Upgrading to a larger hard drive?

Hi everyone,
I'm considering upgrading my MBP hard drive to one that has more space and want to get more info to see how much of a hassle it would or would not be. I bought my MBP last February right at the end of the month when they had that slight upgrade in HD size and speed. It has the 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM and has a 200 GB hard drive.
I would like to upgrade to a 320 GB drive and was wondering if this is something Apple stores did? If not, does anything I do to the memory or hard drive automatically void the extended AppleCare plan that I have?
Also, are there official Apple-made internal hard drives or am I just looking at third party? And if so, are there certain companies that you recommend above others? I have always bought Western Digital externals.
And, if I upgrade to a larger hard drive, does that mean I should also upgrade to more RAM? Or is getting a hard drive with a higher number of rpm sufficient?
I did a search but wasn't getting many answers to these questions other than seeing that an Apple certified repair place can to do this. I actually found one near me that looks Apple certified, so I might give them a call. http://www.macprosolutions.com/
I was looking at this site: http://www.macservice.com/macbookpro.html but it's pretty pricy. Has anyone used this method to upgrade?
If you know of any FAQ/help sites or posts that you could direct me towards, that'd be awesome! This is my first ever Mac after years and years of WIndows PCs (and I'm never going back!), so I'm a but unsure how to go about doing this. Obviously, I'm just starting my research on what to get and how to go about doing this, but I'm trying to get an idea of price and how hard/easy it is. Thank you everyone!
Message was edited by: Rachel Whitfield
Message was edited by: Rachel Whitfield

You will find this link useful in regards to the question on warranty after upgrading the drive. Both answers over there are in my experience spot on.
So given that you will need to either use a third party service like TechRestore or do the upgrade yourself. (I recently did it myself and so have no experience with 3rd parties.)
To your other questions - Apple does not make their own hard drives, they use drives from other manufacturers. So you need to buy a reputable brand 2.5" SATA disk - Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu are the ones recommended most often.
You do not need to upgrade RAM in the computer to just upgrade the Hard Disk - those are totally different things.

Similar Messages

Upgrade to a larger Hard Drive

Hi there,
I’ve been struggling for days now to clone my old Hard Drive onto a new, larger unit. I have EaseUs and Backup and Partition Master as well as Seagate DiscWizard software in the hope that something would finally work.
My system details as follows:
Product name: HP G62 Notebook PC
Product number: WV997EA#ACQ
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
My new Hard Drive is a Seagate ST1000LM014
Anyway, I run through the cloning procedure on either software and am never able to complete; the Upgrade Disk options are greyed out, leaving only the default Copy Disk selected. Here I am unable to go past the Select Source Drive selection, which tells me The Current Disk Is GPT/Dynamic/Unsupported Disk. Then it’s game over once again.
I have tried all the above with Dynamic/MBR/GPT options set on Windows Computer Management, with identical results.
Please advise what I need to do to complete this seemingly simple task of getting my disk cloned/upgraded. Please explain in simple terms so I don’t make any mistakes when following your instructions. Please reply at your earliest convenience, as I’m quite frustrated at present and need the Computer working with the new drive urgently.
Thank you & regards

Hi MyGoodness,
I have no experience messing with hybrid drives but these are the things I would try if I were in your situation.
You might try checking for a firmware update at Seagate. https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html
Or you could try a low level format "Zero Fill" using SeaTools for DOS downloaded from the SeaTools homepage. http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
After the zero fill is completed, attempt the cloning software again. If the cloning continues to fail, contact Seagate for assistance.
I am not an expert. I am not an HP employee. Good luck.
-Mike

Error 150:30 had to move to larger hard drive. Once migrated to new hard drive none of my adobe products work

I recently upgraded to a new larger hard drive. In migrating everything over things seem to have worked out well, but non of my adobe products work any more. I get the message error #150:30 What can I do? If I reinstall each of these software packages, will I loose my templates, brushes and so forth?

Migrating software programs from one machine or HD seldom works. You need to actually *install* software from downloads or installation disks. You don't mention which product ver you have.
Run the CS or CC Cleaner Tools below to wipe all traces of Adobe products from your HD. Then re-install the customary way.
Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
Typically you only need to deactivate if you had previously installed your products on 2 machines. Creative Cloud software installed on a 3rd machine will deactivate the previous installations.
If needed, Live Chat is the best way to reach Customer Care. Agent availability varies by region and time zone.
Contact Customer Care
Nancy O.

Upgrading 12" Powerbook G4 hard drive & OS X 10.5--please help?

