[Fanboi]

I have filled up my MacBook Hard Drive and am i looking for a new drive. Im looking at this one http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Weste...al/WD2500BEVS/. Does any1 have any experience with western digital drives? And what is the easiest and cheapest way to transfer everything from my old hard drive to the new one?

[Waragainstsleep]

Any 2.5" SATA drive should do fine. In my experience the following rules apply to buying HDs:
No manufacturer is any better than the others;
Any drive can fail at any time, so get the one with the longest warranty and backup your data!
Also be aware that a 7200rpm drive will void your warranty. If your warranty is expired, then be aware that Apple don't like 7200rpm drives in a MacBook for a reason.

Put the old drive in an enclosure (USB2 or firewire), put a clean OS the new drive (switch off languages you don't use and printer drivers you don't need from the custom install options though for languages you can run monolingual later).
Then use the migration assistant to import all your data and settings from the old drive. It will usually mistake the external drive for your 'old mac'.

[frdmfghtr]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Also be aware that a 7200rpm drive will void your warranty. If your warranty is expired, then be aware that Apple don't like 7200rpm drives in a MacBook for a reason.

Ummm...what??

[peeb]

Yep - that's bogus - 7200 drives are fine.

[silvercel]

Why migrate when you can restore with Disk Utility on the CD.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by silvercel 

Why migrate when you can restore with Disk Utility on the CD.

The second method works just as good as the first. The first requires more user action (MA doesn't always transfer everything), but OTOH it gives people the warm fuzzy feeling of having a new 'clean' system. The second is simpler, but it also means you transfer every single junk file on your old system to the new system.

Actually you can even mix the two methods. Use DU to make a clone of the old disk, install OS X on the new disk and then use MA to copy back stuff from the clone. That makes sense for people who want to use MA and have an external HD, but no case for the old internal 2.5" drive.

[powerbooks]

Anyone has a source of external firewire case that support SATA drive out of the macBook Pro? I upgraded mine last week and couldn't find a case to put the original one in. I know OWC has some, but theirs are too expensive.

[mini.boss]

Check out the Western Digital Passport drives. They don't advertise it but the newer models are SATA WD Scorpio drives and the cases are fairly easy to open. And best yet, they usually are cheaper than the Western Digital bare drives so you get a drive AND a case all in one.

I moved from 80GB to 250GB for only $175 (I had a coupon for Best Buy) and put my original drive in he external case. Here is what I got:

Western Digital - 250GB External Hard Drive - WDXMS2500TN

If you are fine with 160GB then Costco sells the WD Passport 160GB for $109. And if you have this months coupon book then there is a $20 off coupon for next week I think.

[Jasoco]

I bought that exact Western Digital 250GB HD in the original post. Installed it in 20 minutes. I recommend it.

Though not from that web site. I bought mine from NewEgg.com for $20 less, didn't pay anything extra for shipping and received it in less than 24 hours.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Yep - that's bogus - 7200 drives are fine.

Its not bogus. I am a certified Tech, and I got it from a senior Apple employee. You will void any warranty you have left if Apple learn you have installed a 7200rpm drive. Beyond that, you take the risk if you want to but given the number of 5400rpm drives that fail in MacBooks, I am inclined to believe that its not the best idea. And they really fail, with no chance of retrieving data.

Oh, and in my experience a fresh install and a migration will be more reliable than a clone. DU sucks at taking images of whole drives. Especially big images.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Oh, and in my experience a fresh install and a migration will be more reliable than a clone. DU sucks at taking images of whole drives. Especially big images.

Baloney. I've used DU's Restore (which is nothing but a GUI front-nd to asr) hundreds of times to clone disks on all kinds of Macs. I have yet to see a bad image.

[evolusion]

This seems as good a thread as any to ask my question...

My MacBook hard drive has just quit on me so I'm looking at replacements online and have two different types of 2.5" SATA drives available, 1/8H and 1/6H, which I'm assuming refers to the height of the drive?

Does anyone know which one I should be getting? Or do they both fit once I attach the cradle thing from my current drive?

Thanks!

[frdmfghtr]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Its not bogus. I am a certified Tech, and I got it from a senior Apple employee. You will void any warranty you have left if Apple learn you have installed a 7200rpm drive. Beyond that, you take the risk if you want to but given the number of 5400rpm drives that fail in MacBooks, I am inclined to believe that its not the best idea. And they really fail, with no chance of retrieving data.

