HP Pavilion Hard Drive Question

Is there any way I can add a second hard drive to my HP Pavilion dv7-3165dvx laptop?  There's a second drive bay, but no connections.

You just need to buy the second hard drive and the connections and you are ready to go. The hard drive can be purchased just about anywhere (Best Buy, Frys, online at newegg.com) and the caddy and connector are available from this company:
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=222&zenid=ca0f815985dbb04...
This is not "official" HP but many, many people have reported full satisfaction on this Forum with their products. They specialize in laptop hard drive caddies and I have been buying stuff from them for years.

Similar Messages

  • K8T Master 2 FAR; Hard Drive Questions About

    Greetings!
    I just got off the Google bus and stubbed my toe on your doorstep.  What luck!
    I have many questions, and it's getting harder to find answers for a mainboard that's not being sold "new" anymore.  I did see some other topics that go along lines similar to my own, but I figured it would be a good idea to open a new thread with my specific questions.
    I have decided to split my questions into three parts.  This is part one, "hard drive" questions.
    HARD DRIVE RELATED:
    Western Digital recently announced a new high-capacity SATA Raptor drive, with 150 GB of storage: 
    1)  Can I mount two of them into my K8T Master 2 FAR system and "hardware stripe" them for Windows/XP?
    ....1A)  If yes, is there a minimum recommended BIOS that I should be running?
    ....1B)  If no, then would it be feasibile to "software stripe" them in Windows/XP Pro?
    If I decide to proceed, I will be well-prepared to accept the risk of data loss that would occur if one drive were to crash.
    I currently run my system with a removable SATA drive caddy for my system drive.  This makes it easy to swap OS's by swapping hard drives without opening my CPU case.  If I go with a dual-striped SATA drive arrangement and two Raptors, then I'll replace that removable caddy with a unit that can accomodate two SATA drives. 
    ....1C)  Once in a blue moon, I get a BSOD after having swapped SATA drives.  It happens when I first boot Windows/XP after having run Linux.  Hot-swappable claims notwithstanding, I always swap drives while the system is powered down, although I don't typically shut off the hardware switch at the power power supply.  Are there any known issues or reports of other people having similar occurrences? 
    I also run some IDE devices for data and archival purposes.  My system is typically set up as follows:
    CH 0/0 - Data drive
    CH 0/1 - DVD burner
    CH 1/0 - Data drive
    CH 1/1 - Data drive
    Recently, my system stopped "seeing" any hard drives on CH 1 drive 1.  Known good drives won't show up in the BIOS, and auto-detect doesn't "see" a drive in that position.  I have tried more than one drive, and the problem stays on that channel and position.  I swapped cables with a known good cable, and the problem stays on that channel and position.  For the time being, I have disconnected one of the data drives...but I'd really like to resolve this issue if possible.
    ....1D)  Are there any known problems or issues with "disappearing IDE devices" in the K8T Master 2 FAR?
    Thanks in advance!

    Can't say, this is the first time I hear about SATA caddies....
    Maybe a bad contact or so?
    Sata is pretty sensitive to connection problems, or even folded cables for that matter...

  • Pavilion dv9429us - hard drive questions

    I have a Pavilion dv9429us laptop with hard drive problems.  Drive 1 is a 120 GB WD that is SATA 1.5Gb/s.  Is the hard drive controller a SATA 1 device - limited to 1.5Gb/s, or is it a SATA 2 device at 3.0Gb/s, allowing me to upgrade to a faster throughput drive (even though the current hard drive is SATA 1)? 
    Also, is there more than one partition on Drive 1 and, if so, what does each contain (for re-creation purposes)?  
    Same question for the 80GB, Drive 2.  And what controls the relationship between Drive 1 and Drive 2 for backup and restoration purposes?
    Thanks for all your help. 

    1) Yes.
    2) They will appear as two individual drives. The only time more than one drive will appear as a single drive is in a RAID implementation.
    3) The simplest wuld be to get yourself a copy of a cloning tool such as SuperDuper!…
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
    … and use that to clone from the factory drive to the new drive. However, I personally feel that you would be better off installing fresh drom the DVDs even though it'll take you a couple of hours longer.
    4) I don't like Migration Assistant and will never recommend using it to anyone so you'll probably need to get an answer from someone who does like it. As for when to install the drive, it's really up to you as before or after is fine. Some like to check that everything's working before they make changes in case it needs to go back or be repaired for whatever reason. Some don't care.

