I want to upgrade my hard drive. Need suggestions.

I have a MacBook (white-early 2009). I am looking into upgrading my hard drive. I want at least 500GB. My budget is $120. I will be doing photo and video editing (not sure if that matters). I saw this one on Amazon and am wondering if it would be compatible: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Black-Mobile/dp/B004LR1RPK/ref=wl_ it_dp_o_pC?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1JJHTKGSKBWXY&colid=2DDV99QO43MAY
Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Check newegg.com at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%2060000345 9&IsNodeId=1&name=SATA%203.0Gb%2fs . Their prices are good, fast shipping, and perhaps most importantly, many user comments on the drives. And you can search the comments for 'mac' or 'apple' of 'macbook' comments.
I also lean towards drives that offer a 5 year warranty. Ignore those that only have 2 years or less. 3 years is ok, but 5 is of course better. I like, and use a, Western Digital Scorpio Black drive which comes in various sizes witha  5 year warranty. 

Similar Messages

  • I want to upgrade my hard drive

    I want to upgrade my hard drive. At the moment it is 160gb in a 2009 MacBook Pro.
    Do I just need a standard 2.5" sata hard drive?
    I was looking at this one     500GB Hitachi 2.5” Travelstar HDD, SATA, 5400rpm, 8MB Cache.
    Is this suitable. 
    Cheers,
    Jeff

    Hi keepsy,
    I found one, WD Scorpio Black 7200 RPM SATA 2.5-inch that claims not to impede the batter life. Amazon (US)Or if you are in the UK, then Amazon UK.  Hope that helps, although I don't know if Western Digital's claim is correct (you may wish to phone Apple to find out).
    Another one Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB Internal hard drive - 300 MBps - 7200 rpm , but the emphasis is more on performance.

  • I have a rather old iMac 20" (mid 2007) and I want to upgrade the Hard drive. How do I change it? How do I transfer all my applications? May I just copy the old hd into the new one? Thanks.

    I have a rather old iMac 20" (mid 2007) and I want to upgrade the Hard drive. How do I change it? How do I transfer all my applications? May I just copy the old hd into the new one? Thanks.

    There are many online tutorials on how to change out the HD on a mid 2007 iMac. One of the originals is from 2007 and is Upgrade your iMac 20" or iMac 24" aluminum (mid 2007) to 1TB Hard Drive and 4 GB RAM - DIY Guide. As far as migrating your system Apple helps out with that in Setup Assistant which automatically starts when you turn on a new Mac for the first time. After you have installed the new HD you will have to format the new HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then you will have to install OS X. The first time you turn it on Setup Assistant will start. Follow the directions and you will be fine. In order to restore your information you will need to backup what is on the current internal HD first. I'd recommend using Time Machine (Assuming you are using Leopard or later) AND also creating a bootable clone using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
    Please complete your profile so at the very least we know what version of OS X your machine has installed.

  • I want to upgrade my Hard Drive to 1TB and more.  What is the maximun Hard Drive I can install for a MacBook Pro 2009 Yesterday, I tried a SEAGATE SSHD but my screen was always a showing a QUESTION MARK (?). It's not the cable because when I put back

    I want to upgrade my Hard Drive to 1TB and more.
    What is the maximun Hard Drive I can install for a MacBook Pro 2009
    Yesterday, I tried a SEAGATE SSHD but my screen was always a showing a QUESTION MARK (?). It's not the cable because when I put back the old original version, everything works...Any sugestion of brabnding or procédure to upgrade my hard drive?

    The largest 2.5" dia SATA drives available are 2 TB in capacity.
    Have you tried the Seagate SSHD connected externally to the MBP via USB?  The drive itself may be faulty.
    Ciao.
    Here is a good place to start looking for a replacement drive:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/

  • I want to upgrade the hard drive in my MacBook Pro

    I bought one of the first MacBook Pros that only came with a 100gb drive. I want to buy at least a 250gb drive for it. The problem is that I would like to maintain what I already have on the existing drive. I am getting Leopard on Monday so I'm not sure if using Time Machine will help. I guess what I am trying to say is that I like my computer just like it is as far as what I have installed and configured on it. Can anyone offer suggestions to how I can upgrade the drive and maintain all of my stuff. I have an externl drive much larger than 100gb to use should I need to back some stuff up. Any hel would be greatly appreciated.