Why would a 7200 RPM drive void the MacBook warranty, but not that of the MacBook Pro?

[mfbernstein]

Originally Posted by evolusion 

My MacBook hard drive has just quit on me so I'm looking at replacements online and have two different types of 2.5" SATA drives available, 1/8H and 1/6H, which I'm assuming refers to the height of the drive?

Anything 9.5mm thick and under will fit. The 1/xH designations are rather uncommon, but from what I could find, 1/8H should be okay, whereas 1/6H probably won't.

If you have the drive model number, you can check with the manufacturer's site. The only manufacturer I know of that is shipping incompatible drives in quantity is Fujitsu (12mm 300GB, 250GB and 200GB drives).

[evolusion]

Thanks for the info! The place I am looking is on dabs.com, which is quite a major site in the UK, so I'm surprised they're using the 1/8 and 1/6 measures. On closer inspection though, both the 1/6 drives are, as you mentioned, Fujitsu drives and both are also 4200RPM, so no point taking the performance hit either!

Thanks for the help, looks like it's going to be a nice little upgrade to the 250Gb Western Digital for me as well =)

[Waragainstsleep]

The MacBook Pro has a metal case which dissipates heat better. Hot drives are more likely to cook themselves in the plastic MacBook case. Or maybe its just because Apple want speed lovers to spend the extra on a Pro. I'm only telling you what they told me.
If I used images to backup customer data every time I did a job, half of them would be back in within a week suffering software faults and I'd be expected to fix them for free. Took a 67GB image from an MBP which was being replaced by Apple not so long ago. The image was saved to a RAID and we were very fortunate to retrieve any data at all from it when we came to restore it to the new one. We had to mount it (which took numerous attempts) and copy files off it until it crashed. The try mounting again. I just don't trust images much anymore. Playing with Netboot has led me to the same conclusion.

[mfbernstein]

Originally Posted by evolusion 

Thanks for the help, looks like it's going to be a nice little upgrade to the 250Gb Western Digital for me as well =)

The WD is a nice fast and quiet drive, and a number of folks have reported that it works with the MB, so enjoy!

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Its not bogus. I am a certified Tech, and I got it from a senior Apple employee. You will void any warranty you have left if Apple learn you have installed a 7200rpm drive.

Is there an official statement on this somewhere?

Because I don't see how it would be enforceable if there isn't.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by evolusion 

My MacBook hard drive has just quit on me so I'm looking at replacements online and have two different types of 2.5" SATA drives available, 1/8H and 1/6H, which I'm assuming refers to the height of the drive?

Does anyone know which one I should be getting? Or do they both fit once I attach the cradle thing from my current drive?

You need 1/8H (9.5mm); I don't think the 1/6H (12.5mm) disks will fit.

[analogika]

Also, there is currently an incompatibility between the Samsung 250GB hard drive and various series of laptops, including the MacBooks/MacBook Pros, some Sonys, and some Toshibas at least.

It doesn't happen on all machines, but on many, the hard drive is deathly slow.

Everything seems to point towards a Samsung firmware engineer asleep at the wheel.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by mini.boss 

Check out the Western Digital Passport drives. They don't advertise it but the newer models are SATA WD Scorpio drives and the cases are fairly easy to open. And best yet, they usually are cheaper than the Western Digital bare drives so you get a drive AND a case all in one...

I just did the same thing, swapping the original 60GB drive in my MacBook out for the 250GB one from the Passport and then putting the 60GB one in the USB enclosure. It's not really designed to be taken apart and reminds me very much of my old G3 iBook; snap-fit plastics and metal-tape, but it's all working nicely now, just in the process of copying everything back.

However, when I tried to use Boot Camp to install Vista I came across an annoying bug; it is impossible to have a Mac partiton of 200GB. It can be 199GB or less or 201GB or more, but no 200GB exactly. Seems to be because 200GB makes the Windows partition be too close to 32GB, so it sticks that one at 31.6GB... I'm not entirely sure why, but it meant I could not have my anally-retentive-dream of a Mac partition that is exacty 200GB... So I settled on 202GB.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by megasad 

I just did the same thing, swapping the original 60GB drive in my MacBook out for the 250GB one from the Passport and then putting the 60GB one in the USB enclosure. It's not really designed to be taken apart and reminds me very much of my old G3 iBook; snap-fit plastics and metal-tape, but it's all working nicely now, just in the process of copying everything back.

