Comments on: How-To: Upgrade MacBook, MacBook Pro Hard Drive to 320GB/7200RPM for Under $100 http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/ Web strategy, social networking, standards-based development, accessibility, triathlon, web memes, and other bits of fun. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:54:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Andrew Rice http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29974 Andrew Rice Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:54:38 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29974 This is by far the best upgrade I have made and has the best bang for the buck. I swapped an old 160GB 5400rpm for a new Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm drive. Things that were once sluggish are not any more, its almost like a new system. I Used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my original HD to an external,and then booted from it to test it. Then I did the swap which took about 25 minutes. I then booted from another bootable external drive, that I have for booting back into 10.5 and opened disk Utility to format the new drive, next I used Carbon Copy Cloner to transfer the old contents to the new drive. It took me about 1.5 hours to do the copy as I had the old drive almost full, about 155GB of data. The only problem I had was snapping the clips above the slot loading super drive. I need to use some force to get them in, and was a little hesitant at first. I found that pushing down about 1/2 to an inch back from the edge was more effective. I HIGHLY recommend this upgrade! This is by far the best upgrade I have made and has the best bang for the buck. I swapped an old 160GB 5400rpm for a new Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm drive. Things that were once sluggish are not any more, its almost like a new system. I Used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my original HD to an external,and then booted from it to test it. Then I did the swap which took about 25 minutes. I then booted from another bootable external drive, that I have for booting back into 10.5 and opened disk Utility to format the new drive, next I used Carbon Copy Cloner to transfer the old contents to the new drive. It took me about 1.5 hours to do the copy as I had the old drive almost full, about 155GB of data.

The only problem I had was snapping the clips above the slot loading super drive. I need to use some force to get them in, and was a little hesitant at first. I found that pushing down about 1/2 to an inch back from the edge was more effective.

I HIGHLY recommend this upgrade!

]]> By: Oded http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29946 Oded Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:55:23 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29946 Finally upgraded my MBP 17" 2.33 Core 2 Duo, 160gb HD, 2gb RAM. Got Hitachi 500GB, 7200RPM and added 1GB RAM to 3GB (the max this computer can use). I first cloned the new HD with a closure I got from OWC w/ firewire 800 and then swap the two. I am soooooo happy with it now. It is now so peppy and zippy it is amazing. And I have now 365 more GBs than I had before. Got all my stuff from Other World Computing (macsales.com). they are really great to work with. Have excellent customer service, all the instruction videos. Got a little scared for a little bit - When I finished installing every thing and turned the computer on, the screen was black, I knew it has to do with the RAM but couldn't figure it out, nor did the people at OWC. I was worried maybe I burned something with statics. I ended up taking the computer to the Apple store and the genius at the bar told me I didn't have the memory module all the way in. ( it required a little more force than I dared putting, and I thought it was all the way in). Pushed the thing all the way in, and Voila,... Better than it was when bought new 3 years a go. It actually works cooler than before. I was a little concerned about the heat issue when I considered the size and speed of the HD. The actual job of replacing the HD and memory is really easy and fun. I would say to anyone who is considering doing it - Definitely, go for it. It's a no brainer. . Finally upgraded my MBP 17″ 2.33 Core 2 Duo, 160gb HD,
2gb RAM.
Got Hitachi 500GB, 7200RPM and added 1GB RAM
to 3GB (the max this computer can use).
I first cloned the new HD with a closure I got from OWC w/ firewire 800 and then swap the two.
I am soooooo happy with it now. It is now so peppy and zippy it is amazing. And I have now 365 more GBs than I had before.
Got all my stuff from Other World Computing
(macsales.com). they are really great to work with. Have excellent customer service, all the instruction videos.
Got a little scared for a little bit – When I finished installing every thing and turned the computer on, the screen was black, I knew it has to do with the RAM but couldn’t figure it out, nor did the people at OWC.
I was worried maybe I burned something with statics.
I ended up taking the computer to the Apple store and the genius at the bar told me I didn’t have the memory module all the way in. ( it required a little more force than I dared putting, and I thought it was all the way in).
Pushed the thing all the way in, and Voila,… Better than it was when bought new 3 years a go.
It actually works cooler than before. I was a little concerned about the heat issue when I considered the size and speed of the HD.
The actual job of replacing the HD and memory is really easy and fun.
I would say to anyone who is considering doing it – Definitely, go for it. It’s a no brainer.

