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upgrading MBP HDD, what specs does it have to be?

M

mark2288

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 11, 2006
239
4
Through a college program I got a nice slick MBP. The only thing lacking is a nice HDD, mine currently has a 60 GB harddrive in it.

I want to completely eliminate PC-only machines from my life, but my plan to have BootCamp is hindered by my HDD space.

Anyhows, regardless of whether I go BootCamp or Parallels, I want to upgrade my MacBook Pro HDD.

What do the specs have to be on it. Or better yet, could someone post links to where I can get these hardrives.

I think I found a compatible 300 GB, but then again I'm not sure since I don't know what the specs need to be.

Thanks. Sorry if I sound Mac-illiterate...
 
I was pretty sure the MBP sold with a minimum of 80GB hard drive.

You'll need a 2.5" SATA drive....the largest you'll find is 160GB.
 
Yes, you're right on the 80 GB min...

Any recs for which to get?
 
Not really...they are probably all fine.

That said, you'll be voiding your warranty by changing the hard drive....just be away of that. Also, do you need more than 80GB with you at any given time? Why not buy a large external hard drive to keep files that you don't need while mobile (you know, all of those keyboard drivers). That way, you can get 300+ GB drives, and not void your warranty.
 
Sounds good. I wouldn't want to void my warranty.

I currently have an external, but it's NTFS so my Mac cannot write to it?

What can I do about that?
 
mark2288 said:
Sounds good. I wouldn't want to void my warranty.

I currently have an external, but it's NTFS so my Mac cannot write to it?

What can I do about that?
Click to expand...

Mac can read NTFS, but not write it. The only format that both Windows and OSX can read is FAT32. Just remember that you'll be limited to partitions of 32GB, so for a 300GB drive, you'd have about 8 partitions.
 
32 GB partitions!? arg...that sucks!

my external is a 250 GB seagate...so if i reformat it, and then plug it in, 7 external hardrives would should up?
 
mark2288 said:
32 GB partitions!? arg...that sucks!

my external is a 250 GB seagate...so if i reformat it, and then plug it in, 7 external hardrives would should up?
Click to expand...

I'm guestimating the number of partitions....whatever it takes basically.

32GB because that's all FAT32 can handle. This is why MS moved to NTFS...of course the specs are closed, so no one can read/write without reverse engineering. To be safe, Apple decided to not enable writing (most Linux distros are this way too). Blame Microsoft. Although MS can't read Apple's format either, so blame Apple too.
 
Wait!

Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 filesystems of any size, but the format program on these platforms can only create FAT32 filesystems up to 32 GB.

Can my Mac format it so it can bypass the windows 32 gb limit?
 
I would keep it at 8 partitions, you could put different file categories in each one, like games in one and document backups in another.
 
Is FAT32 reliable....by that I mean should I be worried about HDD corruption?

If not, might as well go with 8 partitions...

But what about MacDrive? Do you recommend that?
 
mark2288 said:
Wait!

Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 filesystems of any size, but the format program on these platforms can only create FAT32 filesystems up to 32 GB.

Can my Mac format it so it can bypass the windows 32 gb limit?
Click to expand...

I was going to mention that, but I figured it would just confuse things. I believe you'll need to use Windows to format it. If you have a DOS machine, you can format it larger, but I'm not 100% that those sizes are within spec...so maybe OSX won't read them. I dunno. To be safe, use 32GB partitions...it's easier, and guaranteed.

And no, there's nothing wrong with FAT32 as far as reliability goes. It's been used for a long long time...NTFS just had stuff that made it more desirable for a modern OS....for storage, FAT32 is fine (although file size is limited to 4GB).
 
mmmcheese said:
That said, you'll be voiding your warranty by changing the hard drive....just be away of that.
Click to expand...

Changing the hard drive does not void the waranty on the MacBook. Apple has published instructions on how to change the drive on their website that specifically state that any damage you cause will not be covered by waranty. Apple has stated repeatedly that replacing the hard drive does not void the waranty.

To the original poster, you need a 2.5 inch SATA drive that is no more than 9.5mm in height. The largest currently available SATA notebook drive is 160GB.
 
mrichmon said:
Changing the hard drive does not void the waranty on the MacBook. Apple has published instructions on how to change the drive on their website that specifically state that any damage you cause will not be covered by waranty. Apple has stated repeatedly that replacing the hard drive does not void the waranty.

To the original poster, you need a 2.5 inch SATA drive that is no more than 9.5mm in height. The largest currently available SATA notebook drive is 160GB.
Click to expand...

That's the MacBook, not the MacBook Pro...
 
mark2288 said:
But now, what's a TiB??? Hopefully something larger than a gigabyte...
Click to expand...
TiB (tebibyte) is the correct term for 1024 GiB (Gibibytes). They're commonly referred to as TB (terabytes) and GB (gigabytes), but there's a difference. This is explained very well on the Kibibyte page.

And I wish it were as ridiculously easy to upgrade a HD on all Macs, like the MacBook and G5 tower.
 
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