

[SmoothBox]

I went with the Seagate ST9500420AS along with a Rosewill RX82

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX82-MP-SUF82-BLK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB & 1394 External Enclosure - External Enclosures


And as for as the install goes:

1) I already downloaded CCC and need to install it.
2) Next I thought that you put the New HD into the External Enclosure and then hook it up to your MBP and then run CCC.
3) And then do a test boot somehow from the New HD in the External Enclosure.
4) Swap out the Old for the New.

 

[pdxflint]

Wow you need to read that link that I posted about the Sudden Motion Sensor because it says a lot of people reported having problems with the Blue Scorpio versions of the Western Digital.

Actually, the link you listed says this:

Among the MacBook and MacBook Pro community there have been several owners who installed aftermarket hard drives already equipped with anti-shock features who reported experiencing Kernel Panic errors whenever their unit was physically moved. This is believed to be due to a confliction between SMS and the new drive's anti-shock function. The Western Digital Scorpio series of notebook hard drives have been the most frequently reported as being susceptible to this problem. In practically all cases, disabling SMS alleviated this problem without any negative performance impact.

It does not say Scorpio Blue.

From Western Digital's website:

WD's ShockGuard™ technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. WD's SecurePark™ parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long-term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.

The above has nothing to do with the free-fall sensor issue. This feature is on all their drives, both the Scorpio Blue (5400) and Scorpio Black (7200) drives. But what you're probably referring to is this:

Free-fall sensor - As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it's in) is dropped while in use, WD's free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head to help prevent damage and data loss.

The feature referred to above, (Free-fall sensor,) is available only on the WD Scorpio Black drives (7200) which come either with, or without it. The model designation that has the free-fall sensor ends with BJKT, and the one without it ends with BEKT. It's highly recommended that if it's for a Macbook or Macbook Pro, you get the one without the free-fall sensor, or you might have to disable the Mac's built-in SMS (sudden motion sensor) to avoid conflicts, which is probably what folks were experiencing in the Wikipedia article.

This is all from the WD website.

 

[jayjay75]

New Macbook Pro 13" Hard Drive

What's the point of buying a drive with the sensor built in when it is part of Mac OS X?

Hi,

Just wanted to ask you if you had found out more about the free fall drives.

I've bought the 2009 model Macbook pro 13" and want to buy a hard drive upgrade (Mac are a rip off to upgrade with them).

On line it says that the Macs pros come with a 160gb drive, with sudden motion sensor.

Does this mean that it is built into the drive itself or built into the computer?

The real question is, do I buy a drive with a motion sudden motion sensor (free fall sensor) or not???

I hope you have some insight because at the moment no one can give me an answer, nor the apple tech people.

Cheers

 

[Cave Man]

2) Next I thought that you put the New HD into the External Enclosure and then hook it up to your MBP and then run CCC.

You must initialize the drive with a GUID partition table. Disk Utility defaults to APM, which will not permit booting of Intel-based Macs.

 

[brop52]

Hi,

Just wanted to ask you if you had found out more about the free fall drives.

I've bought the 2009 model Macbook pro 13" and want to buy a hard drive upgrade (Mac are a rip off to upgrade with them).

On line it says that the Macs pros come with a 160gb drive, with sudden motion sensor.

Does this mean that it is built into the drive itself or built into the computer?

The real question is, do I buy a drive with a motion sudden motion sensor (free fall sensor) or not???

I hope you have some insight because at the moment no one can give me an answer, nor the apple tech people.

Cheers

It's built into the system. Don't buy a drive with the SMS. Buy from Newegg and use this link.

 

[aaronw1986]

Thats good to hear. Was it hard opening the case up? Ive been reading alot about the process, documenting various tips.

@iToaster,
Thanks for the tip. How can I be sure the thickness of the hard drive though? Normally hard drive sizes only state 2.5" or 3.5" width. Newegg doesnt seem to list the thickness either.

Do you have any good links of how to do the replacement?