MacBook Pro Hard Drive Upgrade

Ju$tice

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
179
I want to upgrade the hard drive in me and my friends MacBook Pros to a larger and faster 7200rpm 500gb hard drive.
I am unsure as to what hard drives I should purchase to make the upgrade?

Here are the two laptops

Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,2

Thanks.
George.
 
Basically any 2.5" 7,200rpm sata harddrive whould be fine.


The WD Scorpio Black - WD5000BEKT is a popular drive.
 
I got the SAMSUNG Spinpoint MP4 in my 2010 13" macbook pro. 640 GB 7200rpms, works great. Was easy to install also. Just remove the bottom of the macbook like 10 screws iirc, another 1-2 screws holds down the HD then just pull it out removing the sata connector. I took the plastic tab off the OEM drive and put it on the samsung also.

I also cloned my OEM drive (near fresh install) to the samsung prior to putting the drive in via a USB to sata device.

Pretty sure the 17 might be easier.

Overall as JohnieMVP said, any 2.5" 7,200 works in the unibody macbooks.
 
i bought Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 2.5IN SATA 7200RPM 16MB Notebook Hard Drive for my MBP 13''. it worked fine.

a little advise, dont waste money on 7200 HD, just buy 60gb SSD , get a portable HD if you need more space.
 
You really either want size OR speed.

If having a faster machine is what you want then I would suggest going for an SSD. If you can't afford a larger one get a small one and then put a regular HDD in the Optibay (make sure it has its own Sudden Motion Sensor). Now that I have a SSD in my MBP I can't go back to a regular spindle drive.
 
You really either want size OR speed.

If having a faster machine is what you want then I would suggest going for an SSD. If you can't afford a larger one get a small one and then put a regular HDD in the Optibay (make sure it has its own Sudden Motion Sensor). Now that I have a SSD in my MBP I can't go back to a regular spindle drive.

This for the win. Who needs and optical drive anymore anyway and the performance difference is SOO much more than a 7200 drive.
 
I would suggest the Western Digital Scorpio Black 750GB 7200rpm HDD. Check newegg, they have a great deal on it. It's the one I am purchasing.
 
You really either want size OR speed.

If having a faster machine is what you want then I would suggest going for an SSD. If you can't afford a larger one get a small one and then put a regular HDD in the Optibay (make sure it has its own Sudden Motion Sensor). Now that I have a SSD in my MBP I can't go back to a regular spindle drive.

This is the setup I have on my MBP and it is perfect. I boot in 14 seconds and have plenty of storage for my music on the second HD.
 
Is it difficult to install an SSD in an MBP? I'm thinking about installing a 115GB SSD for the main drive and moving the current 500GB drive to the optical bay.
 
Is it difficult to install an SSD in an MBP? I'm thinking about installing a 115GB SSD for the main drive and moving the current 500GB drive to the optical bay.

It's insanely easy. You'll just need a 00 philips screwdriver and a #6 tox. Pop the battery cover off, remove the screw holding it in. Pull the drive out a little and take the SATA cable off the back. Now you can remove the 4 screws (torx) on the sides of the current hard drive and put them on the new one. Plug the cables back in, put the plastic holder back on and screw it in and then you're good to go.
 
It's insanely easy. You'll just need a 00 philips screwdriver and a #6 tox. Pop the battery cover off, remove the screw holding it in. Pull the drive out a little and take the SATA cable off the back. Now you can remove the 4 screws (torx) on the sides of the current hard drive and put them on the new one. Plug the cables back in, put the plastic holder back on and screw it in and then you're good to go.

Or, if you're ghetto like me, you can take some pliers to the torx screws and get them out that way ;)

How did you all put the hdd in the opti-bay? Did you use the adapter from ifixit or find something better? Also, can you boot a MBP from an external USB DVD drive for fresh installs and the like?
 
