Would a 7200rpm hard drive work in my 5.2 macbook?

Right now I have a 5400 rpm 120gb hard drive. I want to upgrade to one with more memory because right now I have run out. I also want a bit more speed and I have read that a 7200rpm hard drive would speed up my mac. I am using a early 2009 white macbook- 5.2 . Would a 7200rpm hard drive be compadible with this model?

Also what would the max capacity be? I read somewhere it is only 320gb. Could I go up to 500gb or 1tb?

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Only Apple Branded Hard Drives Work in My Mid-2009 MacBook Pro

My Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (actually, my wife's) experienced a hard-drive failure about a year ago. This was a 500GB 7200RPM drive that came BTO from Apple.
It's easy enough to replace HD's, so, I did it myself with a Seagate 7200RPM 500GB drive, the same model as the one from Apple, but I got this one from Seagate, not from Apple, so it didn't have the Apple logo (and firmware?) on it. The drive did not work. I was able to format the drive using Disk Utility, but when I tried to install Snow Leopard on it, it would fail. I placed the new drive in my other MBP (early 2008), and installed SL, no problems. Booted to it just fine.
I put it back in the 2009 MBP, and it would not boot - it would show the flashing folder with a question mark. I put the drive in a usb enclosure and the MBP booted from it just fine (well, a little slower because the usb speed, I presume).
I bought another Seagate and experienced the same problem. I bought a Hitachi and experienced the same problem. I took it to an authorized Apple repair facility who told me that the HD was bad (which was obviously false, since all 3 HD's I tried worked just fine in my other computer).
So, I took it into Apple and gave them the whole story and they ran overnight hardware diagnostics and were unable to find (or fix) a problem.
So, I played stupid and brought it back again, saying "uh, my hard drive broke, can you fix it?" hoping that they would try to replace the HD and fix the problem or at least diagnose it.
Well, they put an Apple branded HD back in, and it works just fine.
Seemingly, that would be problem solved, and life has been fine for the last year. But, now we bought an OptiBay to ditch the DVD drive and place a 750GB (non-apple) drive in the optical bay. To my surprise, the non-apple drive works, but, it is pretty slow (we put our iPhoto library on there, and it chokes very badly when you ask it to do anything, such as zoom on a picture, play a video, go to full screen, etc. It takes about 30 to 45 seconds of SBOD to perform those tasks.
I am wondering if there was any way we could have damaged the SATA connector or driver? Why would only Apple branded drives work in the main HD bay? I don't know if an Apple branded drive would preform better in the optical bay or not.

I recently saw a similar situation described in another forum and someone directed the OP to look for a jumper on the drive. I raised my eyebrows--that sounded like old PATA technology--but, sure enough, the OP found a jumper, changed it and everything worked. This apparently changed the timing on the drive to match Apple products. I'm leaving town and won't have much time to search myself, but try a forum search for "SATA jumper" and see if something rings a bell.

You can't upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive in the Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro. It is not supported. Period.

I tried unsuccesfully to upgrade the hard drive in my Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro to a 750GB 7200RPM hard drive. After several attempts with different hard drives I realized that the kernel panic that showed up was due to the lack of compatibility with the drives to the MacBook Pro. I had a Mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro that I did not have any issues with whatsoever. I sold that MacBook Pro and was able to upgrade to the brand new base model without any out of pocket cost. Upon purchase of the new 13" MBP I maxed out the RAM to the full 8GB. After 2 months of freezing, lockups, spinning rainbow wheels and having to force shutdown I tried one last ditch effort to see if a faster drive would help. After speaking with the Apple telephone reps and the Apple Store Genius Bar we discovered that Apple doesn't even offer the option of a 7200RPM drive on their website - a fact that I found quite disturbing. The concensus is that it is a power management issue that causes the incompatibility and the reason the drives are not offered on the 13" models. The problems I had were the end of the line for me. I just switched out that train wreck for the Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro base model. I got home and immediately installed the 750 GB 7200RPM Western Digital Scorpio Black hard drive and it was recognized within seconds. I'm back in business with gleeful abandon.

Sadly... they don't have all the answers. As someone who use to serve in the capacity (Mac Genius) it can definitely be a challenging position. You're "the voice" of Apple's service policy & procedures. Sounds like the person you spoke with got it wrong this time. It's definitely worth a follow up, because like I said, I've got a machine in my household that's living proof of compatibility between a 7200 RPM drive and 13" MBP (Early 2011).
Apple is very good about support documentation when there's incompatibility or unsupported configurations, the fact that there isn't one for 7200 RPM drives would tell me that the people/person you spoke with was misinformed.
I know I always appreciated when a customer made it known to me that I was wrong on something and supplied the right answer. I sure as heck don't have all the answers and if I can lead from my mistakes, well, I won't make them anymore.

