Hard Disk drive replacement

How difficult is it to replace the internal disk drive in imacs? Is there a handy guide somewhere that someone can point me to? ... Mine's 250GB and it's about full. ... Or is it more prudent to add on an external drive (USB or firewire). If the external drive route, how do I decide what files/applicatios are saved where? (internal vs. external)
Thank you in advance

As Matt mentioned it certainly is possible however unless you are familiar or comfortable doing surgery on complex machines it isn't really recommended. For most people it is much more advisable to get external drives, they are much easier to add. These days if you get a FW 800 drive you can move critical information off the internal drive onto the external drive and really suffer little loss of performance, in most case the performance loss isn't even noticeable. I keep my entire photo, music and video collection on external drives and keep my internal drive pretty much for OS X and minor data files and am perfectly happy with my computers performance.
Regards,
Roger

Similar Messages

Hard disk drive replacements for MacBookPro

Good morning.
I own a MBP, 2.16 Intel Duo Core.
110G (original) hard disk at about 80%; running OS 10.4.11; need to upgrade to 10.5.6 to run iLife 9 for a class at school.
1) Have received disk error -- "Volume Header Needs Minor Repair" Error: underlying task reported failure on exit.
2) Repair from install disk does not correct the problem.
3) Machine is still operational although it has not been shut down either.
4) Since I need additional disk space, why not just upgrade the disk and the OS?
5) Will either of these disk work? and well? why or why not?
-Model ST904304N3; SATA NCQ interface 16MB cache, 320 G
-Model ST3500641AS-RK; 500 G bare bones (?)
6) Any one on the deep south side of chicago (Cal City/Hammond area) work such things?
Thanks

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
Any 2.5" serial ATA (SATA) drive will work. Buying a new hard drive is an option, since the other repair you could try would be to buy Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro, both which cost a little more than a new hard drive.
I usually get my hard drives from Newegg.com, with good prices and good user comments. Here are SATA drives they carry: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380%201035915 133&name=SATA%203.0Gb%2fs . OWC is another source, and here are their drives: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/SATA .
If you want to buy your own drive and have someone else install it, you might consider an Apple Authorized Service Provider. The closest one can be located at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/ . Note Apple stores won't install a drive you bring in, however, generally the authorized service providers will.

G570 hard disk drive replacement

Hello to all fellow Lenovo owners. Recently, my G570 Hard drive crashed. I removed it and will purchase a
new one but desperately need detailed, specific instructions about formatting, partitioning and installing Windows 7
and whatever else is necessary to get up and running. I'm not a techie, but am handy and wiling/able to learn.
Thanks in advance for any help. dcnyr
Solved!
Go to Solution.

hi dcnyr,
I'm very sorry for the confusion,
What I noticed with the scorpio blue is the DCM#
DCM(Drive Configuration Matrix) ex. DCM: HHMTJBK
This holds info about the parts used (components) inside the Harddrive, I don't know how to decode the Details but I believe that's how they differ,
Lenovo FRU (Field replaceable unit) it is like a Tag on the Parts
Lenovo Motherboard have a whitelist of supported FRU numbers.
Let's say you have to replace a defective Wireless card on a Lenovo Motherboard, and youre buying the part from third party resellers, You got the exact same part model, part number and same Brand or manufacturer but the part does not have an FRU tag that matches in your Motherboard's whitelist. It will not work or It will be detected as unsupported.
Sample photo
Hard Drives I believe are not Restricted by a Lenovo Motherboard for FRU, so any would work. as long as it fits the bay and the connectors. also depends on the Maximum capacity/size the motherboard supports.
Thanks
Solid Cruver
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!

Hard Disk Drive Replacement Options

Hi:
I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. Recently it started acting funny and a friend suggested it might be the hard drive. I got a copy of Scannerz to check the drive and about 10 minutes into the scan it started finding problems. I ran Scannerz in diag mode to confirm it wasn't the SATA cable, and it passed that with flying colors. I need a new hard drive.
Here's my dilemma: I'm on a budget. The most I can afford is between $125 to $150 to replace the hard drive. The question is, can I get a decent SSD for this much money?
Before I continue, I should state that I use a dual boot system. I still have a 100GB partition with Snow Leopard on it because I have some old applications that are older PPC applications. They're rarely used, but they do get used a few times a year. The rest of the drive is Mavericks.
I see the following as possible options:
1. Get an SSD that I can split so that I have 2 partitions again. It would need to be at least 256GB, and that's probably pushing it, probably more like 350GB is what I'd like.
2. Just get a hard drive. I've read on here that some of the Hitachi drives are fast for old mechanical drives and they're cheap too. I'd have money left over.
3. Create a Fusion drive with a smallish SSD and a hard drive. Setting it up using an article I read about in CNET doesn't look that hard, but the idea of taking out the optical drive and putting some type of adapter in there to hold either an SSD or HDD just seems a little risky. Also, isn't the speed of the optical drive slower than those of drives? Do I need a new cable if I consider doing this?
4. The Scannerz tech support people said I might want to get a new SATA cable anyway. Any idea why they would say that? They don't sell parts so that obviously wasn't the motivation.
When answering, please keep costs in mind. The total I'm will to spend, absolute max, is $150.
Thank you.