.

]]> By: Henry http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29935 Henry Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:22:24 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29935 After reading your instruction and all the successful hd installations, I decided to gave it a try. I have a first generation MBP 15" core duo 2.16 2gb ram (max). There was nothing wrong with my MBP but my hd was getting too crowded. I constantly have to figure out what to erase or backup. So I did a google search and came upon your blog. I did exactly as you described and now I have a Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm 500gb hard installed. Runs a bit faster and I have extra 380g of storage. Although the Seagate said 500gb, I only get 465gb but I not complaining. Thanks again! After reading your instruction and all the successful hd installations, I decided to gave it a try. I have a first generation MBP 15″ core duo 2.16 2gb ram (max). There was nothing wrong with my MBP but my hd was getting too crowded. I constantly have to figure out what to erase or backup. So I did a google search and came upon your blog. I did exactly as you described and now I have a Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm 500gb hard installed. Runs a bit faster and I have extra 380g of storage. Although the Seagate said 500gb, I only get 465gb but I not complaining. Thanks again!

]]> By: Ben http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29925 Ben Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:29:34 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29925 Another tip, if you don't have a "spudger" around (not often doing computer replacements, I didn't) I got some fishing line, looped it under the ribbon stuck on top of the hard drive, and slowly ran it along. Another tip, if you don’t have a “spudger” around (not often doing computer replacements, I didn’t) I got some fishing line, looped it under the ribbon stuck on top of the hard drive, and slowly ran it along.

]]> By: Ben http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29924 Ben Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:25:26 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29924 Just to confirm another success! I did as Bernhard mentioned, purchased a new HD (Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM) with an enclosure. Used SuperDuper! to create a clone onto the new HD then implated the new drive to find everything boots perfectly (eventually, see below). One note, after installing the new drive I didn't screw any screws in, just plugged the ribbon cables back in, plugged the power in and booted up to test, no idea if this is a good idea but nothing broke. BE PATIENT on the first boot, I wasn't. I got a blank white screen for about 1 minute, panicked, shutdown, put in the old drive, checked that things worked, swapped new drive back in, booted and scratched my head for what must have been long enough for the apple logo to finally come on and everything to go smoothly. A quick google search finds that when you use SuperDuper! to clone, it leaves out some stuff, including Apple's cache and indexing, will take a while for re-indexing to happen. I've read reports that anything above 320GB on a Macbook Pro risks heating problems, especially 7200RPM. Most of these reports seem to come from people speaking with Apple Support. I'm yet to find anyone who had heating issues with a 500GB drive, I would love to know if anyone did. I will try to remember to report back in a few months to confirm no issues. Just to confirm another success! I did as Bernhard mentioned, purchased a new HD (Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM) with an enclosure. Used SuperDuper! to create a clone onto the new HD then implated the new drive to find everything boots perfectly (eventually, see below).

One note, after installing the new drive I didn’t screw any screws in, just plugged the ribbon cables back in, plugged the power in and booted up to test, no idea if this is a good idea but nothing broke.

BE PATIENT on the first boot, I wasn’t. I got a blank white screen for about 1 minute, panicked, shutdown, put in the old drive, checked that things worked, swapped new drive back in, booted and scratched my head for what must have been long enough for the apple logo to finally come on and everything to go smoothly. A quick google search finds that when you use SuperDuper! to clone, it leaves out some stuff, including Apple’s cache and indexing, will take a while for re-indexing to happen.

I’ve read reports that anything above 320GB on a Macbook Pro risks heating problems, especially 7200RPM. Most of these reports seem to come from people speaking with Apple Support. I’m yet to find anyone who had heating issues with a 500GB drive, I would love to know if anyone did. I will try to remember to report back in a few months to confirm no issues.

