Anyone upgraded a macbook pro hard drive?

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KayJay

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I'm running out of space on my hard drive pretty regularly these days, 160GB isn't enough when your cameras generate huge files so I need to upgrade my drive. I was going to do it myself but wondered if anyone has tried it themselves and how did you get on?
 
If you are speaking 08 on then it is easy as pie ;)

Some nice drives available too.
 
KayJay said:
I'm running out of space on my hard drive pretty regularly these days, 160GB isn't enough when your cameras generate huge files so I need to upgrade my drive. I was going to do it myself but wondered if anyone has tried it themselves and how did you get on?
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What year is your MBP?
 
I've got the 3,1 macbook pro, I think that's late 2007. I've done some research and it seems the components can be had for pretty cheep. 750GB 7200rpm hd and 4gb ram upgrade for £130. Might breathe some new life into the old machine. The battery is awful though, it stopped working a year into my ownership. £101 for a new one is a joke.
 
KayJay said:
I've got the 3,1 macbook pro, I think that's late 2007. I've done some research and it seems the components can be had for pretty cheep. 750GB 7200rpm hd and 4gb ram upgrade for £130. Might breathe some new life into the old machine. The battery is awful though, it stopped working a year into my ownership. £101 for a new one is a joke.
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You've got the pre-unibody which is harder to upgrade, but here's a good website with a step by step guide_
http://www.ifixit.com/Browse/MacBook_Pro
 
I've got everything backed up already. The only downside is my Apple Care ran out 4 months ago. D'oh!
 
KayJay said:
I've got everything backed up already. The only downside is my Apple Care ran out 4 months ago. D'oh!
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Is the HD faulty or just full?
 
It's full. The battery is faulty though. I've had to backup twice already just to make room for more work.
 
Gota ya. Might be worth contacting Apple regarding the battery, I've heard of people getting a free replacement for faulty batteries, plus your just out of AppleCare
 
Apple pretty much say the hard drive is user replaceable and give instructions on their website how to do it. I'd recommend buying a cheap external USB case for your current drive and together with SuperDuper you can just clone the old drive to the new one and then carry on as normal.
 
t-m said:
Apple pretty much say the hard drive is user replaceable and give instructions on their website how to do it. I'd recommend buying a cheap external USB case for your current drive and together with SuperDuper you can just clone the old drive to the new one and then carry on as normal.
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The OP has a pre unibody so it's a bit more involved
 
Took just under 5 hours to do the ghost image with SuperDuper! and then the RAM and HD install. Working a treat now. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Can anybody offer advice on upgrading a 2009 unibody MacBook pro? I have 4GB Ram in it and only 160GB HD. I'd possibly like 8gb and 500mb if possible? How long would it take to do?
 
Yes I have snow leopard. What do I need to look for in a new hard drive? Can anybody give me an example? As I'm useless with stuff like this.

Thanks.
 
MrCraigBerry said:
Yes I have snow leopard. What do I need to look for in a new hard drive? Can anybody give me an example? As I'm useless with stuff like this.

Thanks.
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You need a 2.5" SATA HD something like these_
The first one is a 7200rpm HD [so slightly faster], your current HD is probably 5400rpm. Some people prefer faster HDs in laptops some don't.
You don't mention what capacity you need/want, the examples below are 500Gb
http://www.dabs.com/products/seagat...mb-68KD.html?refs=52450000-41580000-370810000

http://www.dabs.com/products/wester...mb-58P6.html?refs=52450000-41580000-370810000

It's pretty straight forward to replace the HD in the MBP
 
There's also a link in this thread for a site with guides for most of the Macbook Pro models. I found it useful when doing my upgrade last night.
 
KayJay said:
There's also a link in this thread for a site with guides for most of the Macbook Pro models. I found it useful when doing my upgrade last night.
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So on a scale of 1 lo 10 how tricky was it? I'm in a similar situation with my macbook pro but at the moment so I just use a couple of lacie rugged drives. (been really pleased with them and they take abuse well) but a bigger hard drive would be useful. I've changed the hard drive in a mac book before but heard the pro was a lot harder?
 
I'd say it was a 4 over-all. A 2 for the RAM upgrade and a 6 for the HD installation. The only reason it took so long is that you just need to be careful. It's there in front of your face but you just need to be patient if that makes sense. Once it was put back together I thought to myself, 'was that it?'. You need to be gentle when peeling back cables and lifting the top of the body off.
 
Thanks for the help.

Just ordered the first 500GB Seagate, along with an enclosure for my current HD and 8GB Ram. Should be good to go!
 
Sounds good. You could even have gone to 750gb. Took 4 weeks for my drive to arrive from Dabs.com though.
 
Just copied my hard drive in just over an hour with SuperDuper.

Really easy to swap them over and put in 8GB ram at the same time.

Everything seems good so far!
 
I upgraded the HDD in my 13" 2009 MBP to a 7200RPM 512GB Seagate drive about six months ago.

The additional heat produced by the drive means it is now not possible to use the laptop on your lap, I've had to buy a laptop cooler thing to make it usable.

I've got a Thinkpad for work that is packing an I7 and beefy dedicated graphics processor, and it doesn't ever go much above 'warm'. ****** design on the MBP, classic form over function, like the world would end if the cooling vents were visible.
 
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