Will this Hard Drive work on my mid 2007 macbook?

Will this hard drive work on my mid 2007 hard drive? The size is fine, but what about pins? Here is the link.
Hard Drive:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/758498-REG/Hitachi_0S02858_500GB_Travelsta r_2_5_SATA.html
My macbook specs:
http://support.apple.com/kb/sp18 (Black)
Thanks,
Squirtly

You can put two 2gb RAM sticks in your model 2,1 but it can only use 3,3gb. This is a hardware limitation and cannot be changed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_GB_barrier
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-3-g b-memory-limitation-details.html
OWC tests have found that there is a slight speed increase with having two 2gb sticks in rather than one 1gb and one 2gb. Your model is in the gray lines at the bottom of the graph. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/
These are good online stores for Mac compatible RAM
OWC 667Mhz RAM
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/DDR2/ - They offer Mac tested RAM at very good prices.
Crucial Memory http://www.crucial.com/ - good place to buy RAM from all over the world. They also have an excellent memory selector that allows you to choose memory based on your computer's model
Data Memory Systems http://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-memory.asp - another good, cheap place to buying RAM if you live in the U.S.
Here are instructions on replacing RAM in a MacBook with a removable battery. http://homeoffice.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=44404
If you don’t have the tools to open up the MacBook OWC has a set for $5.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/

Would this new hard drive work on my MacBook?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=5566988&st=seagate&lp=2&type=produ ct&cp=1&id=1055388011277
Just thinking about upgrading my MacBook a bit, and wondering if this hard drive (which seems like a great deal) would work out in my MacBook or whether it would cause problems.
This is kind of a silly question, but I don't know all that much about computers. Increasing the hard drive will just let me have more room for music, photos, etc, right? I would have to increase the memory to make it operate at a faster speed?
Also, does anyone know if the Genius Bar would install a new hard drive for me?
Thanks!

No. First, it's an ATA drive and the MB requires a SATA drive. Second, that drive is a 3.5 inch full-size hard drive. You need a notebook drive (2.5 inch) for the laptops. See the these New Egg notebook drives.
Adding a larger hard drive will provide increased storage capacity. Adding RAM will not make the computer run faster. Adding RAM simply enables you to run more applications simultaneously without the slowdown caused by virtual memory.
Installing a hard drive in a MacBook is a DIY project. You can find instructions at http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook/Hard-Drive. You will need a very small (#00) Phillips screwdriver and a T8 Torx driver. You should find them at a hardware store.
As for whether your local Apple store will install a drive you purchase on your own is something you will need to ask them.
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Will this hard drive work in my new black MacBook?

I saw a great deal on a 2.5" 120GB drive from Best Buy. I am considering swapping my internal 80GB drive for this one. Will it work in my Macbook.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=147670&AID=10375042&PID=5521 79&SID=193111-1-0-0&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.circuitcity.com%2Fccd%2FproductDetail.d o%3Foid%3D147670

No it won't work.
Here is a link for a good supplier of cheap hard drives that will work
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010150380+1035907918&Submit=ENE &SubCategory=380
and a direct link for the drive you want
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101596
Let me know if you need any help.
kalel

Will this hard drive work in my mid 2010 macbook pro 13" ?

Macbook pro 13" Mid 2010
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Need to upgrade my 250GB harddrive to 1TB, do you know if this one will fit ?
http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Mobile-Hard-Drive/dp/B005DVJJWQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_produ ct_top
WD Blue 1 TB Mobile Hard Drive: 2.5 Inch, 5400 RPM, SATA II, 8 MB Cache
Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 2.8 x 0.4 inches
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks guys n' gals!
(also I am going to want to format it for mountain lion, should I just get the DVD from the store to make it easier?)

Do you have a Snow Leopard DVD? If so then you can use it to prep the drive. You are going to need an external enclosure in order to get everything done:
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
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
      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.
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
      Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Source entry field.
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.

Will a Seragate 500 GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive work in my 2009 Macbook Pro?

?