I found the following immediately available locally:
HDD: Hitachi 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" Hard Drive 0S03788 for $53
SSD: Silicon Power S60 120GB Sata III 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD SP120GBSS3S60S25 for $55
SSD: Kingston V300 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD for $60
SSD: SanDisk 128GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"SSD SDSSDP-128G-G25 for $65
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD MZ-75E120B/AM for $70
SSD: OCZ 100 Series 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD ARC100-25SAT3-120G for $65
There are others available, lots actually, but that's what I'm narrowing it down to. I see what one said when saying to check the specs. The Hitachi HDD above clearly states it uses AF format with 512e sectors, but the store also has a 5400RPM unit with a much smaller cache, which I'm assuming is the old one, for just a few dollars less. As you can guess there are a lot more HDDs available at the store but Hitachi seems to have a good reputation and that price is hard to beat.
Now, for SSDs, I get the impression Samsung is well thought of. It seems Apple is putting SanDisk SSDs in some of the MacBook Air's so my assumption is it's a good brand too. OCZ I've read some bad things about. Kingston I'm familiar with from memory sticks but I have no idea how good there SSDs are. There seem to be few people commenting on them. I've never heard of Silicon Power.
Do the prices above look good, or are they too high? Any comments on quality?
RIght now I'm pretty convinced I'm going to go with a dual setup with an SSD to hold the OS then use the HDD as a data drive and to also hold the Snow Leopard partition. This would give me all the space I need.
Another idea is to make a Fusion Drive and leave a part ion on the HDD alone for Snow Leopard. Any comments on this idea?
Thank you all again.

Mac book: hard disk drive: replacement upgrade options

Ive done my reading. Now i would like to know if anyone has had very negative or postive experiences replacing MACBOOK HDs. im interested in the difference in RPMs:54oo vs 72oo. and also the difference in brands. it seems seagate has made a good name for its products, but im also looking at hitachi and western digital. and maybe there is a different company that i dont know about. any experiential knowledge on this topic would be much appreciated.
many thanks
d

hi all,
i have upgraded my factory hd to a seagate momentus 7200 rpm 160GB HD. I would like to use my factory Toshiba 80GB HD as an external HD. from what i can tell i need to get a 2.5" SATA firewire HD enclosure. any suggestions on what kind to get? or where to get it from?
i have only found a couple enclosure that seem to meet these requirements. one at owc and another somewhere else.
but i have read in the forums that people have bought "cheap" enclosures to make their internal hd's external hd's.
i havent found these yet.

Replacing SSD with hard disk drive on Qosmio X505-Q880

Is it possible to replace the SSD drive in a Qosmio X505-Q880 with a hard disk drive? If so what type will work?
Thanks,
Ed

Yes. I just replaced my 60 gig with a Kingston 240gig from Amazon. Re installed Windows 7 Ultimate. I DID NOT use the recovery disk from Toshiba because there were many programs that did not suit my needs, excellent though they were. It runs very fast about 4 times as fast as my old drive.

Replacing hard disk drive

hi,
i need to replace the hard disk drive inside my powerbook 12-inch (g4)... any suggestions on where i can get a good deal on a replacement hard drive? also, a good step by step guide on how to replace the hard disk drive
thanks!
matt

Matthew:
Indicating your location in your Public Profile makes it easier for those who respond to your queries. In addition, identifying your computr by processor speed will also be helpful.
Your computer will support a 2.5" Parallel ATA/IDE Hard Disk Drive. Here is a list of available drives. Use the filters in the sidebar to screen for capacity and manufacturer etc. then select and compare drives, or select the drive you like and Compare prices.
cornelius

Satellite A10 S213 replacement of Hard Disk Drive

My Satellite A10 S213 is equipped with a Hard Disk Drive MK4021GAS HDD2182 B ZE01 S (40 GB) . The Disk is making more and more often loud and strange noises although it works well.
But it will certainly not go on for long.
I would like to replace the Disk Drive with something compatible and if possible with more capacity. Around 100 GB would be fine .
So my question is :
*Does a replacement of the HDD MK4021GAS HDD2182 B ZE01 S with more capacity exist for the Satellite A10 S213 ?*
Thank you for your help.
gh246

Hi
I assume your notebook supports the IDE HDD controller.
Possibly the IDE HDD controller supports only the 28bit LBA which would allows you to use max 120GB HDD.
I think you could install an bigger HDD.

