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Nergol · Aug 19, 2008, 02:42 PM

So, just to make absolutely sure I buy the right thing, if I want a new internal HD for my first-generation MacBook, I should get an EIDE drive, and NOT a SATA drive, correct?

Thanks so much.

Simon · Aug 19, 2008, 02:45 PM

No, you want SATA for a MB.

Nergol · Aug 19, 2008, 03:05 PM

Oh wow. So I heard that MacBooks choke on SATA II drives unless some jumper is set right on it. Is that true?

Thanks again!

seanc · Aug 19, 2008, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by Nergol

Oh wow. So I heard that MacBooks choke on SATA II drives unless some jumper is set right on it. Is that true?

Thanks again!

I haven't heard that either. Where did you hear this?

Simon · Aug 19, 2008, 04:30 PM

There is no such thing as a SATA II drive. It's a misnomer. SATA II is a committee that specified extensions to the original SATA specs.

Just buy a 2.5" SATA HDD for your MB and you'll be fine.

Nergol · Aug 19, 2008, 08:10 PM

I haven't heard that either. Where did you hear this?

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...80215072351407

If you want to use some of the new 2.5" SATA hard disks in your MacBook (or Mac mini for that matter), you'll notice that they do not show up in Disk Utility, and that you cannot even format them. They will work externally as a USB device, but will not show up when used internally. That's because the newer drives are SATA II (or SATA 2) and their higher "transfer rates" are not compatible with the Intel ICH7-M AHCI (which only support up to 1.5 GHz) used in the MacBook and Mac mini.

To be able to use your new 250GB or even 320GB drive, you have to put a jumper on the two leftmost pins (when viewed from the front, meaning the other connector pins are on the right hand side). This worked for me on a Samsung 250GB drive, as well as a Toshiba MK3252GSX 320GB drive.

Is it wrong?

mduell · Aug 19, 2008, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

There is no such thing as a SATA II drive. It's a misnomer. SATA II is a committee that specified extensions to the original SATA specs.

Originally Posted by Nergol

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...80215072351407

If you want to use some of the new 2.5" SATA hard disks in your MacBook (or Mac mini for that matter), you'll notice that they do not show up in Disk Utility, and that you cannot even format them. They will work externally as a USB device, but will not show up when used internally. That's because the newer drives are SATA II (or SATA 2) and their higher "transfer rates" are not compatible with the Intel ICH7-M AHCI (which only support up to 1.5 GHz) used in the MacBook and Mac mini.

To be able to use your new 250GB or even 320GB drive, you have to put a jumper on the two leftmost pins (when viewed from the front, meaning the other connector pins are on the right hand side). This worked for me on a Samsung 250GB drive, as well as a Toshiba MK3252GSX 320GB drive.

Is it wrong?

There are some combinations of SATA controllers and drives that won't work or won't work well together unless the drive is set (via jumper) for 1.5Gb/s, but I didn't think ICH7M was one of the controllers affected. Either way all drives that support 3.0Gb/s should have a jumper to force them to 1.5Gb/s and it's not hard to do; usually jumper on for 3.0Gb/s and off for 1.5Gb/s, so just pull the jumper off.

Simon · Aug 20, 2008, 03:04 AM

As others have mentioned you can buy any drive and still change the jumper setting later if necessary.

bpl323 · Aug 20, 2008, 04:59 PM

Didn't some iBooks even use SATA.

seanc · Aug 20, 2008, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by bpl323

Didn't some iBooks even use SATA.

None. All IDE.

Simon · Aug 21, 2008, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by seanc

None. All IDE.

That is correct. SATA arrived to portable Macs with the Intel switch.

On desktop Macs SATA came with the G5. IIRC the only exception was the EDU-only iMac G5 that still had a PATA disk.