Yes, get a Toshiba (made by Hitachi) or Hitachi 1TB HD, a 1TB drive is only about $70 now even in retail. you CANNOT INSTALL a 1.5 TB drive, because thickness is 12.5mm thick
A macbook CANNOT accept anything thicker than a 9.5mm HD. (=1TB max)
7mm = 500GB max
9.5mm = 500GB or 1TB
12.5mm = 1.5TB
15.2mm = 2TB

Will this hard drive work in my iMac G5?

Will this hard drive work in my G5?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CT56XU/?tag=extension-kb-20
Below are the stats for my iMac.
Thanks for any help!
Processor
Memory
Processor speed:
- 2.0 GHz.
Processor Type:
- PowerPC, G5
Number of Cores:
- 1
Bus Speed:
- 667 Mhz
Cache:
64-bit Support:
- No
Turbo Boost:
- No
Installed RAM:
- CTO
Max. Amount:
- 2.0 GB
Amount of Slots:
- 2
RAM Speed:
- 400 MHz
RAM Type:
- PC-3200, DDR, SDRAM
Storage and Media
Graphics
Hard Drive:
- CTO, 7200rpm.
Hard Drive Brand:
- Unknown.
Drive Bus:
- Serial-ATA
Optical Drive:
- CTO.
Optical Bus:
- Ultra ATA/133
Other Media:
Display Size:
- 17-inch.
Graphics Card:
- ATI Radeon 9600
Card Memory:
- 128 MB
Max. Resolution:
- 1440 x 900
BLU / Coating:
- TFT LCD
Networking
Ports and Expansion
AirPort:
- Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11 b/g)
Ethernet:
- 10/100/1000BASE-T (RJ-45)
Bluetooth:
- Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Infrared:
- None.
Modem:
- 56k v92
USB:
- 3 ports (USB 2.0)
FireWire:
- 2 ports (FW400).
Display port:
- Mini-VGA
Card Slot:
Thunderbolt:
- No Thunderbolt port.
Operating System and Software
Temperature and Cooling
Original OS:
- Mac OS 10.4 Tiger
Maximum OS:
- Mac OS 10.5.8
Recommended OS:
- Mac OS 10.4.11
iLife Supported:
- Coming Soon

Well, there are different versions of Sata. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Revisions
I think this is the info someone would need:
You may want to post machine info.
blue apple > about this mac > more info button. Click on the hardware line. It has a little triangle in front of the word hardware.
Leave out the serial number.
Example:
Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: PowerMac4,1
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (33.11)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 600 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.1.9f1
Look around & see if you can find the bus speed for the SATA.
Robert

Can you fit in a 7200rpm hard drive into a macbook?

mac book pro is expensive.
my main concern about the black macbook is that the hard drive is less than 7200rpm. music software pro tools says to use 7200rpm drives.
so is there a way to put one in? it doesnt seem to be an option to upgrade on mac shop.
pro is expensive!
thanks

Aaron Michalczuk wrote:
Personally, I would recommend you try newegg.com they usually have very good deals. All you need to look for is a 2.5 inch hard drive (usually called a notebook drive or laptop drive). It also should be SATA. Other than that you can just look for whatever specs you would like. I would recommend Western Digital, Seagate, or Samsung as excellent brands. However, for the most part it wont matter too much. I recommend newegg, because it is the largest online computer retailer in the world (i think) and all of their products have good reviews so you can read up on how the hard drives have worked for other people. The hard drive that came stock in my macbook is a Fujitsu which is just another manufacturer. I would base your decision off of the specs and the ratings, not the manufacturer. Just remember 2.5" SATA
I bought from my 200 GB Travelstar 7K200 from Newegg myself. That being said, I doubt Newegg is the largest online computer retailer in the world; they've got an annual revenue rate of just under $2 billion. I'd think Dell would be bigger, although their $68 billion per year may include store sales now that they have boxed computers sold at other retailers. CDW is also bigger.
You forgot the most important spec. The drive height can't be more than 9.5 mm. There are a few oversized drives that are thicker and won't slide into a MacBook.
Best Buy (if you're in the US) has a 200 GB Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 kit complete with USB enclosure for $159.99. It comes in a full retail package, while most of the drives at Newegg come as bare drives in an antistatic bag. I actually paid more just for my drive from Newegg earlier this year, although the price has gone down.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8682222&type=product&id=1197679249 375

7200rpm Hard Drives vs 5400rpm Ones

I was discussing the topic of hard drives with a friend and posited that a 7200rpm hard drive is more prone to failure than a 5400rpm one because of greater stress upon it due to higher speed/heat generated and greater vibration (in other words, more wear and tear).
I was pointing essentially at internal drives since they are in use far more so than external ones.
What are your opinions on this?