So, I’ve decided I want to venture into upgrading my Powerbook G4 hard drive, RAM, and OS. Currently I have:
512 RAM
1.5 Ghz
80 GB 5400 HD
Mac OS X 10.4.11
What I would like to upgrade to:
1.25GB RAM (max)
1.5 Ghz
160-320GB 5400 (7200 if possible) HD
Mac OS X 10.5
Now here comes my questions. The RAM upgrade is straightforward. The HD upgrade seems simple enough when using tutorials on ifixit.com. I am wondering though, does the HD need to be ATA-100 or could it be ATA-133? Are DMA, Ultra DMA, UDMA, DMA-100, ATA, ATA-100, IDE, and EIDE all the same thing and all compatible with the 12" powerbook G4?
Assuming the hard drive speed is 5400 and I have RAM maxed out, are there performance differences between say a 160GB 5400 HD and a 320GB 5400 HD? Would it be better just to get the biggest HD that is compatible with my PB?
Also, FRYS.COM has "retail hard drive kits" and "bare HDs" What’s the difference between the two?
Finally:
Once I figure out which HD I want, I will have new: Hard Drive, RAM, and a Mac OS X 10.5 DVD Purchased from an Apple Store. I will install the RAM. Now I will be left with a HD and OSX 10.5 DVD...how do I get the new OS on the new HD?

The hard drive needs to be a parallel ATA 2.5" notebook hard drive. ATA-100 or ATA-133 or the others you listed don't matter. You cannot use a serial ATA or SATA hard drive, that's important. Here are two online stores and their parallel ATA drives available: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380%201035907 889&name=ATA-6 and http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ (Click on 2.5" ATA laptop drives).
You'll note there aren't any 7200rpm drives listed, as they aren't made anymore for the parallel ATA interface. Choose whatever size works for you, and if increasing the size, make sure you have capacity to backup the new, larger hard drive, as you fill it up.
You only need the bare hard drive. There can be a difference between a retail boxed version versus OEM, as the warranty can be different, but that's about it.
After you install the hard drive, you insert the first OS X disk in the system, boot holding the C key down (so the system boots from the disk), choose Disk Utility from the menu bar, and partition the drive. Once done, you can do the OS X installation. If you don't hold the C key down and the system wants to install OS X, after you tell it what language you want, as soon as a menu bar appears, then you can run Disk Utility.

I just installed a second, larger hard drive. Can I copy all of the files?

I have a G5 Tower with an 80GB Seagate hard drive. I just installed a 160GB Seagate in the second bay. It seems to be connected. I partitioned it. Can I now simply copy everything that was on the old hard drive onto the new one? Do I then tell the computer to boot from the new larger hard drive, and it will boot and operate automatically from the new hard drive, as if I was still using the old hard drive? Will everything work simply by copying (dragging) all of the files from the old drive to the new one?

Hi James_ Nindel;
I answered your other post.
Double posting the same problem is a good way to confuse everyone.
Allan

Where can I buy a larger hard drive for my late 2008, 15" macbook pro? From reviewing questions and answers on the support community it would appear that having Apple remove the old and install the new hard drive is recommended. But how/where?

Where can I buy a larger hard drive for my late 2008, 15" macbook pro? From reviewing questions and answers on the support community it would appear that having Apple remove the old and install the new hard drive is recommended. But how/where?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can install the new hard disk yourself if you want to. You just need a 2'5" SATA II hard drive, which is compatible with your MacBook Pro. You can buy one at OWC > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ You can filter hard drives by computer, so press a "Click to view all...", choose your computer in the sidebar and it will give you the compatible hard drives.
There are different brands for the MacBook Pro. The most recommended are HGST and Seagate, which have good reputation. A 7200 rpm hard drive will give you extra performance

HT1553 I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error...

I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error... Help!!

If you have installed a new hard drive , you will need to have formatted it in Disk Utility correctly. This may explain your problem.
Boot into your 10.6 Install disk again at the top menubar > Utilities > select Disk utility and in there select your new hard drive, and select the tab Erase and choose to make the format as Mac OS Extended Journaled. When that is finished look in the main window to make sure that the partition map scheme says GUID Partition Table.
Now go to the Restore tab and reinstall from your backup.

We have an early 2008 imac and we realize it is not long for this world but we would like to get a few more months out of it until we can afford a newer one. Can we put in a larger hard drive and add some memory?

Would it be worthwhile to put in a larger hard drive and boost the memory on our early 2008 iMac? We realize it is on borrowed time but we would like to squeeze a little more time out of it.

