Looking to do some upgrades on my MBP

[xanis]

Around the beginning of January I'm looking to get two upgrades for my MBP, a new HD and RAM. I'm looking at a Seagate Momentus 250GB HDD and 4GB (2x2GB) of G.Skill DDR2. As far as I can tell, there are no compatibility issues with those pieces of hardware and the current MBP hardware/software.

Does anyone have any guides for installation of these things? Also, if anyone wants to suggest other parts that are either better quality or a better value, I'm all ears.

 

[AsianriceX]

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/

Choose your flavor of Macbook Pro

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: AsianriceX
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/

Choose your flavor of Macbook Pro

Awesome. Thanks!

 

[xanis]

One more question....

If I use CarbonCopyCloner to copy my HD to an external USB HD as a bootable clone, will I be able to just boot up from the external hard drive and copy it back to my internal HDD without the OS disc or anything?

 

[Tyranicus]

Yes. I can personally attest that it works just fine too.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Xanis
One more question....

If I use CarbonCopyCloner to copy my HD to an external USB HD as a bootable clone, will I be able to just boot up from the external hard drive and copy it back to my internal HDD without the OS disc or anything?

Yes, though an easier thing to do would be this. Put your new drive into the enclosure, CCC to that from the internal. Pull the new drive out of the enclosure and pull the drive out of the MacBook. Swap the drives. Done.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Xanis
One more question....

If I use CarbonCopyCloner to copy my HD to an external USB HD as a bootable clone, will I be able to just boot up from the external hard drive and copy it back to my internal HDD without the OS disc or anything?

Yes, though an easier thing to do would be this. Put your new drive into the enclosure, CCC to that from the internal. Pull the new drive out of the enclosure and pull the drive out of the MacBook. Swap the drives. Done.

That is easier...

Thanks!

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Xanis
One more question....

If I use CarbonCopyCloner to copy my HD to an external USB HD as a bootable clone, will I be able to just boot up from the external hard drive and copy it back to my internal HDD without the OS disc or anything?

Yes, though an easier thing to do would be this. Put your new drive into the enclosure, CCC to that from the internal. Pull the new drive out of the enclosure and pull the drive out of the MacBook. Swap the drives. Done.

That is easier...

Thanks!

No worries, I've done it plenty of times, though I have yet to do a drive swap internally, so it is usually the first thing you mentioned, where I CCC to an external and then back to the internal. Another advantage to CCCing is that it 'optimizes' the drive during the cloning process, it will rearrange the files and bits such that you really will have as much free space available as the OS says you do. I know that sometimes OS X will say I have 20GB free.. and I could put 20GB of stuff onto the drive (so it isn't lying to me or anything) but it will not let me create a new partition in that 20GB gap. That is what optimizing does for you. Gives you a unified block of free space on the disk platters.

 

[manly]

I'd suggest a 7200 rpm drive, 320GB will be the norm by January. These have already been inexpensive recently.

I'm waiting for Seagate's 500GB drive to be released around that time frame; hopefully the price will be reasonable before long.

 

[dclive]

320gb is $99-ish at newegg these days....pretty cheap.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Will CCC enlarge the partition if you are going to use a larger drive?

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
Will CCC enlarge the partition if you are going to use a larger drive?

All CCC cares about is bits. So if you have 32GB on a 320GB drive, and you want to put in a smaller driver, so long as the smaller drive has a partition large enough to fit the data, you are golden.

 

[sourceninja]

I've been considering upgrading my hard drive as well. I'm a bit nervous about being able to put the case back together properly.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I've been considering upgrading my hard drive as well. I'm a bit nervous about being able to put the case back together properly.

You and me both. I figure that as long as I'm careful, I follow instructions, and I go slow I should be perfectly fine.

Originally posted by: manly
I'd suggest a 7200 rpm drive, 320GB will be the norm by January. These have already been inexpensive recently.

I'm waiting for Seagate's 500GB drive to be released around that time frame; hopefully the price will be reasonable before long.

It looks like I can get this hard drive for only $30 more, and I'll get double the storage space I have now plus the added speed of a 7200rpm HDD.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I've been considering upgrading my hard drive as well. I'm a bit nervous about being able to put the case back together properly.

You and me both. I figure that as long as I'm careful, I follow instructions, and I go slow I should be perfectly fine.

Originally posted by: manly
I'd suggest a 7200 rpm drive, 320GB will be the norm by January. These have already been inexpensive recently.

I'm waiting for Seagate's 500GB drive to be released around that time frame; hopefully the price will be reasonable before long.

It looks like I can get this hard drive for only $30 more, and I'll get double the storage space I have now plus the added speed of a 7200rpm HDD.

Yes.. just go slow and make sure to be extra careful with the screws. I've done this about 4-5x now with my MBP and haven't had any issues. But I just have to take it slow and make sure I remove ALL the screws that you need to, or else you could bend the case.

BTW, used both the WD 320GB 7200rpm... and the Samsung 500GB 5400rpm, and I would DEFINITELY go for the 7200rpm drive. Much better performance.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Kmax82

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I've been considering upgrading my hard drive as well. I'm a bit nervous about being able to put the case back together properly.

You and me both. I figure that as long as I'm careful, I follow instructions, and I go slow I should be perfectly fine.

Originally posted by: manly
I'd suggest a 7200 rpm drive, 320GB will be the norm by January. These have already been inexpensive recently.

I'm waiting for Seagate's 500GB drive to be released around that time frame; hopefully the price will be reasonable before long.

It looks like I can get this hard drive for only $30 more, and I'll get double the storage space I have now plus the added speed of a 7200rpm HDD.

Yes.. just go slow and make sure to be extra careful with the screws. I've done this about 4-5x now with my MBP and haven't had any issues. But I just have to take it slow and make sure I remove ALL the screws that you need to, or else you could bend the case.

BTW, used both the WD 320GB 7200rpm... and the Samsung 500GB 5400rpm, and I would DEFINITELY go for the 7200rpm drive. Much better performance.

Thanks for input. I'm definitely going with the 7200rpm drive I think. I'll also need some Torx screwdrivers apparently... can I get those at a local hardware store or will I need to look online or in a specialty place?

 

[Kmax82]

Got mine at a local Lowe's, but I'm sure any local hardware store should have them. I believe it's a T6 that is used, but you can grab a whole set for around $15 usually.

 

[sourceninja]

I'm really thinking about doing it now...I could use a larger faster hard drive.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Does putting a new hard drive in void the apple care warranty?

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
Does putting a new hard drive in void the apple care warranty?

There are 2 schools of thought on that one.
1: There are no official, publicly available documents (that I know of) for removing/replacing the hard drive in the MacBook Pro (pre late 2008 model) (MacBook does have such documentation). Because of this, replacements are only valid if performed by an authorized Apple Technician.
2: The other school of thought was actually a court ruling (cannot find it right now) that stated that if it is reachable by the enduser, and can be removed simply by undoing some tape and screws, that the manufacturer may not void the warranty unless they can conclusively prove that the hardware failure that provoked the warranty to be used was directly caused by the work that the end user did. Very difficult to do in most circumstances.

Here are my thoughts on the matter. If you are careful, and follow the provided guides, you should have no problems. Worst case scenario, put the Apple provided drive back in if you ever need to have the laptop serviced.

 

[sourceninja]

I've got a bug lit under my ass now. I think i'm going to put 4 gigs of ram and a 7200 rpm drive in. Probably 320 gig. Any suggestions on what manufactures to go with?