    The hard drive is not a user upgradeable part. This means that technically speaking if something goes wrong with your installation, you may void your warranty/AppleCare. Some authorized service centers may be able to maintain your warranty while doing such an installation, but that really varies by service center. I know when I install a new hard drive in my iMac, I had to put back in the original hard drive before before Apple would be willing to diagnose the logicboard of my iMac. So consider that before installing a new hard drive. You can put the SATA 2.5" drive inside a Firewire enclosure which supports it to maintain your hard drive contents while you put in the new drive. http://www.ifixit.com/ and http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ are the most common places to find instructions to do such installations yourself. Mind you, because as an external drive, it is more liable to fall, and break, backing it up before you take it out is highly recommended as my FAQ* explains:
    http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
    And that's highly recommended before you install Leopard in anycase. So do that first, and worry about whether Time Machine will give you the abilities you need later. There is a new Leopard forum on the board where you can see what people have found out about Time Machine.
    http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235
    - * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

  • I want to upgrade my hard drive from Standard 500 HHD to a SSD on my macbook pro non-retina mid 2012

    I have two choices I'm going to install the hard drive internally and I want someone who has an idea about this now money isn't a problem and they are both close to each other. I want to buy one of these two can someone please tell me which is best.
    1- http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Micron/C400512G25/
    2- http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT480M500SSD1 and http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Crucial/CT480M500SSD/
    By the time I do this of me I am also going to have a 16 GB RAM instead of the 4 Gb
    Now remember my MacBook Pro 15" non-retina mid 2012 i7 2.3 Hz

    First, see my one and only user tip -> Upgrading your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive. It has some tips that may be of help.
    Secondly, either of the drives that you've chosen should work well in your MacBook Pro. "Micron" is also the manufacturer of the Crucial SSD. I'm just a bit skeptical about the first because of the unknown nature of the beast... and I doubt that it has the most recent technology built into the Crucial M500 480GB.
    You can buy from Crucial or through OWC - I would just pick the one with the cheaper price but I would definitely get the M500 series over the somewhat 'older' (based upon m4 technology, I'm betting) Micron drive.
    Good luck... call back should you have any questions.
    Clinton

  • I want to upgrade my hard drive and transfer everyting to new one

    I have a 250 GB hard drive, but it seems to be too small. I want to uppgrade it. I know how to do the phisical upgrade, but i want my computer to function the same after the upgrade, I want the operating system, files and other software to work the same as my old hard drive. Is there a way to do this???

    Yes.  Read the attached:
    Ciao.

  • I want to upgrade my hard-drive in  2010 model MacBook Pro 13

    I would like to increase the hard drive size on my 13" Macbook Pro from 250 GB to 500 or 750 GB. Amazon carries the WD5000BEVT and the WD7500BPVT drives. Reading various comments about them, I'm concerned about how quiet and efficient they are in a Macbook Pro 13. Some comments mention problems with the drives involving "clicking" sounds etc. What drives are safe for upgrading my Macbook? I also plan on using Bootcamp to run Windows 7 off the drive in addition to OS X if that makes any difference.

    Any 2.5" SATA II drive will work inside your machine. However I would recommend looking at OWC's selection, because they specialize in Macs all of these drives are tested and known to work.
    I just sold my MBP yesterday (looking to get an MB Air), I put in the 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid which I really liked. My boot up times went down to the 20-25 second range which was very cool. However that being said I also rarely rebooted as that isn't necessary on a Mac.
    Roger

  • What do I need to do after I upgrade the hard drive on my macbook pro?

    I just bought a new 13" Macbook pro i5 on May/03/13 but I need more space and I want to upgrade my Hard Drive from the 500GB it come's with to a 750GB. So I just want to know the steps I need to take after I do the upgrade and start up my Macbook, Someone told me that the Macbook won't work right away because I have to do something to it, I just dont know what. Can anybody plz tell me what I have to do after I do the upgrade step by stpe? Thank You!
    Oh and my Macbook pro is on OSX 10.8.3

    Correct. After installing the new hard drive, your Mac won't have any operating system, so you will have to reinstall OS X using Internet Recovery > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
    To start in Internet Recovery, hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your Mac is starting. Then, open Disk Utility and create a partition formatted with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", if it hasn't been already created. Finally, close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X.
    If you want to copy all the data you had on the old hard drive into the new one, use Disk Utility's Restore feature > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU7.html Note that you will have to buy an enclosure to put the old hard drive

  • Least painful way to upgrade my hard drive if I don't want to use an image.

    I want to upgrade my hard drive and DO NOT want to restore from an image–mostly because there is fifteen years worth of crap on my current image so I want to start completely fresh and copy over only what I currently need.
    I bought the new drive. I have other drives with backup images on them.  I just downloaded DivXInstaller. Now that I have all of the parts I don't know what to do with them.
    What's the least painful way to do this?

    chenango232 wrote:
    Missing a pretty big step here....  How does one install a new OS on an external drive?  You can't install an OS without first booting into an OS.  I don't have a disk to boot to, but have gotten as far as downloading the install software.  Perhaps the answer you should be providing is that I need to create an install disk somehow?
    Is not the current HDD in your MBP a boot drive?  If so and you have Yosemite installed, you can boot into the recovery partition.  From the 4 option menu you can use Disk Utility.  If you have the NEW HDD connected to the MBP it will appear in Disk Utility.  Click on that drive to format in Disk Utility>Erase.  After formatting, go to the 'Reinstall OSX' option and install the OSX onto the external HDD.  When finished swap the drives.
    Ciao

  • Upgrade MacBook Hard Drive - Restore System from Time Machine Backup?