It's insanely easy. You'll just need a 00 philips screwdriver and a #6 tox. Pop the battery cover off, remove the screw holding it in. Pull the drive out a little and take the SATA cable off the back. Now you can remove the 4 screws (torx) on the sides of the current hard drive and put them on the new one. Plug the cables back in, put the plastic holder back on and screw it in and then you're good to go.
Cool. Looks easy enough. I found a kit that includes the screwdrivers and a caddy for mounting a hard drive in the optical bay. Thanks!
 
check out the seagate momentus XT hybrid SSD drive. i just bought a few of these but have not received them yet. currently im using a owc SSD in macbook pro.

heres a cool video on the hybrid drive (scroll down to the bottom)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/laptop-hdd/

Avoid the XT. There are an alarming number of users reporting problems with that drive. There's a reason nobody else has bothered bring their own version of a hybrid drive to the market yet.
 
Avoid the XT. There are an alarming number of users reporting problems with that drive. There's a reason nobody else has bothered bring their own version of a hybrid drive to the market yet.

This. I had one that I could never get to work in my MBP. What a nightmare.
 
Or, if you're ghetto like me, you can take some pliers to the torx screws and get them out that way ;)

How did you all put the hdd in the opti-bay? Did you use the adapter from ifixit or find something better? Also, can you boot a MBP from an external USB DVD drive for fresh installs and the like?

I used the Maxconnect optibay kit available from Maxupgrades.com. Its good quality and included an enclosure for the optical drive so I can still use it when I need to. And yes, you can boot from the external DVD drive.
 
You really either want size OR speed.

If having a faster machine is what you want then I would suggest going for an SSD. If you can't afford a larger one get a small one and then put a regular HDD in the Optibay (make sure it has its own Sudden Motion Sensor). Now that I have a SSD in my MBP I can't go back to a regular spindle drive.

I'm wondering if having two HDs in a MBP 13" would make it ridiculously hot in there...
 
I'm wondering if having two HDs in a MBP 13" would make it ridiculously hot in there...

I havent had any problems. Seems to run about the same as as always. SSDs run so cool in the first place and most of the time the HDD is only idling.
 
What kind of SSDs have you all put into your MBP? Are there any sort of compatibility issues?
 
I used the Maxconnect optibay kit available from Maxupgrades.com. Its good quality and included an enclosure for the optical drive so I can still use it when I need to. And yes, you can boot from the external DVD drive.

Did that void your warranty?
 
I refuse to buy anything less than a 250gb drive for a laptop and haven't bought less than a 500gb in the last few years, when SSD's get to about $150 for 250gb then I will bite but I am stocking up on spindle drives while the early adopters of SSD's drive the demand and prices down. Thanks guys. ;)

Who cares how fast it boots I rarely turn my units off.:cool:
 
I refuse to buy anything less than a 250gb drive for a laptop and haven't bought less than a 500gb in the last few years, when SSD's get to about $150 for 250gb then I will bite but I am stocking up on spindle drives while the early adopters of SSD's drive the demand and prices down. Thanks guys. ;)

Who cares how fast it boots I rarely turn my units off.:cool:

Not just booting. All load times. Photoshop for me opens in <4 seconds. Switching levels in games is extremely short. etc. There is an appreciable difference in how "snappy" the system fills. Although it has tangible benefits, it has intangible ones as well.

SSD prices aren't exactly what you want to pay, but even recently the Samsung 830 256GB has gone on sale for $200. That's less than $1 per GB, I think it's a steal. Eventually, of course, all SSD's will be much less expensive. But I generally think the price is right for the performance gain.
 
I refuse to buy anything less than a 250gb drive for a laptop and haven't bought less than a 500gb in the last few years, when SSD's get to about $150 for 250gb then I will bite but I am stocking up on spindle drives while the early adopters of SSD's drive the demand and prices down. Thanks guys. ;)

Who cares how fast it boots I rarely turn my units off.:cool:

Thanks for bumping an old ass thread to let us know.
 
Any 2.5" hard drive should be fine. I put a 512GB Crucial SSD in my 2011 MBP a few weeks ago, works perfectly.
 
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