[hart]

OK, I'm going to replace the hard drive on a late 2007 macbook. But first I have to buy one. The existing drive is 80GB so most available drives are going to be an upgrade from that. I have a $50 max budget. Less is better since cheap rather than performance and space is the main issue here. So first question: is any 2.5" SATA drive going to work here or are there variables I'm not getting. (I'm looking at OWC right now and there don't seem to be.) Any recommendations on what to purchase?

And here's the main nooby question: will I have to remove the old drive from the metal tray/caddy that it is contained in (apparently using a #8 or #9 torx screwdriver as per various links on web) and put the new drive into the caddy? Images of drives show the disks exposed to view (as in this: http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Ite...TA_BEVS_S2.jpg ) so I assume that this is true, although the DIY instruction PDF from Apple neglects to mention this crucial step.

Meaning that a drive that I purchase will not look like the smooth metal box I pulled out of the macbook, but it will after I put the caddy on. Am I correct in this?

If I'm missing something here please feel free to tell me anything and everything as this is my first time poking around in the guts of a laptop.

Thanks for your patience.

[Waragainstsleep]

You are correct in that the new drive will look like the old one once the caddy is transferred. You don't technically need to transfer the caddy at all, it merely provides a handle, but if you don't then you will struggle to remove the new drive should you ever wish to without first taking the top case off.

Any 9.5mm high 2.5" SATA drive should work just fine. This covers pretty much all the current range of new drives available up to 640GB. Some of the 750GB and 1TB drives are 12mm high and will not fit, though they would work if they did. $50 should get you a 320GB drive. Shipping might be extra. You are at the bottom of the price range there though.

[hart]

Yes, I know $50 is pretty low end. But it's a school computer and mostly they use it to surf the web and don't store much on it.

[SierraDragon]

Just ask these questions to OWC presales tech support and they will hook you up. Good folks.

-Allen Wicks

[Waragainstsleep]

Thats not really necessary. If you want to buy from OWC (no reason you shouldn't) their site will list what is compatible with your model. Otherwise you have all the info you need above.

[SierraDragon]

What such a call provides is reassurance that one is selecting the most ideal drive for the usage, that one has the correct tools, understands the level of difficulty, etc. I have done many hardware installs and still find it helpful to have the OWC presales folks vet my choices. And sometimes they provide suggestions that I had not thought of.

-Allen

[Waragainstsleep]

Fair enough. I sometimes forget we aren't all certified techs.

[hart]

Yup, not certified tech here. Just clicked on the tech support tab at OWC and they have a lot of stuff there. Very useful link. Thanks.