  • Pavilion dv5t-1000 Hard Drive question

    Hello.
    This is probably a simple question but I'd like to know how many internal hard drives does my HP Pavilion dv5t-1000 support: one or two?  The specs I found online for my machine suggested that it can support two drives but I don't immediately see where the second drive would be housed if it does.
    I don't have much experience with taking apart laptops but I was able to upgrade my RAM just fine.  And when I took the HD plate off and lifted up the hard drive housed inside, all I could see was the wireless card underneath and seemingly no room for a second drive.
    So, does my dv5t-1000 laptop only support one hard drive?  And if it should happen to support two drives, where exactly would the second be housed?  I wasn't adventurous enough to take apart my laptop to find out so any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
    I look forward to your helpful responses.
    Thank you,
    winebaron

    Hi,
    The dv5 series really only supports 1 HDD although there are conversion kits available that will allow you to install a second drive in the optical drive bay - an example of this sort of kit is Here.
    Regards,
    DP-K
    ****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
    ****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
    ****I don't work for HP****
    Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

  • Transferring Itunes data and Library to new hard-drive question

    Hello,
    First I want to state that I made a mistake when I transferred my music to a new bigger harddrive. My bad.
    I look here for some guidance, I read this article after the fact: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive so it was too late for me and I got these "!" signs on all my song. I have over 5000 songs (not including podcasts, movie and TV shows.
    I tried to move my library (succesfully) in my new hard drive so I could keep my laptop clean of all music.
    I though I will be clever and replace the target links into the "Itunes Library.xml" and "Itunes music Library.xml" files. Well not so clever because I still have the issue.
    My question: Does anybody knows what else should be done to fix this issue (if fixable)? I would try to avoid linking all my music one at the time by using the "locate" function that ITunes pop up when you try to start a song.
    It is also too bad that you must do it one song at the time, I calculated that if I do 20 songs a day it's going to take me 250 days and more...
    Thanks for any idea/solutions you may have
    Thierry

    I though I will be clever and replace the target links into the "Itunes Library.xml" and "Itunes music Library.xml" files. Well not so clever because I still have the issue.
    iTunes does not use these files.
    They are created only for other apps to access the iTunes library.
    Does anybody knows what else should be done to fix this issue (if fixable)?
    See this -> iTunes Track CPR v1.3
    "This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx). Any correct files found will be added to iTunes and will replace the "dead track" in each playlist it appears in (except Smart Playlists). Most tag data will also be rescued."

  • Internal vs External hard drive question???

    I have a very basic question about OSX and its treatment of drives...
    If I have an external drive (either firewire or SATA using an Express34 card) and I select it, at boot time, as the boot drive, does OSX really treat this drive as if it were the internal drive or is there some underlying difference?
    Is there a difference between an external firewire and an external SATA drive (other than the I/O speed)?
    What I'm getting at is this. I want the ability, using the 'opt+cmd' (or whatever the key seq is) option, at boot time, to select either the internal drive or an external drive to be "THE" drive, as far as OSX is concerned.
    Asuming that both drives have at least a bootable OSX partition, I'd like for the external drive to have OSX AND maybe another partition for maybe Windows or Linux.
    At boot time if I select the external drive as the boot drive will it act like the internal drive and allow me to install a BootCamp partition? Can I manuly repartition it (while its a secondary drive usng iPartition perhaps)? Can I install a boot loader that will allow me to select an OS after initially selecting the external drive with the 'opt+cmd' option?
    I'm looking for the ability to basicaly select different drives as the "internal" drive, much like you would using the jumper and/or cable selects in a Mac Pro or even a PC based system.
    Is this even possible? id it is, is it possible with firewire or express34 card driven SATA drives?
    Sorry if this is confusing, I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what i want to do...
    Thanks in dvance,
    Peter

    Yes. One cool thing to do is create a bootable backup on an external drive, and use it for OS/upgrade testing - think Leopard. To me this is one huge advantage over Windows systems. You can back up the hard drive and prove it works. Also allows for faster recovery of not only data, but installed applications and settings. I always create a fresh backup to my external FW drive before going on trips.
    MacBook Pro 17" 2.16GHz / 2GB / 120GB   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

  • Using an External Hard Drive Question

    Sorry if this is such a green question but.....
    Can you play back music and movies from an external hard drive through Apple TV or do they have to be physically need to be on the Apple TV HD?
    Also, Is there a way to play what is "steaming" on a MBP to the TV through Apple TV?
    Thanks in advance guys.