Can I upgrade MacBook Pro hard disk drive next year?

Hi there! I'm new to the Apple Support Communities!
I am going to buy a new 13" MacBook Pro, 2.5GHz. I am going to buy the base model, with a 500GB 5400 RPM hard disk drive. Right now, I can't afford a 256GB solid-state drive, but I'll have enough for one by later next year. So, I will have done some stuff on my Mac by the time I can upgrade it. I know how to install the drive itself, but how do I transfer my information?
Here are the issues:
1) I don't know how I would make it so I could boot from an external USB.
2) And I don't know how to get all my personal information from one drive to the other.
For "2", I think I could back up my Mac to a hard drive with Time Machine, and then restore from a backup. But Time Machine couldn't back up the whole OS, right? And what would the procedure be anyway? Just turn it on when I'm done the upgrade?
If someone who has done this before could provide step-by-step instructions, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Solid-State Me 

Yes you can replace the hard drive at any time. Purchase a replacement drive from any store you like - newegg or mcetech are good stores (among many others) - and when you purchase the new drive, also purchase a drive enclosure. Then download a program called "super duper" and follow the instructions to use that software. When your drive arrives, put the new drive in the enclosure, plug it in to your computer and run "super duper" with the option to "make the drive bootable" and let it finish. What it's doing is copying your drive onto the new drive. Once the copy is finished, you can shut down your computer, remove the drive, install the new one, and put the original drive into the enclosure. Now you have an external hard drive that is repurposed instead of throwing it away. Keep that drive intact for a few weeks without erasing or adding data to be sure you are happy with the new drive and how it performs. After that, use the drive to store files, backup the internal, transfer stuff, whatever.

Dismount multiple external hard disk drives

I have multiple external hard disk drives and was wondering what the command line is that will dismount all of these at once? Note that there is also one external DVD unit as well which I would not want to dismount.
Thanks,
Lyman

diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk"
Just replace replace "/path/to/disk" with the path to the mount point, leaving the quotes.
Good luck!

Intel Xserve will NOT boot from hard disk drive

I have two Intel Xserves 2.0 QC machines
I have tried to re-install version 10.4.11 OS (don't ask) onto a Hard disk drive that is in a Disk drive caddy and inserted in the machine.
When booting from The installation DVD media
The disk is seen by the "Disk Utility" (the disk is partitioned as GUID boot) and the installation proceeds to the disk.
Once the first pass of the installation is complete and the system reboots, the system shows the folder and ? mark.
If I boot and hold "ALT" key to view all avaialble boot options the Hard Disk Drive does NOT appear as valid boot disk.
It does show, the still inserted Installation DVD.
I CAN boot from an external firewire drive and the Hard disk drive is visible to the OS once logged in.
I have tried different caddy postions (left, middle and right)
I have tried bona fide Apple supplied Disk drives
I have tried various different caddies
I have tried installing Operating System 10.5.* and 10.6.8 server
I have run SMC reset and system reset
But still I cannot boot off from any Hard Disk Drive inserted in a caddy at the front of the system.
Has anyone seen this behaviour?
Is it fixable?
Do I have replace something like the Hard Disk Drive back plane circuit board? Or even the main logic board?
I have now run out of ideas and cannot find any help in discussions or just googling.
ANY help would be very appreciated
Regards
Tony

Antonio Hi !
QC = Quad core or QX as it is written on the "pull out" serial number tab at rear of system
I have 3 late 2006 Intel xserves
On my intial posting I declared 2 were 2.0 machines - when I was trying to be concise
2 of the macines are 2.66 systems and 1 is 2.0 system - all are QX machines
the 2.0 and 1 of the 2.66 will NOT boot from the ADM and disk inside the system - whereas the other 2.66 system will.
I have many different Caddies and these have different product/model number labels
603-9965
603-9545
603-9796
these are marked "intel SATA"
The 80Gb was only one of the drives tested - I have used Seagate 400Gb 750Gb and 1Tb - all of which have been used in systems at one time or another
and as I said the drives ARE visible once the operating system (either installation DVD or external firewire are booted from) - they are just NOT visible when the system is searching for boot media.
Thanks for the guide - I will look through that and continue to try and find an answer

Hard disk failure, replaced; how to get songs from iPod back into iTunes

Hard disk failure, replaced with new hard drive etc;
How do I get all songs from iPod back into iTunes?
(mix of CD sourced and iTunes shop sourced)

I can't believe there's no answer to this. Apple wants to charge customers for support but this has got to be happening thousands of times a day what with Windows OS reinstalls being what they are-numerous! Please let me know if/when you get a reply, thx!

