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Inkreef · Jan 31, 2008, 11:40 AM

Hi, I'm about to purchase a new WD 250GB external drive (WD Passport), and I was wondering if it was possible to use it as an internal drive. I know it is really easy to extract the HD from its casing, but is the HD SATA and compatible with my MacBook ?

Thanks,
Inkreef

mduell · Jan 31, 2008, 07:32 PM

Maybe; the internal bus for the hard drive is a crapshoot. But why bother? Buy a 250GB drive and a USB (or FW enclosure) for your old one and you'll probably save money.

$150 for 250GB SATA laptop drive + $10-25 for a USB enclosure or $35 for a USB+Firewire enclosure.

butterfly0fdoom · Jan 31, 2008, 09:19 PM

It is. I did the same transplant a month ago. My dad was the one that took apart the Passport (he has more technical skill than I do), but he said it was rather easy.

Cadaver · Jan 31, 2008, 11:07 PM

Transplanted the 160GB drive from a WD Passport in to my wife's MacBook. Works great.

Inkreef · Feb 1, 2008, 01:05 AM

@mduell: Thanks for the idea, but Costco (Canada) sells the WD 250GB Passport for 155$ CAN, which is a freakin' deal, assuming you get a 250GB + WD USB enclosure.

I'll try the operation this week, and post results as soon as I get it to work.

magicbumone · Feb 1, 2008, 08:42 PM

It works! I did it to my macbook last month works perfect and nice thing is you put your old hard drive in the WD case and you got a nice little portable hard drive as well. Trying to get the hard drive out of WD case is a little tricky though but should not take more than 15min to get the case open.

kerosen · Feb 2, 2008, 06:25 AM

I did the same and it worked... but slower. I've measured the boot up time and with the Scorpio 250Gb was twice as with the original Hitachi 120Gb.
Here is the post, check the end of it.
http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-noteb...0gb-hard-disk/
I've ended up put them back to where they belongs.

romeosc · Feb 3, 2008, 09:54 AM

BB has the WD 250 GB for $99!

Western Digital - Passport 250GB External Hard Drive - Pink - WDXMSE2500TN

ghporter · Feb 3, 2008, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by romeosc

BB has the WD 250 GB for $99!

Western Digital - Passport 250GB External Hard Drive - Pink - WDXMSE2500TN

The sale price on that has to be because the enclosure is PINK! Oh my!

So for $99 you get a 250GB drive AND a pink enclosure you can hide somewhere... Still sounds like a deal to me!

iREZ · Feb 3, 2008, 11:53 AM

im really eying this external pink drive for my mbp, can anybody give me any reason not to use the hd linked (pink wd passport) in my macbook pro?

due to an accident to my comp, i only have a 60gb drive inside currently and have been looking for a steal to upgrade and this looks like it might be perfect (long as it doesn't make my mbp slow up to the point of frustration).

Blizzake · Feb 3, 2008, 08:17 PM

i am interested in doing this also.

now if i time machine my computer, and then put a new drive it, can i just bring it back to its current state, but with the bigger drive in it?

mduell · Feb 3, 2008, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by Blizzake

now if i time machine my computer, and then put a new drive it, can i just bring it back to its current state, but with the bigger drive in it?

Yes, although CCC/SD/dd is a faster way to achieve the same end result.

Blizzake · Feb 3, 2008, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Yes, although CCC/SD/dd is a faster way to achieve the same end result.

ccc/sd/dd????

mfbernstein · Feb 3, 2008, 09:08 PM

Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper and a command line app called dd. SuperDuper doesn't fully support Leopard though, so that leaves Carbon Copy Cloner as the easiest and (IMO) best option.

Blizzake · Feb 3, 2008, 09:09 PM

thanks, now to read up on ripping the drive out of this thing. 120gb is just not enough

edit geez thats easy

YouTube - Macworld - MacBook Battery Bay (2)

will it also do my xp partition?

i might just do a fresh install, hmmm

mduell · Feb 3, 2008, 10:25 PM

dd will do your XP, CCC may do your XP.

ort888 · Feb 4, 2008, 07:00 PM

So how are these new 320 gig 2.5" hard drives? Any reason not to put one in a Macbook?