    JayMacApple wrote:
    Can you play back music and movies from an external hard drive through Apple TV or do they have to be physically need to be on the Apple TV HD?
    Compatible content from itunes can either be synced to the AppleTV's drive across your network, or if itunes is running you can stream content from iTunes to the AppleTV if it's not on the AppleTV disk.
    The AppleTV cannot connect to external drives, but iTunes itself can handle media on external drives connected to your computer.
    Also, Is there a way to play what is "steaming" on a MBP to the TV through Apple TV?
    If you mean can AppleTV relay a computer's video output (eg a streaming video in a web browser, or whatever is on screen) then the answer is no.
    Thanks in advance guys.

  • MBP Late 2008 Hard Drive Questions

    Hi,
    I have used PC most of my life and have used Mac OS when related to graphics and video, i find both to have their own benefits. I finally bought my first mac, it got delivered yesterday, the macbook pro late 2008, i got it on a good sale which however limited me to get the 320GB 5400rpm model, and i actually was aiming to get 320GB 7200rpm model. Now that i have this laptop, i wanted to install a new 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive since this laptop model allows you to do that yourself without voiding the warranty. In order to do so, i got this and plan to use my current 5400 rpm drive as a USB:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/DIY0A57547F8/
    first of all, as someone new to mac, and even though i have been super impressed by the quality of this product, my first disappointment is the fact that apple offers you to easily replace the hard disk in the mbp but does not sell the hard disk at the apple store or on phone, or allow you to bring the laptop in for HD replacement, and expects you to fill this nice beautiful laptop with third party products, (i wanted a hard disk with the an apple sticker on it just like my current one has - i know its a Hitachi... but apple has the thick black apple sticker on it!! ), i was on phone with apple for 30 mins and they eventually couldn't sell it to me after being confused about it, all they could offer me was a replacement laptop with a 10% restocking fee charge (approx $250). i contacted a mac authorized service center and they quoted me "$332" for that hard disk from apple (Hitachi 7k320), its at $95 (and a -$20 rebate) at buy.com - without the apple sticker, same model.
    now that disappointment aside, i am still optimistic with my choice and have the following questions, please correct me if any of my understanding anywhere in this post is incorrect:
    1. when i install my new hard disk, what type of disk formatting should i use? - i want to be able to boot from windows xp x64 professional, i will be using it almost as much as i will use mac osx (for graphics n video), since i want to be able to run some particular PC applications on full speed that i constantly use and also play some PC games (i know many people here may argue that i dont need windows at all, however i assure you i have some good necessity for it ). Will the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatting allow me to boot from xp later? any tips related to this area?
    2. There are 2 ways to install my new hard disk.
    Route 1: http://eshop.macsales.com/techcenter/techtips/sparedrive.cfm
    Route 2 (considering since my mbp is new and fresh out of the box 1 day ago): http://eshop.macsales.com/techcenter/index.cfm?page=/manuals/mac/clondata.html
    which one would you recommend?
    3. Once i have the hitachi 7k320 installed, and the 5400rpm that came with the product removed, should i expect any different or limited service/warranty from apple care? if anything ever goes wrong in the mbp (except the hard disk), i can send it to apple with the replaced hard disk in it and it will all be acceptable and OK, right?
    4. Has anyone here installed a Hitachi 7k320 drive in a MBP Late 2008? if yes, were there any sort of noise/vibration issues after installation?
    5. What brand would you prefer for an internal drive for the MBP Late 2008? it originally comes with a Hitachi.

    1. Prep the new drive as follows:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one (1.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    7. After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete your OS X installation. You can restore other pre-bundled software using the Install Pre-bundled Software installer that is on the OS X Installer Disc One.
    In order to install Windows you will need to use Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder to create the Windows partition on your hard drive and assist with the installation. You can install the 32-bit version of XP w/SP2 or SP3 or Vista 32-bit or 64-bit. Windows drivers are included on your OS X Installer Disc One and should be installed after you boot into Windows.
    If you must use the 64-bit version of XP you cannot use Boot Camp, but you could use VM software such as Parallels or VM Fusion. See the following:
    Windows on Intel Macs
    There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
    1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak 2 or Vista. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
    2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
    3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
    4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
    5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not yet fully developed for the Mac - some features are not yet implemented - but it does work otherwise.
    6. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
    Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
    See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion.
    Boot Camp is only available with Leopard. The Boot Camp Beta that was used with Tiger has expired and is no longer available for use. So contrary to the other poster's comment, Boot Camp isn't truly "free." You must purchase Leopard to get it.
    As for warranty if you read yours you will find the caveat that if you perform a DIY replacement your warranty is not affected unless you cause consequential damage in which case the warranty will not cover that damage.
    I have installed several Hitachi drives in my laptops, but not the current model. I've no complaints.

  • New to Macbook Pro, External hard drive question.

