Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > MacBook Pro - What is the largest HDD I put in my MacBook Pro 15"?

MacBook Pro - What is the largest HDD I put in my MacBook Pro 15"?
Thread Tools
Ruf993Turbo
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 28, 2008, 08:40 AM
 
I need a lot of storage for my MacBook Pro 2.16ghz 15". It currently has the 160gb HDD, but I need at least 250gb (I only have 20gb left). The reason being, I convert my whole CD collection and some of my favorite DVD's over to the laptop and it is part of my home theater system (seperate components; ie. Classe, Krell, Wilson, B&W).

So I was wondering if the Western Digital 320gb Scorpio would work if I just swap it out of my current drive? Also, what type of HDD does the MBP use? From what I've read, it seems like it's SATA, but will SATA2 also work? I might also consider going with a smaller (around 250gb) HDD that runs at 7200RPM and then adding an 1TB external HDD using firewire.

And also, do you guys know any software out there that I can just duplicate my current drive over to the new drive so I don't have to repload leopard and all my softwares? I know there are some, but if I can get your inputs about the best ones out there to use, I'd appreciate it. Thank you in advance for any help you guys can provide!
     
Sherman Homan
Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 28, 2008, 09:03 AM
 
Welcome aboard! Your MacBook will take that Scorpio drive, it will take any 2.5 inch SATA drive. The bus is the original 1.5 Gbps, but SATA2 drives will work. You are going to need to figure out some way to move the existing data to the new drive. For what is worth, I would get an external enclosure, use plain old Disk Utility -- Restore to move the data. Then you can use your old drive in the new enclosure for back up.
     
mduell
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 28, 2008, 01:57 PM
 
Your MacBook Pro will take most 2.5" SATA drives. It will not take 12.5mm tall drives, but those are usually clearly marked. There are no SATA2 drives; SATA2 is a committee, not a drive standard.

Any of these three drives will work, I'd recommend the WD.
     
iampivot
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 29, 2008, 03:46 AM
 
From the tests at Toms hardware I draw the conclusion that while the WD is really fast, it's also a bit power hungry. The Samsung seems to be the overall best choice if you also consider power draw, since it's almost as fast as the WD.
     
hokie17
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 1, 2008, 06:01 PM
 
I've taken the 320GB drive out of a WD PassPort (which was on sale at Best Buy for $149) and put it in my MBP. Works perfectly!
Al MB 2.4GHz 2GB DDR3
     
solar servant
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: AZ
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 2, 2008, 11:08 AM
 
I put a 250gb Hitachi travelstar in my 2.16 MBP C2D and it is very noisy, clunking to sleep all the time, and now I'm wasting a lot of time trying to quiet it down. Thumbs down on HItachi.
     
bballe336
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: MA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 2, 2008, 05:04 PM
 
I've always had very good luck with western digital drives. And while the western digital drives may cost a few dollars more than some of the competing drives they are consistently the fastest, quietest, and most reliable drives (at least in my experience). Also the 320gig western digital passport external is available for as little as $140 at best buy sometimes, you can just pull the drive out and swap it into the MBP, and that's actually cheaper than buying just the drive.

Note: I am not saying that other drives are not quality drives, I just tend to have the best luck with the western digitals.
     
iampivot
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 2, 2008, 05:13 PM
 
What sort of battery time do you get with the 320GB WD drive? (And with which MBP? SR?)
     
TailsToo
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Westside Island
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 2, 2008, 09:13 PM
 
I didn't notice any difference in battery life with my MBP after I put in a WD 250GB drive.
     
TravisReynolds
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Seattle
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 3, 2008, 02:03 AM
 
After looking on MacSales it seems to me that 3250GB is the Max you can have on your MBP
From the one, and Only Travis Reynolds. You stay classy San Diego
     
Pao|o
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 6, 2008, 06:02 PM
 
i think there are already 500GB notebook drive available
     
bishopazrael
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 6, 2008, 08:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by Pao|o View Post
i think there are already 500GB notebook drive available
WTF? Where? I must know. My torrentz folder demands an answer!
Backups are like guns and condoms. It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
     
mduell
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 6, 2008, 08:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by Pao|o View Post
i think there are already 500GB notebook drive available
They've been announced, and there are a few laptops (Fujitsu LifeBook N6460/70, HP DV9750US) you can get with them, but I haven't seen retail availability anywhere yet.
     
silver
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Bunch Of Islands in The Pacific
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 6, 2008, 10:06 PM
 
Samsung started shipping there 500GB to OEM's this week, so we should be seeing it very soon for the mainstream.

Also from what I read Samsung's drive is 9.5mm and 5400rpm, the other drives Fujistu and Hitachi are too big 12.5mm. Also the Fujitsu spins at 4200 as opposed to 5400rpm like the Samsung and Hitachi.

Samsung first to ship 500GB Laptop Hard Drive


Cheers
 MBP 17" 2.16ghz, ATI x1600 256, 100GBHD, 2GB ram, 23"AppleLCD
     
Ruf993Turbo  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 8, 2008, 07:58 AM
 
Thanks for the reply guys. I've been reading up and at 7200rpm vs 5400rpm, there's no much of a difference so I would rather have the larger capacity drive vs. the faster RPM drive which has only 200GB storage space. Can someone who has taken the drive out of the WD Passport please verify if it is indeed the Scorpio that's inside the unit or another line? It'd be very helpful. The WD website doesn't say, but from other sites that I've read, it is 5400rpm correct? I just want to verify it, because I don't want to be stuck with 4200rpm drive with 320GB of storage. Anyone has any other recommendation for drives 300GB+ that does have this feature and at least 5400rpm, I haven't found any really with those specs at 2.5" SATA.

