About to change my MB HDD. How do I start? Should I really do it myself?

[ImNoSuperMan]

So here I am. Using my MB for almost a day now. I m about to change the HDD now myself. I havent done any hardware upgrade myself. Not even RAM. Is it really easy? I m right now looking for ImAlwaysRight`s post where he has a few snaps while he was doing it all.

I have a samsung 120GB5400 momentus HDD in a USB case. I want to swap the ibooks HDD with this one. I know it`s compatible. How should I start now. Do I format the HDD first?. It has three partitions rite now and has data on it(I`ve aleady backed it up. So no probs). Which type of format I need. I think there were a few options and only one or 2 out of three works with Mac n Windows both. I`ve never done a completely fresh install ever before. Windows was so confusing. I tried once and finally decided to call a tech instead.

Or are all these questions already answered somewhere? Please direct me.

I m planning to install Windows on it. But I`d like to get over with the HDD replacement and tiger installation first.

 

[applemacdude]

is your hd sata or ata?

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

is your hd sata or ata?

OOPS. I just dont know. . Please tell me how to find out. Thanx.

BTW. Just saw that video showing HDD replacement in MB. Seems really simple n easy.

EDIT: Just opened the HDD and it`s written ULTRA ATA on the HDD.

 

[Laser47]

EDIT: Just opened the HDD and it`s written ULTRA ATA on the HDD.

Most likely the drive is PATA not SATA, since you got it from a USB drive.
PATA, has lots of pins on it. SATA has connectors

Serial ATA

Parallel ATA

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

Does this mean I cant use the HDD in my MB

 

[CanadaRAM]

Does this mean I cant use the HDD in my MB

Correct. Leave it in the external case.

 

[dmetzcher]

The only thing you can do it get yourself a SATA drive, if you really want to replace the drive in the MacBook.