    I've just made the swirch to an Apple Macbook Pro from a PC.  I've used the PC since the early 90's and all I know is Windows.  However I'm finding myself more at home in Lion.  My question is probably a simple one so I'll get to it.  I have a 1TB Seagate Mac/PC external usb powered hard drive that I've used on my PC for all my iTunes media, 95% of which was purchased from Apple (who the **** knows if that matters but information could be crucial and besides I saw someone else say that in a post, only he found his music, whatever that means, anyway....).  Now I have added all files to the library of my iTunes on the Mac while still running them from the external hard drive and everything transferd smothly (see not a complete idiot) but for some reason I can not write to the hard drive.  If I try to update an app, delete a fie, rename or otherwis change the file in itunes I get an error claiming I don't have permission to do so.  When I look at the drive itself, sure enough it says I may read only.  Now the drive was formatted and used on a Windows PC prior to today.  What do I need to do on the Mac end to make it read and writable (is that the right word?) so I can enjoy updating my apps or plain getting rid of some old things?  Thanks in advance for any help.
    New Mac User

    Your external harddisk uses the NTFS file system which is common for Windows PCs.
    Mac OSX can read from NTFS harddisks but cannot write to them.
    For full access you need a third-party helper tool like the free NTFS-3G or Fuse4X or the commercial ones from Paragon or Tuxera NTFS for Mac.
    In the long run and when you don't need a "Windows-PC-compatibility" of the external harddisk anymore you should consider reformating/repartioning the external harddisk using the Mac OSX native partition and file system formats. (GUID and MacOS Extended (Journaled)).
    But such an action would delete everything that is on that external harddisk so it is not that easy.
    Stefan

  • WRT610N router & external hard drive questions

    I just purchased a 610N router and I want to connect an external hard drive (Seagate 160GB) to it in order to view photos and other media primarily on my PS3, but also on my laptops.  By stumbling through the process, I seem to have the drive mapped to my primary computer but I am not happy with the results.
    The external hard drive already has tons of folders on it, and the photos are categorized into their own folders and sub-folders.  I can access them from the computer after lots of clicking.
    Question #1)  The PS3:  can it see only one media server at a time?  The WRT610N is the media server it sees right now, but none of my files and directories that are on the external hard drive are viewable on the PS3.
    Question #2)  Do the files need to be in a particular folder located on the drive?  The PS3 is looking  for the "mp_root" on the router/external hard drive.
    Question #3)  Do all the media files, photos, movies, music, all have to be on the root drive or in the same directory?  I was told that they had to be in one place, not scattered among sub-directories?
    Question #3)  The network shows a "default" folder, a "config" folder and two others (I'm writing this from memory as I'm not in front of the computer right now).  What are those folders?  Did the router or network create them?
    Question #4)  What can I do to improve the experience of using the drive on the network?
    Thanks for any advice or guidance you can provide.

    It might be a firmware issue. After upgrading the firmware did you reset the device without connecting the drives?
    Try the reset and check if problem still persists try degrading the firmware.

  • External Hard Drive Questions

    This is more of an opinion question.
    I have a MBP with an 80GB hard drive which always seems to be full up. I also have a 250GB hard drive which is nearly full up. The 250GB is not used for backup, i have all my photos and big files on there and none of my files are actually backed up
    I was thinking about getting another 500GBish hard drive and using it for more space and also time machine - can it be used for both? Can anyone recommend a good cheap hard drive?
    How well does time machine work with laptops? would i have to plug it in every night? does it have a sort of separate trash kept on my computer which is only deleted when i plug in the Mac to the External hard drive. Or is anything i delete without the external hard drive attached deleted forever?
    Or, is it worth the hastle and cost to upgrade my MBP internal hard drive?
    Thanks very much
    Message was edited by: pumpkin person

    okay so what would a cheap hard drive from PC World be like - like this Western Digital Elements Desktop 500GB 3.5" - although i imagine that link will probably time out.
    http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcwpage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2000027328.1216206856@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadeejdfdkigc flgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&categoryoid=-32889
    I think i want to stick with Time Machine just because it looks so flash and easy to use really, plus i would have to pay for Super Duper
    I dont really feel confident switching the hard drive myself, i tried doing the RAM once which is alot easier and i competly messed it up and had to take it to an apple store. How much would an apple store charge if i asked them to do it?
    Would it be okay to have time machine running at the same time as also having separate media on the same hard drive? How much space would time machine take up?
    Thanks very much for your replies

  • Itunes & external hard drive questions "original file could not be found"

    I recently got my first apple, a Powerbook G4, and I am trying to figure out how to store and access my music files that are on my external hard drive. I have some music stored on my laptop and the majority of it on the hard drive. I can play the files on my computer's hard drive(itunes finds them), but the files on the external hard drive will not play, unless i seek it out manually. The message says "the song could not be played because the original file couldn't be found. Would u like to locate it" My question is how to get the files in my library to play when they are stored on my external hard drive. Any advice would be appreciated.