I do have a question for you guys. Do you guys know what I need to do to format the external drive and clear it before I clone it? Or should I just leave it as it is and clone it since it's already an external drive? I'm just wondering how much memory is already taken up when WD setup the Passport to be an external drive. It shouldn't be much...Just want to know what you guys did? I found the Passport 320GB locally for $130 so I think I'll pick it up tomorrow and do the switch, I won't need 500GB for prob 6months or so and by then, the price should drop the the 500GB ($299 when it gets released at the end of the month I believe) and I'll put the Passport back together for external drive use.

If you guys are wondering why I don't just get an external HDD, I have (3) 1TB external drives so 3TBs networked throughout my house and on top of that a couple of other externals that adds up to be another ~4TB (including my 2 HTPCs at 1TB each). I'm a big audio/videophile and so I transfer in and out music and movies/videos a lot because my HD on my Mac is so small and I use this MBP purely for personal purpose when I travel for both business/travel. Again, thank you for all your help.
( Last edited by Ruf993Turbo; Mar 8, 2008 at 08:19 AM. )
     
Ruf993Turbo  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 9, 2008, 02:21 AM
 
OK, it's done. Did it with out a hitch. Took me about 30min from start to finish to open up the laptop and take off the keyboard (since it's a MacBook Pro and not regular Macbook), so I basically had to take the computer apart. Good thing though, I got the WD Passport 320GB for $97.xx w/ tax (they rang it up for $99 and I also used my 10% AAA membership card). Here's a screenshot:




I took photos of the inside of the laptop as well when I opened it up. I will post those up later. Thanks for all your help guys!
     
bishopazrael
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 9, 2008, 10:52 PM
 
Where did you get a 320gb hdd for $100?
Backups are like guns and condoms. It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
     
Ruf993Turbo  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 9, 2008, 11:37 PM
 
I got it at Circuit City on Sat the 7th. I came back to get another one for my cousin and the same rep said she rang up the price of the 160gb by accident, that's why. So I got him one for $135 with PM from bestbuy and a 10% print out from AAA as a member, they have CC listed as one of their retailers...
     
Ruf993Turbo  (op)
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Mar 30, 2008, 08:05 AM
 
I guess I forgot to include the screenshot pic. I've been really lucky with circuit city and their pricing. A couple of months ago, they had a deal for the 46" Sony Bravias but the one by me had a price error and it was even lower. I ended up getting (2) 46" KDL-46V3000 for around $950 each and (2) 46" KDL-46W3000 for around $1150, they only had 2 of each left in stock or else I would of gotten more. And no, I did not buy to resale so please do not bash me about it and saying I didn't give others the opportunity, I replaced all the 1080i's in my house with them. I paid cash so that they can't recharge my card, glad I did because the manager called me the next day and tried to get me to pay the difference or return them. I didn't feel too bad because it was their own mistake and they weren't going to be personally responsible for the price difference. Both were the new Bravia 1080P models. Then I got some other electronics, like 3 brand new Monster Power HTS 5100 MKII, these go for $400-500 on Ebay and MSRP is like $700 I believe, I saw them laying on the clearance table with no price tag and I asked an employee and he told me $119!! Then a few weeks later, I found a Monster Power Signature Series HTPS 7000 MKII for $369. If you guys don't know, that is their top of the line unit and they sell for $1499. Also about a month or so later, I dropped by and found the Samsung LN-T4669F(X), I saw the display at CompUSA and was amazed at the picture in 24p/120hz), so I was there to buy one expecting to pay their retail price which was around $2600-2700 I believe (MSRP $2999). The young lady that rang me up said, "your total is $1399.xx, oh and you also get a free wall mount bracket and HDMI cable since this week we're giving them away with any TV purchases over $999). I was shocked but had to keep my cool hoping she didn't go double check the pricing. She rang up the tv for $1289 before taxes! Glad it was a younger girl because I'm sure she didn't know much about those things so she didn't go double check to make sure the price was correct.

So now I'm always dropping by Circuit City to see if there's any pricing errors. The managers pretty much know me there now and it seems they're always watching me when I go to the register to pay, so now I always take a friend and we split up and I just tell them what to check on for me. I guess the one local to me just has really bad management and employees who don't pay much attention. When I got my TVs, I posted the receipt on another forum and everyone when to their Circuit City with a print out and actually got a price match! When I start posting the deals and my receipt copies, I highly recommend you find a younger female employee who does not seem knowledgeable about that stuff, it'll make it a lot less complicated. I hope this doesn't make me look bad to you guys. The way I see it, if management can't do their job right and train their employees right, I shouldn't be responsible for it. Plus, it doesn't affect those people personally or it'd be a different story. So I will start posting on here about deals I see there if you guys would like me to.

Sorry to rant and go off topic, but I love sharing good deals with others electronic/computer enthusiasts like myself and also love to find out about good deals from anyone who have any to share. I also decided to copy and paste this post on another mac related forum. I was just too lazy to rewrite everything Anyways, here's a screenshot of the upgraded HD on my MBP:

( Last edited by Ruf993Turbo; Mar 30, 2008 at 05:21 PM. )
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:58 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,