Problem description:
This iMac is running awfully slow, and freezes up often
EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)
Report generated December 20, 2014 at 1:40:32 PM CST
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (24-inch, Early 2008) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac8,1
1 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM1
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro - VRAM: 256 MB
iMac 1920 x 1200
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: 21:42:10
Disk Information: ℹ️
Hitachi HDP725032GLA380 disk0 : (320.07 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 319.21 GB (204.84 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.0.1) [Support]
/System/Library/Extensions/Seagate Storage Driver.kext/Contents/PlugIns
[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.0.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.0.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.0.1) [Support]
Startup Items: ℹ️
HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[running] com.memeo.Memeod.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.leadertech.PowerRegister.EPS2.fa8d34509cfddcea6fdfd2f145193825.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper UNKNOWN (missing value)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
DirectorShockwave: Version: 11.5.0r600 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
BrowserPlus_2.9.8: Version: 2.9.8 [Support]
Move-Media-Player: Version: npmnqmp 071505000006 [Support]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
BrowserPlus [Support]
Flash Player [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off
Destinations:
FreeAgent GoFlex Drive [Local]
Total size: 1.00 TB
Total number of backups: 1
Oldest backup: 2014-06-08 05:27:16 +0000
Last backup: 2014-06-08 05:27:16 +0000
Size of backup disk: Excellent
Backup size 1.00 TB > (Disk size 0 B X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      2% WindowServer
      2% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
      1% fontd
      0% AppleSpell
      0% aosnotifyd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
292 MB Safari
219 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
180 MB mds_stores
150 MB softwareupdated
120 MB installd
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
1.61 GB Free RAM
1.86 GB Active RAM
277 MB Inactive RAM
543 MB Wired RAM
626 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 19, 2014, 03:58:57 PM Self test - passed

Re: My Macbook 2009 model was recently upgraded with a new hard drive and upgraded to Mountain Lion OS. I am battling to retrieve all my photos that were ''saved'' in iCloud. Can someone help?

Re: My Macbook 2009 model was recently upgraded with a new hard drive and upgraded to Mountain Lion OS. I am battling to retrieve all my photos that were ''saved'' in iCloud. Can someone help?

If you are trying to recover photo stream photos, they are only held in iCloud for 30 days. All you would be able ro recover is photo stream photos from the last 30 days.
If you have an iOS device that still has the photo stream photos one it, you can save them to the camera roll by opening the my photo stream album, tapping Edit, tap the photos, tap Share, tap Save to Camera Roll. Once in the camera roll, they can be imported to iPhoto on your Mac as explained here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083.

My Macbook 2009 model was recently upgraded with a new hard drive and upgraded to Mountain Lion OS. I am battling to retrieve all my photos that were ''saved'' in iCloud. Can someone help?

My Macbook 2009 model was recently upgraded with a new hard drive and upgraded to Mountain Lion OS. I am battling to retrieve all my photos that were ''saved'' in iCloud. Can someone help?

While we all have MacBooks in this forum most of us don’t use iCloud. There's an iCloud Support Community where everybody uses iCloud. You should also post this question there to increase your chances of getting an answer. https://discussions.apple.com/community/icloud/icloud_on_my_mac

I just installed a larger hard drive, and used my Time Machine Backup to transfer my info back to the new hard drive. When I open Iphoto, my thumnails are there, but they aren't linked back to the actual photos.I see the photos in my HD. What should I do

I just installed a larger hard drive, and used my Time Machine Backup to transfer my files back to the new hard drive. When I open Iphoto, my thumbnails are there, but they aren't linked back to the actual photos. I see the original photo files in my HD. Is there a way to link the Iphoto thumbnails back to the original files?

Use the Firewire cable and t boot the old Mac's hard drive to the new Mac's desktop and transfer your entire iPhoto folder.
Use Disk Utiliy to erase'format HFS+ Journaled your TimeMachine drive and use the free Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your new boot drive to the external, it's hold option bootable.

Can i put a larger hard drive in my mac

running out of space on my hard drive (300gb) and just wondered if you can easily put a larger drive in?

Yes you can put a larger hard drive in your iMac. Here's a how to video:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2133+and+2210+Hard+Drive+Repl acement/1008/1
I assume you have a back up?

Can I add a larger hard drive to my 2009 mac mini

can I add a larger hard drive to my 2009 mac mini. It has a 120GB now. Can that be replaced with a much larger one?

Up to 2TB per the following: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/

Is the "512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage" on the new mac worth the extra cost? I am comparing with a refurb with better specs (faster CPU, larger hard drive) and from what I undersand the PCIe flash storage is the big differentiator in cost.

hello - i am considering two macbook pros
NEW - http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=ME294LL/A&step=config#
REFURB - http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0ML1LL/A/refurbished-macbook-pro-27ghz-quad-c ore-intel-i7-with-retina-display
The refurb actually has a faster processor and a larger hard drive. From what I understand, the big difference in cost is the new macbook pro contains "512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage" versus the refurb "768GB Flash Storage".
Is the PCIe flash storage really worth the extra cost (and smaller size)?
PS - Also I believe the brand new one has 2 GB graphics memory as opposed to 1 GB graphics memory. I don't really care about that as much as I won't be doing a lot of video editing or gaming.