Wha?

The hard drive is removable in just under thirty seconds, with a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the L-shaped cover inside the battery bay.



You do then need a tiny Torx driver to remove the metal caddy, but that's another four screws. Your mom could do it - easily.
MacBook Disassembly: Installing Hard Drive - MacBook Parts

Why were you unclipping case parts and taking apart your book?

[megasad]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Wha?

The hard drive is removable in just under thirty seconds, with a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the L-shaped cover inside the battery bay...

Why were you unclipping case parts and taking apart your book

Haw, a simple misunderstanding; my talk of snap-fits and metal-tape was with regard to the Western Digital 250GB Passport that I bought. The way its enclosure is put together reminded me of the G3 iBooks, but it is very easy to change the MacBook's hard drive, as you detailed. In fact, that very ease was why I didn't get a larger capacity drive from Apple when I bought my MacBook and have struggled manfully with a paltry 60GB for the last 15 months. I just had to wait this long for the capacity I wanted to be available... I still have 30GB free!

[analogika]

Ah, I see.

Sorry.

[Phredd]

Originally Posted by mini.boss 

Check out the Western Digital Passport drives. They don't advertise it but the newer models are SATA WD Scorpio drives and the cases are fairly easy to open.

I was thinking of getting one just for the drive. Could you tell me how the case opens so I don't destroy it? Are there screws under the feet or does it snap open?

[megasad]

Originally Posted by Phredd 

I was thinking of getting one just for the drive. Could you tell me how the case opens so I don't destroy it? Are there screws under the feet or does it snap open?

No screws, it is a snap-fit case only. You have to be a little bit manly to open it, not be too afeared of breaking it, and fingernails do help to get it started; my girlfriend used her long nails to pry it open a little and then I used brute-man-strength to rip it asunder.

Once you've got the top case off, just remember where the tin-foil-tape goes and swap them around. There was also a little jumper on the drive that doesn't have a counterpart on the MacBook's drive, so take that off and place it somewhere else. I didn't bother putting it on the 60GB MacBook drive that I was putting into the case and it works fine without it.

Also, whlst there are many clips all around the three sides without the USB port, the side with the USB port has only the one. Mine got bent down a little and so at first it seemed like it wouldn't snap nicely on that side, would leave a little bit of a gap. Carefully bending it back up sorted that out though and now it looks no different than when I got it.

[Phredd]

Thanks. I called Western Digital and they told me the 250 was SATA, so that won't fit in the Apple TV. I may get to try it out sometime, but this time I ordered the drive for $25 more than the Passport.

[0157988944]

OK, can I just clarify... It is possible to take an external HD, run Migration Assistant to copy your existing system to it, and then run MA again to copy from the external to a new Mac?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

OK, can I just clarify... It is possible to take an external HD, run Migration Assistant to copy your existing system to it, and then run MA again to copy from the external to a new Mac?

You take Disk Utility's Restore to clone the old system to an external disk. Then you use MA to copy from the external disk to a new Mac.

[chabig]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Its not bogus. I am a certified Tech, and I got it from a senior Apple employee.

Sometimes senior Apple employees get facts wrong. Apple doesn't care what kind of drive you put in your machine. Also, 7200 RPM drives run no hotter than 5400 RPM drives.

[sideus]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Also be aware that a 7200rpm drive will void your warranty. If your warranty is expired, then be aware that Apple don't like 7200rpm drives in a MacBook for a reason.

It will void the warranty on the original hard drive yes. But if my backlight goes out on my hard drive upgraded Macbook Apple is still obligated to fix it under the manufacture warranty.

That is no different than upgrading the RAM.

[peeb]

The 7200 void warranty stuff is B-O-G-U-S. Bogus. Install 7200s in your MacBook as much as you like. Obviously, the drive itself is not warrantied by Apple anymore, but the rest of the machine is.

[tycheung]

personally i just do 5400's - they are cheaper, cooler and draw less power, and for most applications you're going to be doing on a macbook, there's not a huge difference between that and 7200.