Blizzake · Feb 4, 2008, 07:48 PM

i just got one at best buy

for 180 clams. the pink wd is now 209 again so for 180 it has 320gb. not bad. ill report back later when im up and running with a fresh install

Blizzake · Feb 4, 2008, 09:20 PM

DONE! up and running with a fresh install of leopard showing 283gb available

Simon · Feb 5, 2008, 04:07 AM

CCC and SD are bound to get you into trouble. There's no need for expensive (at least in the case of SD) third-party apps when it's all already built into the OS.

/Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility > Restore

One-click cloning that's guaranteed to be 100% Leopard compatible.

Of course if you already have your old disk backed up with TM there's no need to clone. Install the new disk, boot with the install DVD and use MA to copy the TM backup onto your new disk. Reboot and done.

romeosc · Feb 5, 2008, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by iREZ

im really eying this external pink drive for my mbp, can anybody give me any reason not to use the hd linked (pink wd passport) in my macbook pro?

due to an accident to my comp, i only have a 60gb drive inside currently and have been looking for a steal to upgrade and this looks like it might be perfect (long as it doesn't make my mbp slow up to the point of frustration).

The white & Black are same price. I bought 1 of each! To be able to pick up right Files by sight!

CMYKid · Feb 5, 2008, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Blizzake

i just got one at best buy

for 180 clams. the pink wd is now 209 again so for 180 it has 320gb. not bad. ill report back later when im up and running with a fresh install

I'm not sure of the speed of that drive but Best Buy right now is selling the 200GB Hitachi external drive for $119, less with easily available coupons online. If you pay attention to the serial number on the bottom of the package the ones that begin with DTG are 7200rpm drives. Anything else is the advertised 5400rpm but the DTGs are definitely faster. Putting it in my MBP.

If you're gonna recycle your internal as an external anyway then you'd have to buy a case and now you have one.

iREZ · Feb 5, 2008, 04:49 PM

Links? for both the coupons and the item you mentioned.

CMYKid · Feb 5, 2008, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

Links? for both the coupons and the item you mentioned.

The drive isnt any special deal, just a general advertised sale price. It was in the Sunday adverts, or you could look on their site.

Discussion on specs here

Various coupons

Other coupons, etc etc

romeosc · Feb 5, 2008, 05:31 PM

The $99 deal for the WD 250GB is no longer available! They pulled it after 1 day.... sold too many I guess! I got 5 total and picked up and tried to get the 2 additional for friends and BB wouldn't honor price even though they were in stock. Glad I paid by CC!

Blizzake · Feb 6, 2008, 12:51 AM

well day 2 with my 320gb drive and its great. its a great upgrade

DCJ001 · Feb 6, 2008, 01:19 AM

I got this because of the 7200 RPM and the low price. I don't need a bigger HD than this:

HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 0A50940 Hard Drive Bulk at ZipZoomfly

I also got this to put the 80 GB drive that came with my MacBook in:

- Free Shipping: 2.5" Serial ATA (SATA) Notebook Hard Drive to USB 2.0 Aluminum External Enclosure : EMST25 (Retail, Silver)

CMYKid · Feb 6, 2008, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by DCJ001

I got this because of the 7200 RPM and the low price. I don't need a bigger HD than this:

HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 0A50940 Hard Drive Bulk at ZipZoomfly

Yep, thats what was in the one I bought at Best Buy for $100 bucks. Just reused the case it came in, its an easy open.

Like it so far, it's slightly noisier than the stock Fujitsu but once mdworker finished indexing its noticeably faster.

I just hooked it up via USB as an external, used CCC to copy the startup and then swapped drives and booted normally.

iREZ · 12:32 PM

is the following safe to pop out and install in my macbook pro? not sure if its ata or sata inside.

Amazon.com: Western Digital 160GB 2.5-inch Passport USB Portable Hard Drive: Electronics

i really wanna upgrade my internal hard drive and wouldnt mind having an external case to boot, or is it better to just find something at new egg?

Blizzake · Feb 10, 2008, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

is the following safe to pop out and install in my macbook pro? not sure if its ata or sata inside.

Amazon.com: Western Digital 160GB 2.5-inch Passport USB Portable Hard Drive: Electronics

i really wanna upgrade my internal hard drive and wouldnt mine having an external case to boot, or is it better to just find something at new egg?

look around, you can find a bigger hard drive for a few bucks more.

iREZ · Feb 11, 2008, 12:33 PM

i know i could find bigger, that wasn't my question...i just want assurance that the drive within that enclosure is indeed a serial-ata.

iREZ · Feb 11, 2008, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

i know i could find bigger, that wasn't my question...i just want assurance that the drive within that enclosure is indeed a serial-ata.

i sound like a pompous ass and spreading the ill that i get from a lousy day at work.

what i meant to say is that i'm pretty good at finding low prices on the net and i know i could larger drives for a few pennies more but my question is if all passport drives have a sata drive within em, like the one i posted.