Arch: Install to & run from External USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

I wanted to play with ArchLinux 2009.02, but replacing the existing Debian-Lenny on the laptop's HDD wasn't an option. So I experimented with installing Arch on an external USB Hard Disk Drive.
I have tried to make this "newbie-friendly", so I hope the more experienced will forgive the detail.
Materials:
Three year old Dell Inspiron 6000
CPU = 2.0 GHz Pentium
RAM = 2.0 GB
Internal HDD = 80 GB
Internal CD/DVD R/RW
External USB HDD = Freecom FHD-2 Pro 80 GB
Archlinux 2009.02 install CD
Steps to install:
1. I put the Archlinux install CD in the drive and connected the external 80 GB HDD in the USB port.
2. When the Dell laptop was booted, I pressed F2 to enter the BIOS setup. I edited the boot sequence to the following:
Internal CD/DVD
External USB device
Internal HDD
On the Dell, you can also press F12 to select the preferred boot device for that boot.
3. I started the laptop and the Archlinux installation menu came up and I proceeded with installation following the "Official Arch Linux Install Guide" and the "Beginners Guide".
4. Used km to change to UK keyboard layout and then began the installer script (/arch/setup). I was installing from the core CD so I skipped the network steps.
5. HDD preparation.
This was fairly straightforward with two cautions:
(a) Make very sure that the external HDD (sdb) is selected for the operations.
(b) Remember to set the Bootable Flag for the first (/) partition on the HDD.
I chose 20 GB for /, 2 GB for swap and the remainder for /home.
6. The package selection and installation was fairly straightforward.
7. Configuration of System
This was section was straightforward with one warning:
USB had to be added to the HOOKS in the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file!
I found this to be essential for my external USB HDD to function as a bootable device. Otherwise I got the same sorts of errors relating to unrecognisable file system types that other people have reported in the forum.
The relevant line from the end of the edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file is below:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
8. Installation of GRUB was the other point where caution and/or correction was necessary.
When it asked where GRUB should be installed, I had to select sdb (my external USB HDD) and not any of the particular partitions on sdb. If the root partition sdb1 was selected then the laptop won't boot from the external USB HDD.
The GRUB /boot/grub/menu.lst as written by the installation routine specifies hd(1,0) which doesn't work when you try to reboot from the external USB HDD. When you boot Arch from the external USB HDD, as far as Arch is concerned - at that point in time - the external USB HDD is the first drive in the system. To fix this:
(a) When the Arch boot menu comes up, press e to edit the grub entries.
(b) Change the first line to hd(0,0)
(c) To the end of the kernel line add rootdelay=8
(d) Press b to boot the system with these temporary corrections.
(e) Once your Arch system has booted, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the above changes permanent.
The relevant portion of my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like the following:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
9. The laptop happily and consistently boots Arch Linux from the external USB HDD when it's plugged in before startup/booting.
Running Arch from the external USB HDD seems as quick as running Debian from the internal HDD.
So if there is a performance penalty associated with using an external USB HDD, my wife and I haven't noticed.
In summary, the three essential points to address during installation to an external USB HDD are:
Remember to set the bootable flag for the first partition.
Add USB to the HOOKS for /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file.
Correct the /etc/grub/menu.lst file.
I hope this is helpful.
Ted

Hi Rookie,
As you say, it is worth remembering the rootfstype= option for the kernel line just in case someone still has problems with GRUB after making all the other changes.
I was working with the most recent Arch 2009.2 release.
I only got messages about unrecognisable file system type when I tried booting with the "stock" or "as-installed" GRUB (before I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst). After editing /boot/grub/menu.lst to identify the drive correctly and add rootdelay, GRUB was able to do the rest and everything worked OK without any error messages.
Best wishes,
Ted

What hard disk drive should I have to buy and maximum what gb I can upgrade to mid 2011 21.5 inc mac?

what hard disk drive should I have to buy and maximum what gb I can upgrade to mid 2011 21.5 inc mac? Also do you think I can replace myself at home or I need to take specialist?

Hi, I take it you mean the Optical drive?
If so, here's a few...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/

D20 hard disk drive caddy part number?

I';m trying to order a couple of replacement hard disk drive caddy for my D20 as one has split at the handle and another looks like it is about to go.
Does anyone know what the FRU part number is for these? The part I need is the toolless black plastic carrier for 3.5" hard drives.
Thanks very much!
ThinkStations: D10, D20, and S20
ThinkCentres: S50, M51, A61e
ThinkPads: W520, X60T and X61T SXGA+ tablets
Solved!
Go to Solution.

FRU # 41R5630 should get you one or two. if you still need them, i might have a spare kicking around somewhere.
http://www.ibm.com/shop/us/maintenanceparts or 800-388-7080 options 2:1:1 (unless the menu hierarchy has changed).
ThinkStation C20
ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

Hard Disk drive replacement

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for