Manufacturer-wise, it really doesn't matter as long as you back up regularly. that being said, hitachi drives are the coolest and least power hungry; samsung and toshiba are pretty good. WD usually is good, but maxtor and the current crop of seagate momentus drives seem to have more issues, at least in the repair shop I go to.

my setup runs Apple Backup to a couple of external HD's so I usually reinstall and restore from backup rather than using disk images.

make sure you have a #8 size torx driver before you install!

[~bash $]

In my totally subjective, complete invalid, and incredibly anecdotal experience, 7200 RPM drives don't really offer the kind of performance gains compared to the jump from 4200 -> 5400 RPM.

[carillonator]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to report that I bought a 250-gig WD Passport (5400 rpm) at Best Buy for $150, successfully swapped it for the 120G in my mid-2007 2.2Ghz Macbook Pro. Works beautifully and took no more than an hour. My old Fujistu drive fit right back into the Passport enclosure.

First, using Disk Utility, I formatted the WD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), set the partition scheme as GUID (in Partitions > Options button), used the restore function to clone the present drive to the new external via USB. Did the surgery using the great guide from iFixit, though the last steps of removing the HD were slightly different. Booted up to the new drive and everything was perfect. Ran restore permissions, but it didn't have anything to fix.

I'm ecstatic!! Let me know if anyone has questions about the process, I highly recommend it.

[Waragainstsleep]

Well the senior employee in question was an engineer. And he was absolutely certain. However, you are correct that if you remove the drive before service, they will never know.
I have actually installed a 7200rpm, apple-branded 100GB drive in my own MacBook. Its fine so far and doesn't run any warmer than a 5400. Logically, faster spinning drives should be at least a little warmer than a slower equivalent, though I guess the extra movement could provide extra cooling too. They certainly use more power which also implies more heat unless they are somehow more efficient. Maybe they are. Mine is OK at any rate. Go nuts.

[Wavshrdr]

Originally Posted by carillonator 

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to report that I bought a 250-gig WD Passport (5400 rpm) at Best Buy for $150, successfully swapped it for the 120G in my mid-2007 2.2Ghz Macbook Pro. Works beautifully and took no more than an hour. My old Fujistu drive fit right back into the Passport enclosure.

Great forum here. I just bought one of these drives and I'd like to swap it out as well. Any tips on how to open the enclosure on the Passport without busting it up? I tried tugging it apart but I want to try and salvage the enclosure so I can use it for my old drive. Thanks for any help!

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Well the senior employee in question was an engineer. And he was absolutely certain. However, you are correct that if you remove the drive before service, they will never know.

I work at an authorized Apple repair center, and our technicians don't give a **** as long as the installation wasn't obviously botched.

[chabig]

That makes perfect sense. I've replaced hard drive in iBooks before (not supposed to be user-replaceable parts) and subsequently had warranty service performed on the same machine without hassle.

Chris

[nickw311]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I work at an authorized Apple repair center, and our technicians don't give a **** as long as the installation wasn't obviously botched.

Do you work at an Official Apple Store or is it an independent repair center? It seems to me that the employees are much more up tight at Official Apple Stores.

[0157988944]

CompUSA is a authorized Apple Repair center. 'Nuff said.

[analogika]

Only about four "Official" Apple Stores exist outside the United States. 'Nuff said.

[tycheung]

considering apple has posted documentation on how to replace the HD, it's probably OK from a warranty standpoint. The user replaceeable HD bay is probably one of the greatest things about this particular design.

there was a thread regarding brands of HD's a while back - i think the general principles arE:

1) have a good backup system - I backup to a pair of external firewire drives and with drive prices and Leopard being the way they are, no excuse not to. This lessens the angst of which brand is better.

