Need Advice re: Too Small Hard Drive

When I bought my Pro in 2006, I did so because I was starting a job teaching video journalism at a middle school and I also wanted to make personal movies. The Apple salesperson I spoke with said that 80GB was sufficient for the job, so I went with it.
Unfortunately, within a few months I realized what a mistake that was. For example, I loaded 3 hrs of mini-DV video of family memories to edit, but it was 45GB! And now that I have 2000 songs in iTunes, 30,000 photos in iPhoto, and who knows how many movies in iMovie, I have no room on my hard drive. I have had to put 3/4 of what I have produced on external drives not for backup purposes, but because my computer couldn't hold them!
I have discussed this issue with the Apple Store on a few occasions b/c I felt that the salesperson made a mistake in recommending such a small internal drive, and I'd like Apple to do something about it. I was told that I would have to go to someone outside Apple to have my drive swapped for a larger one and then have all the software reloaded. The problem is that I don't think I ever got the disks for the programs Apple loaded when I first bought the computer, and I also have software that I have downloaded over the past 1-3 years for which I have no record.
Does anyone know how I might get Apple to agree to give me a larger drive? I'd pay for the upgrade, of course, but I think they owe me that much. Of course I will use external drives to store things on, but I need more than 80GB to do what I need to do.
HELP, PLEASE!!
Thank you.
Gary

Kenneth:
You make me feel young, although I am taking RMDs on my IRA. In the past year I have swapped out HDDs in a PowerBook G3, iBook G3, PowerBook G4 12", PowerBook G4 15", iBook G4 14" and a MBP 15.4". I haven't done a MacBook, but you hardly have any screws of which to keep track they are so straightforward. No, I don't do this for a living; I do it for my children and grandchildren. I have never lost a screw or put one in the wrong slot. I use a very simple method to keep the screws organized so that they go back exactly whence they came. Next time try this:
I clicked on the pages of each step in iFixit directions which involved removing screws to enlarge, then printed out the pages. I poked holes in the paper where the screws were removed, poked the screws in the holes and stacked the pages in order in which there were removed. Reassembling was a lot easier.
Some of us do this to save money, some because we like tinkering, some because it is a challenge, and various combinations of those reasons. If a person does not feel comfortable doing this they can pay to have the professionals do it. We give people the information, and users choose how they wish to have it done.
cornelius

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Hi Leslie,
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i couldn't find a similar topic so i thought i'd post this.
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*Hi thresherman, Welcome* to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
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Need Advice re: Too Small Hard Drive

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