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Author Topic: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?  (Read 1999 times)

zxcvbob

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Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« on: December 18, 2011, 07:42:26 PM »
DD is home for Christmas; she has a Macbook that she bought in 2008 and she says the hard drive is making a lot of noise.  I've replaced HDD's in PC's before and reinstalled the OS, but never tried it in a Mac.  The drive that's in there is a Fujitsu 150 GB, and it is almost completely full (that might be why it's noisy; could be terribly fragmented)

Are there any particular drives I should look at -- or more importantly should stay away from?  I can get a Hitachi Travelstar 320GB 7200 rpm drive for about $100.  

I put a Seagate 7200 RPM Momentus 160 GB drive in my Thinkpad about 6 or 8 months ago and have had no problems with it. That drive was only $28 (refurbished) but the same ones are about $60 now, plus I need more capacity.

I see good reviews and bad reviews out there for just about everything...
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Nick1911

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2011, 08:06:21 PM »
I'm not convinced that it makes much difference anymore.

I'm supprised that you can change out the HD yourself; I though you had to pay Apple to do that on those.
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Harold Tuttle

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2011, 08:08:25 PM »
Check the speed on the stock drive, prolly no need to exceed that and increase the power draw

There's a few good sites that will step you thru the process of removing the drive

Watch out for myriads of small torx bit screws

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Harold Tuttle

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2011, 08:10:32 PM »
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lee n. field

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2011, 08:22:06 PM »
I'd avoid Samsung drives, but other than that, pick one.
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zxcvbob

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2011, 08:36:17 PM »
Thanks.  I'd never herd of macsales.com before; they are competitive with geeks.com, tigerdirect, etc, and probably give better tech support if Something Goes Terribly Wrong.

It looks like I should be able to clone the drive and it'll magically be bootable, instead of having to reinstall everything.
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Harold Tuttle

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2011, 08:55:38 PM »
You should be able to put an os install on the new drive, then use "migration assistant" to move the user account and apps over to the new drive from the old drive in a USB housing
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Ben

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2011, 09:02:10 PM »
Depending on what she does with it, I would even look at putting a 5400rpm drive in it for less power draw and cooler operation.

Also, I don't know if a Mac of that vintage is compatible, but SSD drives are reaching a workable price point. I recently built a couple of field systems for work and a Foxconn mini barebones system for myself using SSD drives. Sure, you're still not getting as much storage for the buck as an HDD, but they're fast, quiet, use little power, and are physically tough. Small HDD USB external storage drives are dirt cheap now, so getting a 60 or 120gig SSD plus external storage will still get you a ton of space. May be more than you want to spend, but is something to consider.
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zxcvbob

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2011, 04:59:45 PM »
I bought a 5400RPM 640GB drive to replace the 160 in there now -- that is almost completely full.  I know the primary partition should be journaled for error recovery, but what about a second volume for music files, videos, and crap like that?  What is the *downside* of journaling when it's not needed?  Is there a performance cost, or just a little wasted disk space?

I'm planning to use Carbon Copy Cloner shareware to copy the old drive onto the new one.  The folks at macsales.com recommended it over the utilities that they sell. (they get points for that)
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Vodka7

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2011, 05:23:49 PM »
I swapped out the stock for a Black WD drive for a friend, went with a 5400rpm 300 gigger she got on Amazon.

Watch a few videos on youtube, make sure you have all the right screwdrivers, and keep a bunch of bowls handy to put the different screws in (pretty sure it was five different sizes, all very tiny. Don't sneeze.)

I didn't have a nylon prybar to pop the keyboard up so I used a rubber putty knife and a lot of finesse. It'll come up--but lift it slowly, it's taped to a ribbon that connects to the logic board. I pulled it up way too fast and had a minor heart attack when it loudly ripped off. No damage done, just scary.

I don't do (Mac) software, she took it to the Apple store to get drive formatted and the OS put back on (they did that for free, vs. the ridiculous number they quoted her for putting in a new HD.)
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zxcvbob

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Re: Any recommendations for a Macbook replacement HDD?
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2011, 05:31:35 PM »
I'm pretty sure this one comes out thru the battery bay rather than under the keyboard.

I bought the drive as a kit that came with all the little screwdrivers and an external HDD enclosure.  (just under $100, and with the free shipping it still got here in 3 days.)  I'll put her old drive in the enclosure when I'm done.

I need to read-up on the OS9 or OSX "migration assistant".
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