]]> By: Melodeus http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29882 Melodeus Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:06:23 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29882 Thanks... I cloned the drive and got the beeping (when i replaced it in the MBP)as I stated but I put the original drive back in and booted up holding the option key and chose the external drive to load from. It took a while before it actually completed the load. I had to hold the option key until i saw the OS screen pop up with my sign on name but even at that point, it took a while when I tried loading a program. Not sure if it is because it's like the first time loading or what. Another note, I kept hearing a tick sound coming from the external drive so I am not sure what that is about. Any help is appreciated. Thanks… I cloned the drive and got the beeping (when i replaced it in the MBP)as I stated but I put the original drive back in and booted up holding the option key and chose the external drive to load from. It took a while before it actually completed the load. I had to hold the option key until i saw the OS screen pop up with my sign on name but even at that point, it took a while when I tried loading a program.

Not sure if it is because it’s like the first time loading or what.

Another note, I kept hearing a tick sound coming from the external drive so I am not sure what that is about. Any help is appreciated.

]]> By: Brian McNitt http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29881 Brian McNitt Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:37:28 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29881 Hi All, Wow, this post has become very popular. Apologies up front for not being able to respond to everyone quickly. If you have posted a successful upgrade here, it would be GREAT if you could share your expertise and answer some of the new questions. Thanks!! Some general questions have been asked about will "X" hard drive and memory with "Y" configuration. For this, I recommend using the <a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/" rel="nofollow">Upgrade Center at Other World Computing</a>. You don't have to buy from OWC but the wizard should give you an idea of what will work with your particular computer. @Meledeus The method that worked for me was to first format the new drive using /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, then use SuperDuper (free) to make a bootable clone. See step 4 for links. Maybe give this a shot? Others may wish to chime in here too... Hi All,

Wow, this post has become very popular. Apologies up front for not being able to respond to everyone quickly. If you have posted a successful upgrade here, it would be GREAT if you could share your expertise and answer some of the new questions. Thanks!!

Some general questions have been asked about will “X” hard drive and memory with “Y” configuration. For this, I recommend using the Upgrade Center at Other World Computing. You don’t have to buy from OWC but the wizard should give you an idea of what will work with your particular computer.

@Meledeus The method that worked for me was to first format the new drive using /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, then use SuperDuper (free) to make a bootable clone. See step 4 for links. Maybe give this a shot? Others may wish to chime in here too…

]]> By: Melodeus http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29880 Melodeus Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:05:59 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29880 .....well, to start which is what I should have done before I started was tell you that I bought a WD 320GB 7200RPM to replace the 200GB drive in my MBP. I erased it and copied over the Macintosh HD to the 320GB drive and installed it which gave me a beeping sound 2 secs apart. Well, I just tried restarting holding option and got the hazzard sign telling me that It couldn't start up the drive. what should I do? Should I reformat and try again? …..well, to start which is what I should have done before I started was tell you that I bought a WD 320GB 7200RPM to replace the 200GB drive in my MBP. I erased it and copied over the Macintosh HD to the 320GB drive and installed it which gave me a beeping sound 2 secs apart.

Well, I just tried restarting holding option and got the hazzard sign telling me that It couldn’t start up the drive. what should I do? Should I reformat and try again?

]]> By: Melodeus http://mcnitt.com/how-to-upgrade-macbook-macbook-pro-hard-drive-to-320gb-7200rpm-for-under-100-dollars/comment-page-1/#comment-29879 Melodeus Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:51:37 +0000 http://mcnitt.com/?p=448#comment-29879 Early 2008 Macbook Pro Penryn. 200GB 2.4Ghz. I used Carbon Copy Cloner and I copied the Macintosh HD to my new 320GB 7200RPM Drive. I installed the drive and cut on my MBP and all I got was a black screen and a loud beep!!! sound that sound like the machine was going to blow. Helpppppp!!! What Did I do wrong? I took it out, replaced the 200GB that originally came with, it worked fine.. so I am going to take the advice to restart by holding the option key to see if it will boot up from the external drive. Wish me luck. Early 2008 Macbook Pro Penryn. 200GB 2.4Ghz. I used Carbon Copy Cloner and I copied the Macintosh HD to my new 320GB 7200RPM Drive. I installed the drive and cut on my MBP and all I got was a black screen and a loud beep!!! sound that sound like the machine was going to blow. Helpppppp!!! What Did I do wrong? I took it out, replaced the 200GB that originally came with, it worked fine.. so I am going to take the advice to restart by holding the option key to see if it will boot up from the external drive.

Wish me luck.

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