    I have a MacBook that I want to upgrade the hard drive of. Am I right in thinking, all I need to do is:
    Run Time Machine one last time, to make a recent backup of the MacBook
    Install the new hard drive in the MacBook
    Insert the Snow Leopard DVD, and start a clean installation
    During installation, select the option to Restore System From Backup...
    Will this copy across ALL of the contents of the old MacBook's hard drive, to the new MacBook's hard drive? A perfect clone? Because that's what I want to do.

    I performed the installation, restoring a Time Machine backup from the external hard drive to the new blank internal one I put inside the MacBook. Everything went fine, except for one problem.
    Now, whenever I try to open Safari, it immediately crashes with the error message:
    "Safari quit unexpectedly
    Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)"
    What's going on? How can I stop Safari from doing this? I've repaired permissions using Disk Utility, and Spotlight has finished re-indexing everything.

  • Can I upgrade my hard-drive in my iMac 7,1

    Hello, I have the mid 2007 released intel based imac. I am about to change my 1GB memory to 4GB memory per the info I found on the Apple support site (upgrading memory on mid 2007 imacs or later). I also want to upgrade my hard-drive to 1TB as I need more storage and already using 2 1-TB externals for pics and other misc files that take up too much space. My husband says he doesnt think it can be done and I might as well suck it up and buy a new imac already with the specs I want. I am considering this but am so attached to my current imac (my first ever) that I would prefer to upgrade if possible before just jumping into a new one. My 2 questions are...
    1) can my harddrive be upgraded to 1 or 2TB? If so, should I pay someone to do this, meaning is it difficult?
    2) Does Apple do this and how much would this typically cost me? Do you think it is smarter to just trade this old one in for a new one?
    Thanks,
    Lani
    2)

    Yes, they are upgradable, and it isn't nearly as hard as the other posters will have you believe.
    If you have the aptitude to do surgery on computers than yes this might be correct, however if you don't I think it would be difficult and not recommended.
    Here is one site that shows how to do it, if you feel comfortable doing this type of work there you go. Oh one last thing if you have any AppleCare remaining this would certainly void it.

  • Do I need an OS Disc to restore my macbook after I upgrade the hard drive?

    I need to upgrade the hard drive in my 2009 macbook. I have a Time Capsule. I'm not clear on whether I need to install OS on the new drive using a disc, or whether I can do that from the Time Capsule? The issue is that my disc drive is broken, and I don't really want to replace it as I never use discs in it anyway. But i don't want to get stuck with a new hard drive and be unable to get an operating system on it.

    I prefer this process:
    How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
    Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
    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, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive.  Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure.  You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
    Step Three: Boot from the external drive.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears.  Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
      1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
      2. After DU loads select your new 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.  Otherwise, click on the
          Partition tab in the DU main window.
      3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
          the drop down menu to one. 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
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      4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
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          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
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      6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
          hours depending upon the drive size.
    Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
      1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
      2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
      3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
      4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
      5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
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      6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
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      7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
    Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume.  Click on the Restart button.  You should boot from the new drive.  Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.
    However, you could simply reinstall OS X on the new drive after prepping it, the restore all your files from your Time Machine backup.
    Hard to say what if any other options there may be since you haven't told us what version of OS X is in use and backed up to your Time Capsule (and if it is a full system backup.)

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    Mac OS X has a built-in disk diagnostic and repair program called fsck or file system consistency check. Here’s how to verify and repair your startup disk with fsck.  As soon as you hear the startup tone, press and hold Command-S on the keyboard. Keep holding down those keys until you see a black screen with white lettering. This is called “booting into Single User Mode.”  As the Mac boots in this mode, the screen reports each step of the process. The line should end in root#.  Right after the root# prompt, enter the following: /sbin/fsck -fy
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  • I have a macbook pro 15 inch mid 2012 and I want to change the hard drive, what specifications do I need to search for?

    I have a macbook pro 15 inch mid 2012 and I want to change the hard drive, what specifications do I need to search for?

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    2.75 inches
    Weight
    3.5 ounces
    Color Category
    Multi
    Minimum System Requirements
    PC: Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8; MacBook®, MacBook Pro or Mac Mini: Intel®
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