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Want to upgrade a Macbook HDD to 250GB for Leopard? Do what I did!

Y

yabai

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 27, 2007
38
0
I recently upgraded my Black Macbook's Hard Disk to a Western Digital 250GB Scorpio. I simply went to Costco and bought a 250GB Passport External Drive for $140, cheaper than most online stores, and cracked open the case to find the SATA drive ready for installing. The enclosure has no screws and comes right off with a little force, and I put the Apple OEM drive (a Seagate, by the way) back into the enclosure and snapped it back together. It works like a charm. This is the easiest and cheapest way I can think of to replace the HDD, but then again I don't mind WD drives, as I understand some do. :)

I recommend this method if you have a Costco nearby!
 
Of course, you save pennies by doing this and have a case for your old drive - however, if anything goes wrong with the new drive, you save nothing because your warranty is now null and void.

It is a gamble, which should pay off for most, but not all, takers.
 
weckart said:
Of course, you save pennies by doing this and have a case for your old drive - however, if anything goes wrong with the new drive, you save nothing because your warranty is now null and void.

It is a gamble, which should pay off for most, but not all, takers.
Click to expand...

Huh? I replaced both my RAM and HDD myself. Later still can get Apple's service.
 
I'm gunna say thank you for this thread. This forum definitely needs more cool ideas like that, rather than a lot of people moaning or complaining about something.

Thanks!

Good tip.
 
weckart said:
Of course, you save pennies by doing this and have a case for your old drive - however, if anything goes wrong with the new drive, you save nothing because your warranty is now null and void.

It is a gamble, which should pay off for most, but not all, takers.
Click to expand...

If something goes wrong you put the 250GB drive back into it's enclosure and get a replacement right away at Cost Co.

They can deal with any problems with warranty :D

I don't normally advocate this but the warranty should cover hardware failure no matter how it fails (as long as it isn't broken by man-handling)
 
SpaceMagic said:
I'm gunna say thank you for this thread. This forum definitely needs more cool ideas like that, rather than a lot of people moaning or complaining about something.

Thanks!

Good tip.
Click to expand...

yeah but you do realize this is a common idea (using a passport and pulling the drive) and what maybe 60-75% of people do right?

you must not read the macbook forums much;)
 
Right, as others have said, once you remove the drive from the external enclosure the warranty is void from Western Digital. It may not be a big deal, but if it happens to die within 3-4 months then you're left out in the cold.
 
squeeks said:
yeah but you do realize this is a common idea (using a passport and pulling the drive) and what maybe 60-75% of people do right?

you must not read the macbook forums much;)
Click to expand...


I read. I read. Just. He/she told us about costco, etc. It's a good up to date tip. Good forum stuff.
 
Not so great of an idea...

yabai said:
I recently upgraded my Black Macbook's Hard Disk to a Western Digital 250GB Scorpio. I simply went to Costco and bought a 250GB Passport External Drive for $140, cheaper than most online stores, and cracked open the case to find the SATA drive ready for installing. The enclosure has no screws and comes right off with a little force, and I put the Apple OEM drive (a Seagate, by the way) back into the enclosure and snapped it back together. It works like a charm. This is the easiest and cheapest way I can think of to replace the HDD, but then again I don't mind WD drives, as I understand some do. :)

I recommend this method if you have a Costco nearby!
Click to expand...

Considering you can buy the WD drive for 150-160 dollars and get a full warranty from WD, this would not be such a smooth move. I purchased one from Amazon for 150ish, and this Geeks.com has then for 153.00 and it has been lower as I posted previously.
 
It's not like Costco is going to check and see if the drive had been opened up. they will either replace it or just give you store credit. My uncle had a computer go bad that he had owned for over a year and they just exchanged it for him. They don't care, they aren't a computer store.
 
weckart said:
Of course, you save pennies by doing this and have a case for your old drive - however, if anything goes wrong with the new drive, you save nothing because your warranty is now null and void.

It is a gamble, which should pay off for most, but not all, takers.
Click to expand...

Not true. I did this also with a passport. Got mine for $90 each from staples deal. The case opens up no problem. If it goes bad just put it back in the case. There are not stickers or anything that rip so they can't tell. Got me 4 of those drives. They are awesome. Best part about them... they use one cable and it has one usb plug. All others have one cable with 2 usb plugs. One for power and other for data. I don't know how WD did it but its nice.
 
Id like a more indepth tutorial

Ok, I havent replaced a hardrive in my mac since doing it in my 12in powerbook. That didnt go so well, it involved a dremmel and ill just leave it at that.

Id like a little more indepth tutorial on this procedure. I know theres a sliding door near the battery to switch out the hard drive. Is there a cage that slides out?

My last switch out involved an external case and carbon copy cloner. Last time i had an identical drive (as i suspected hd failure was about to happen) but this time the drive will be larger. Will carbon copy cloner be ok with this? Id like to partition the new drive in half for leapord. Is there a utility that I can use to do it? Should I boot to my original drive and use disk utility to partition? Whats the method for booting to an external drive with osx?

I would like to dual boot different versions of osx. Is this even possible? Would it just be easier to leave it on an external, is it the only way? Where does boot camp fit into all this? Can you boot to it on an external?

Any and all responses are much appreciated along with a detailed tutorial.
 
anothermacaddic said:
Ok, I havent replaced a hardrive in my mac since doing it in my 12in powerbook. That didnt go so well, it involved a dremmel and ill just leave it at that.

Id like a little more indepth tutorial on this procedure. I know theres a sliding door near the battery to switch out the hard drive. Is there a cage that slides out?
Click to expand...

www.ifixit.com for detailed guides

i tried opening up my 12" ibook, i got to step 37 of 75 and gave up and put i back together, then apple released the macbook and all you have to do is remove one stupid panel...grr

anyway, unrelated....ive been wanting to get one of those 250gb passports just to use as a nice little carry around drive since it dosent need ext. power
 
Just curious does anyone know if these drives are 5400rpm or 7200rpm? I'm thinking about upgrading my black macbook to a 7200rpm drive and may consider this option if it is. Otherwise I'll stick with a seagate replacement.
 
I was going to go that route, but WD's specs on the passport says it only has 2MB of cache, can you confirm either way?
 
There are two decent HD deals going on at BB now.

There is a Hitachi 200GB:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...b+usb&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1177112455216

Look for serial numbers beginning in DTG or DEG. These contain 7200rpm 8MB drives. Other serial numbers are 5400rpm.

Then a WD Passport 250GB:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...+250&lp=10&type=product&cp=1&id=1185271084347

Contains a WD2500BEVS. 5400rpm 8MB. Ordering from newegg is 169.00, so 10 bucks cheaper + local pickup + usb enclosure.

Your choice, 7200rpm drive for $143 (if your BB has the right serial numbers) or a 250GB drive for $17 more. I went with the 250.
 
It's good idea, around the same price as buying the drive separately with a drive caddy/enclosure here in the UK though;
WD Passport= £105
Scorpio 250GB =£88
Enclosure= £5-£20

Unfortunately all the UK sites i've checked read as 2MB buffer for the passport...hmm, definitely a no-goer for moi.
 
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