RestonManJavaLuver wrote:
Is she wrong - are these actually going to people's homes, being used, then returned and resold?
Some are some are not. Otherwise Apple has a ton of Mac's sitting around that have been returned by customers under their 14 day No Questions Asked return policy.
But they not just Returned and Resold. They go back to Apple, checked out (Tested) any parts that are not up to spec replaced and then repackaged in a plain white box to be sold as refurbs.

Recounting My Successful Experience Upgrading My Solid State Hard Drive

I just successfully upgraded my solid state hard drive from
60 gigabytes to 256 ; the machine is a Lenovo T400s - while the upgrade is
still fairly fresh, I thought I’d share my experience – maybe someone else will
benefit – most of what I’m about to relay was provided by Zoltanthegypsy and
GMAC-R60 – I thank them again for their advice - but I will try to add some
additional thoughts based on my experience – for the most part I was able to
use the tools provided by Lenovo – my original hard drive had 3 partitions, S
(system), C ( windows + my programs & data), & Q ( Lenovo stuff like
backup and restore, the factory copy, etc.) :
Create a “factory state” copy of the machine to
DVD or CD soon after purchase – I say soon after purchase because it appears that
a minimum amount of hard disk space is required – my 60 gig was almost full and
I got a message that there wasn’t enough space – I can still make the copy but
I’ll have to move some things off temporarily – this step isn’t really related
to the upgrade but it is a good idea – Start/Lenovo ThinkVantage Tools and you’ll see
the option – and as Zoltanthegypsy has pointed out you will most likely not be
able to do this from the new hard drive after the restore operation covered
below – I haven’t proven this out but I do know that my Q space on the new
drive is smaller than before – something was lost and it’s most likely the
factory state – and so keep the old hard drive long enough to make that factory
state copy to DVD or CD.
The next step was a full backup to a Lenovo
external hard drive – it came with one partition - the external that I got from
Lenovo has a small keypad and is password enabled – this fact will come into
play further on – as GMAC-R60 noted a pop-up will appear giving the option to
create rescue media – you want to select this option so that the external will be
bootable.
When the backup is complete you want to swap hard
drives making sure to first unplug & remove the battery .
There may be other ways to do this next step but
here’s what I did – I powered on the machine and let it go through what
appeared to be a BIOS routine – note that my external was attached to the
laptop but it wasn’t activated by keying in the password – after the BIOS
routine was finished I activated the external by typing in the password and then
did a Control/Alt/Delete – the machine restarted and booted from the external –
with hindsight I probably could have connected & activated the external
before powering on but the instructions that came with the external suggested
something different which didn’t work for me .
I was now able to go into rescue and recovery
and do a complete restore to the new drive – but to my surprise the extra space
that I bought with the new drive ended up all in the Q partition – and Windows
Disk Management didn’t enable me to reallocate the space to C.
And so I purchased Disk Director 11 Home by
Acronis – a $50.00 investment in a tool that I’ll probably never use again but
I’m now able to use an $800 solid state drive rather than trying to recoup some
money via Ebay -– within minutes I was able to reclaim the space and I now have
enough C space to last the lifetime of the laptop – especially since all
pictures go on a stick & my demographic isn’t into video games .
One useful piece of information that I got from
a user on the Acronis forum was that all of the Lenovo tools like rescue and
recovery, etc. are available for download from the Lenovo website – and so if worse
came to worse I could have deleted that Q partition, stretched C using Windows
Disk Management , and then downloaded the Lenovo tools into C.
One thing I’d like to learn to do would be to
perform all the steps outlined above but without using the Lenovo tools – using
Windows 7 tools instead but not having a Windows CD , i.e. how do you boot

It went something like this:
(On the stock drive)
Plugged in a blank USB HDD, and a blank USB flash drive.
- HDD formatted in NTFS, flash drive in FAT16.
Ran the recovery media creator.
- Created bootable media on flash drive, and put the recovery image on the HDD.
Once done, shutdown, removed the battery, swapped the drive for a 500GB Scorpio Black (freshly NTFS quick-formatted). USB HDD and flash drive were still attached.
Booted, and used F12 to select the flash drive for booting.
It booted into the Windows Recovery Environment and I chose the Lenovo restore factory image option at the bottom of the list.
From there on out, I just clicked through the wizard, and it restored.
Upon finishing, I unplugged all of the external media, and had it restart. It then booted into OOBE as expected.
W520: i7-2720QM, Q2000M at 1080/688/1376, 21GB RAM, 500GB + 750GB HDD, FHD screen
X61T: L7500, 3GB RAM, 500GB HDD, XGA screen, Ultrabase
Y3P: 5Y70, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, QHD+ screen

Upgrading to a larger hard drive?

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