For what it is worth, there is rarely any difference in manufacturers MTBF rating for drives based on rotatinal speed. Even 10K and 15K drives - Hitachi lists it's latest 15K rpm enterprise drives at 1.6 million hours MTBF. And all of Hitachi's laptop drives, regardless of rotational speed, are rated for 600K load/unload cycles.
In my own experience (I've worked in IT for about 12 years) I've never noticed a correlation between drive failures and rotational speed. In multiple RAIDs over the years, from 7200rpm ATA to 15000 rpm SATA drives, failure rate seems highly random anyway, but I would hesitantly say it seems to correlate most with hours of actual use (and lets face it, over the 3-5 years life span of most laptops, those drives spend the majority of their time with heads parked).

External hard drives work on tiger but not on leopard. WHY?

My 2 external hard drives worked fine on tiger. I had the backup program and used it every week. Now that I loaded up leopard, I cant see the external hard drives. When I take the drives and plug them to my mac book pro which I have not yet upgraded, they come up fine.
I cant even see them in disk utility
Please help

My external doesn't work either. It seems like it is trying to boot, but doesn't. Meanwhile, the Mac Pro churns and the fan goes into high gear. At that time the screen freezes and the little rainbow wheel just spins. The only way I could get the Mac back was to power down with the power button on the front of the CPU and unplug the external drive. It's just a backup drive but I would like access to it. I'm looking to see if the manufacturer has a patch online, but I'd appreciate any suggestions ion the meantime. I haven't upgraded to Leopard yet on my MacBook Pro, maybe I'll wait a few days... Anyone know what to do?

USB 3.0 External hard drive working only as USB 2.0

Hello all.
I have a MacBook Pro mid 2012 (specs below) which has two USB 3.0 ports. I have a Kingston USB 3.0 stick and a Toshiba 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive. With Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks, both stick and hard drive worked fine, but since I updated to OS X 10.10 Yosemite, both work as USB 2.0 devices, with slow transfer speed and, in the case of the hard drive, it has a blue/white LED that indicates the mode (blue = USB 3.0 / white = USB 2.0) and it only lights up with white color.
It's not a device problem, because both work on Windows 8.x machines. I was guessing that it was some kind of firmware or motherboard's usb driver problem but I looked for firmware updates and found nothing.
Is anyone having issues with USB 3.0 ports? Can you help me with this? Any advice would help.
Thanks a lot for your patience and help.

Hi jesusbet,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like the USB 3 ports on your MacBook Pro are not operating at the expected speed.
The first troubleshooting step I'd suggest in this case is to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your MacBook Pro using these instructions:
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
From:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
If the symptom continues, you can also reset the PRAM:
OS X Yosemite: Reset your computer’s PRAM
These two hardware resets can resolve many unexpected behaviors that affect hardware on a Mac.
All the best,
Jeremy

Will this hard drive work with an HP Probook 4415s

Hello, I have an HP Probook 4415s (black model with 14 inch display). Would a spare hard drive I had, part number 455954-001, work with this laptop? Thanks!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi:
That 160 GB SATA 3.0 HDD should work just fine in your 4415s.

Will this hard drive work with my macbook?

I have a late 2006 Core Duo Macbook. I was wondering if I could use this hard drive with my macbook, it's a 7200 rpm 200 gig hard drive. Btw I mean internal not external. Does the macbook have a limit on how big of a hard drive you can use? Would this hard drive work at 7200 rpm in the macbook?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145160

Hi.
The drive will work perfectly in your macbook. Two weeks ago i was also thinking about buying the Hitachi Travelstar 7k200.
But afterwards i bought this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136123
The WD Scorpio 250GB. Off course it´s not as fast as the Travelstar. But for me three things we´re quiet nice about this harddrive: the noise (it doesn´t make anyone) and the price (got it for 150 euro) and it consumes way less power (means better battery life).
http://www.storagereview.com/WD2500BEVS.sr?page=0%2C7
BTW: It really doesn´t make any noise.
So just in case you´re still unsure whether to buy the Hitachi or anything else. But if you want the fastest notebook HD you can get today, buy the Hitachi.
Have a nice day and fun with your new HD!
Message was edited by: dahack

Would a 7200rpm hard drive work in my 5.2 macbook?

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