    There's something missing in your explanation. If you're getting the "original file..." message, that would indicate that you may have had all your music files on your laptop drive at one point and them moved some of them to the external drive without using the proper procedure.
    If you don't have a lot of playlists, star ratings, and that sort of information that you're trying to preserve, then Mike's suggestion is an easy way out. If you do have a lot of that kind of information, then you may need to see if you can restore your setup to its former condition, when it was all working, and then use proper procedures to move files to the external drive or whatever it was that you were trying to do.

  • External Hard Drive Question...

    I am looking to purchase an external hard drive to use with my Macbook and my PS3 in order to store my music and movies and share my media between the two. I am also purchasing a larger internal hard drive for my PS3 and it is the exact same 160GB SATA 5400rpm HDD that is in my Macbook so I am assuming since the internal hard drives for the two are compatible that an external hard drive that is compatible with my Macbook will also work with my PS3.
    My question is what type of external hard drive will work with my Macbook? I was looking at a Hitachi 500GB SATA 7200rpm external hard drive but when reading a customer review it read something about not being compatible with a particular PC because it is 3.0GBs and the PC would only recognize an externall hard drive that is 1.5GBs.
    I am unsure what the GBs feature is or what it means and which is compatible with the Macbook. Does anyone have any insight on this or even better does anyone have an external hard drive that is around 500GB that they know works with the Macbook?
    Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
    1.83GHz Macbook C2D 1GB RAM 160GB HD   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   5.5G 80GB White iPod/60 GB Playstation 3 w/ 32" LCD HDTV 720p-1080i

    I am not sure I understand what you are asking. If you want to use a HD as an external drive, you have to buy an enclosure as the enclosure has the chipsets to convert the HD connections to USB or FireWire.
    You need it.
    I would suggest that you get an enclosure that uses both USB and FW as your PS3 has USB and your MB has both USB and FW. FW is faster so that would be nice to use on your MB.

  • Backup methods and external hard drive questions

    I usually copy files and photos to DVDs but wonder if that's enough and the most efficient method to back up.  So I purchased a Seagate 1TB external hard drive.  Here are my questions:
    - What is the best way to copy all my data to this hard drive?
    - Is it necessary to copy everything?
    - Is it possible to partition the external hard drive?
    - Is it possible to use this hard drive to copy data from more than one computer, for instance, my powerbook and a PC laptop?  If so, how?
    Any information on this would be so appreciated!

    Here are some suggestions for backup:
    Backup Software Recommendations
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    Silver Keeper
    SuperDuper!
    Synchronize Pro! X
    Synk Pro
    Synk Standard
    Tri-Backup
    Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
    You can partition the drive if you need to, but that will depend upon why you would need to partition the drive.
    Personally, I would clone your startup volume to the external drive. You can do this with any of the referenced software as well as by using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can then incrementally update the clone using a backup utility.
    It would be possible to backup more than one computer in which case you would need to partition the drive. Backing up a Windows machine, however, would require partitioning the drive using MBR and formatting it FAT32 (MSDOS).
    For clarification do you really have a PowerBook (PPC machine) or a MacBook (Intel?)

  • Urgent iMac Hard drive question!

    I have an 08 20" iMac with a bad hard drive.  I am looking to replace it.  Is there a list of compatible hard drives somewhere so I know what to look for?  Also, I have a MacBook pro from the same year. Am I able to use the hard drive from the MacBook in the iMac?  Any help is greatly appreciated!  I am looking for something around 500GB.  Also, does anyone have an idea how much it would be to have someone install it for me if I provided my own hard drive?  The quote right now from an Apple retailer is $250 for the hard drive plus installation.  I'm hoping to save a few bucks by providing my own.

    Any SATA II 3.5" hard drive will work, you can navigate to www.macsales.comand see a fairly complete list of compatible hard drives. However as the previous  poster mentioned working on an iMac is not recommended unless you are extremely comfortable working on notebook computers. Working on an iMac is not simple and it's easy to damage it beyond repair unless you know exactly what you're doing. I'd recommend taking the machine to your local AASP and have them do it.
    Finally to answer your question regarding using your old MBP's HD, no that is a 2.5" HD and the iMacs use 3.5" HDs.

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