2) perusing all the hardware review sites, I basically just focused on which drives used less power and heat. WD seems to be generally OK, but I really liked the heat/power consumption numbers on the current crop of Hitachi and Samsung drives so I went with them for this round. You're not going to be setting world speed records on the Macbook so I focused on the parameters that (in my ind at least) maximizes the Macbook's strengths and seems to be the more relevant numbers on reliability. this also answered my 5400 vs 7200 question - you're not going to be crunching huge quantities of digital video on the Macbook, and 5400's offer pretty damn good performance anyway for a cheaper price and less power so I just went with the 5400. If you have to ask 7200 vs 5400, you probably shouldn't be using a macbook and should upgrade to the Mac or Macbook Pro.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by tycheung 

this also answered my 5400 vs 7200 question - you're not going to be crunching huge quantities of digital video on the Macbook, and 5400's offer pretty damn good performance anyway for a cheaper price and less power so I just went with the 5400. If you have to ask 7200 vs 5400, you probably shouldn't be using a macbook and should upgrade to the Mac or Macbook Pro.

I was working with video on my Power Mac 6100 back in 1994. I don't think it's anything improper or unusual to use a "non-pro" Mac today to do things the slower, less powerful macs of yesteryear were already doing. Sure, if your business is video, etc., then you might go for a Mac Pro or a MacBook Pro, but that doesn't mean that those of us who can't justify the expense can't be aware of performance and won't want to make the most of our Macs.

Anyway, I just got a MacBook myself. I like the Hitachi drives myself. A Hitachi is the highest rated of the large capacity drives on NewEgg. I'm between the 250GB 5200 HD and the 200GB 7200 HD. Heat does concern me, and numbers aside, I'm wondering how much of a real-world difference it would mean to me. Then again, I wish there were larger capacity drives out there for notebooks and maybe I can make do with the 120GB drive for a while and wait till there are larger faster and more bigger storage options out there to choose from.

I'm coming from an eMac with a custom-installed 160GB drive that's running out of space right now, but to be fair, it's a few unfinished video projects that are taking up a good portion of that space. When I finish, throw away the extra footage and compress the video, it should go back to being a spacious drive, and I could simply employ an additional external HD for such projects. But I've really got no idea when say, 320 or 500GB 5200 or 7200 RPM drives will be available in the 2.5" format, so I'm on the fence now.

[mduell]

Look at storagereview.com for 200G/7200R vs 250G/5400R benchmarks (synthetic and application).

320GB/5400R drives were released last month... most other brands (HP/Sony/Toshiba/etc) are already shipping them, although I haven't seen the drives for sale anywhere.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Look at storagereview.com for 200G/7200R vs 250G/5400R benchmarks (synthetic and application).

Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by mduell 

320GB/5400R drives were released last month... most other brands (HP/Sony/Toshiba/etc) are already shipping them, although I haven't seen the drives for sale anywhere.

That's very good news! I suppose that means we'll be seeing the trickle out in the next few months, which only strengthens my inclination to wait a bit before buying. What I really liked about that 200GB Hitachi drive was the 16MB buffer. I wish more notebook hard drives had these, vs. the more common 8MB.

[Gamoe]

BTW, I have heard it say that 2.5" drives are not quite as resilient as their 3.5" big brothers. If this is the case, now that I'm moving to a notebook Mac, I'm wondering if it's wise to leave my Mac on 24x7 as I did my desktop Mac and continue running BOINC, folding@home and other distributed computing projects.

Will this reduce the MacBook's or internal HD's lifespan, practically speaking?-- Obviously, if it would cause it to fail in say 10 years, instead of 15, it's not much of a concern, but what about 4 or 5 years down the road?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Gamoe 

BTW, I have heard it say that 2.5" drives are not quite as resilient as their 3.5" big brothers. If this is the case, now that I'm moving to a notebook Mac, I'm wondering if it's wise to leave my Mac on 24x7 as I did my desktop Mac and continue running BOINC, folding@home and other distributed computing projects.

Will this reduce the MacBook's or internal HD's lifespan, practically speaking?-- Obviously, if it would cause it to fail in say 10 years, instead of 15, it's not much of a concern, but what about 4 or 5 years down the road?

The service life for laptop drives is 5 years, 20,000 power on hours, or 600k load/unload cycles (whichever comes first), assuming 80% of POH at idle. Laptop drives have a much higher incidence of single cycle failure due to shock than desktop drives because they get banged around a lot more. Distributed computing has little to no impact on the hard drive, but most laptop users don't run it because the heat is uncomfortable.

[chabig]

Nobody would suggest you leave your laptop on 24/7. It will go to sleep after a period of inactivity.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by chabig 

Nobody would suggest you leave your laptop on 24/7.

I do. It's really not a problem.