Blizzake · Feb 13, 2008, 12:45 AM

WD Scorpio 160GB 2.5-inch 8MB Cache SATA Internal Hard Drive - $81.49 - Buy.com - GottaDeal.com

thats the drive that is in there. they are in the same case, so personally i would make the assumption that its a sata drive.

good luck

Xarthan · Feb 13, 2008, 03:18 AM

I saw a 320GB one for 150 bucks on buy.com

iREZ · Feb 14, 2008, 06:17 PM

YEP! i saw that deal too and wanted in but alas the boards took too long to answer and i didnt wanna risk it. oh well...good to know, ill be waiting for another deal with my eyes peeled. thanks guys.

romeosc · Feb 14, 2008, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

YEP! i saw that deal too and wanted in but alas the boards took too long to answer and i didnt wanna risk it. oh well...good to know, ill be waiting for another deal with my eyes peeled. thanks guys.

Check out deals at:

Hot Deals - SlickDeals.net Forums

some disappear within hours:

Blizzake · Feb 21, 2008, 09:47 PM

fyi, the 320gb drive is on sale at best buy for 149! i got my price difference credit today.

acoustix · Feb 22, 2008, 12:28 AM

Anybody have experience with the Samsung HM160Hi HDD's in MacBooks?

iREZ · Feb 22, 2008, 02:14 AM

some pretty good deals on sata drives

Dell : DELL 200 GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA Internal Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor for Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop : System Drives : Home & Home Office

Toshiba HDDR250I02X 250GB 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive - 5400, 8MB, SATA-150, Retail at TigerDirect.com

i picked up the 250 seeing how id rather have the storage than speed, enjoy y'all

hokie17 · Feb 22, 2008, 06:01 AM

I picked up two 320GB drives at Best Buy. One to use as an external, the other I ripped out of the case and put in my MBP to replace it's 120GB drive. The original MBP drive went into the enclosure to be another external drive.

tripletaker · Feb 22, 2008, 01:37 PM

320GB for $145.00 + tax from Dell with free shipping!

Guy Kuo · Feb 24, 2008, 05:07 AM

I also put the 320 GB WD Passport's drive in my MacBook. The case works fine with the old drive.

notlad · Feb 27, 2008, 10:54 AM

I bought the 250gig WD passport yesterday (white enclosure). Swapping out the drive and restoring from time machine worked just fine. However I had previously upgraded my internal drive to a 160gig. This drive would not work with the enclosure. I then decided to try the original 60gig drive that came with my macbook and that didn't work in the enclosure either. The 250gig that came with it worked fine in both my computer and the external enclosure. Any ideas why?

romeosc · Feb 27, 2008, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by notlad

I bought the 250gig WD passport yesterday (white enclosure). Swapping out the drive and restoring from time machine worked just fine. However I had previously upgraded my internal drive to a 160gig. This drive would not work with the enclosure. I then decided to try the original 60gig drive that came with my macbook and that didn't work in the enclosure either. The 250gig that came with it worked fine in both my computer and the external enclosure. Any ideas why?

Double check that none of the pins are bent

notlad · Feb 27, 2008, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by romeosc

Double check that none of the pins are bent

since its SATA there aren't any pins that can get bent. it just has a big slot. i'm guessing the drives aren't getting enough power. i may just buy another external enclosure later today.

Guy Kuo · Mar 12, 2008, 07:04 AM

Could also be a power requirement problem. I have another WD drive transplanted back into the WD passport case, and it works fine. The reason I'm thinking about a power requirement issue is that the WD case only uses a single mini-USB cable to power it. That is great for convenience and I really prefer just a single cable, however my MCE Mobilestore eSata/USB portable case needs TWO connections to power it properly. One USB terminates into the power connector. The other into the mini-USB jackt. If I use just the mini-USB jack, some drives won't work properly due to insufficient power.

If this is indeed a power issue in the Passport enclosure, you can take it two different ways.

1. It's a good thing because that means the WD drive we have in our MacBooks must do well with lower power
2. It's a bad thing because you can't re-use the enclosure for any old drive.