What hard drive upgrade for Macbook Pro 13?

drunkmonkey

Need to upgrade my drive rapidly running out of space, spotted this 1TB drive on ebay and i'm thinking I probably will fill it up, the price seems good, would this be a good buy http://cgi.ebay.ie/1TB-SATA-Notebook-Laptop-Hard-Drive-MacBook-Pro-1-TB-/400125115848?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d2950bdc8

Ham'nd'egger

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Need to upgrade my drive rapidly running out of space, spotted this 1TB drive on ebay and i'm thinking I probably will fill it up, the price seems good, would this be a good buy http://cgi.ebay.ie/1TB-SATA-Notebook-Laptop-Hard-Drive-MacBook-Pro-1-TB-/400125115848?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d2950bdc8

By the time you get that shipped over from the US and pay for the add on's etc, you'd have gone into town and gotten external HD's at that size for the same and less money.

whiterebel

I'm with Ham'n'egger. I'd buy a good external FW drive to use as a back up, not spend that money on the drive for the laptop.

Dr.Sanchez

Here's the same hard drive but sold from an Irish website...

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=MME1411072

mathepac

I think this 1TB external FW drive is the bargain of the month direct from Iomega (Ive no connection with them) http://go.iomega.com/en/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/ultramax-single/?partner=4725&source=eu_email_2010&utm_source=20100622_en_ie&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=en_ie&utm_content=online_20100622_en_ie

Dr.Sanchez

mathepac wrote: »

I think this 1TB external FW drive is the bargain of the month direct from Iomega (Ive no connection with them) http://go.iomega.com/en/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/ultramax-single/?partner=4725&source=eu_email_2010&utm_source=20100622_en_ie&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=en_ie&utm_content=online_20100622_en_ie

He's looking for an internal hard drive though..

Ellmo06

Can you put 1tb in a macbook? will the motherboard be able to handle it?

Ellmo06

bump

Sad Professor

Ellmo06 wrote: »

Can you put 1tb in a macbook? will the motherboard be able to handle it?

I'm pretty certain the SATA controller doesn't discriminate about the size of the hard drive. As long as it is SATA, it should work. The only issue is the physical size of the drive. The only 1TB notebook drive I'm aware of is the WD Scorpio Blue which is 12.5mm in height (versus the usual 9.5mm). I'm not sure if this would fit in a Macbook, and even if it did whether it's really a good idea. Heat, etc.

Does anyone else know about this? The last I heard there was a lot of conflicting reports.

Jev/N

500GB should be more than enough, 1TB would be nice but you'd be surprised how far the 500 will go

Inspector Gadget

There's a bit of a gotcha for hard disk replacements in the non-Pro Macbooks, and this probably exists in the Macbook Pros as well as they'll have the same setup, unless it's been fixed in software somehow

Namely, the issue of the built-in accelerometer (otherwise known as a drop sensor). Some disks also have one, some don't, and the ones that do tend to cause issues as they clash with the built-in ones somehow. I have a 500GB Seagate drive in my Macbook, the ST9500420AS model, which doesn't have the sensor (the ST9500420ASG on the other hand, does). While I have occasional randomly timed lockups with this drive (as Apple won't fix the firmware in this particular model to handle 7200 rpm drives), they only last about a second or so and are only a mild annoyance. Apparently it's MUCH more severe with drives with drop sensors in them.

I suggest you check if these issues (clashing drop sensors, 7200 rpm drive lockups) still exist for your model, and if so, find yourself a drive to match.
Hope this helps,
Gadget

Jev/N

Inspector Gadget wrote: »

There's a bit of a gotcha for hard disk replacements in the non-Pro Macbooks, and this probably exists in the Macbook Pros as well as they'll have the same setup, unless it's been fixed in software somehow

Namely, the issue of the built-in accelerometer (otherwise known as a drop sensor). Some disks also have one, some don't, and the ones that do tend to cause issues as they clash with the built-in ones somehow. I have a 500GB Seagate drive in my Macbook, the ST9500420AS model, which doesn't have the sensor (the ST9500420ASG on the other hand, does). While I have occasional randomly timed lockups with this drive (as Apple won't fix the firmware in this particular model to handle 7200 rpm drives), they only last about a second or so and are only a mild annoyance. Apparently it's MUCH more severe with drives with drop sensors in them.

I suggest you check if these issues (clashing drop sensors, 7200 rpm drive lockups) still exist for your model, and if so, find yourself a drive to match.
Hope this helps,
Gadget

If you accidentally buy the 'G' models, you can disable the native shock protection through terminal, as the protection in the hard drive will suffice and there will be no clashes.

Sad Professor

Does anyone know if the ShockGuard in WD's Scorpio Blue drives conflict with the sudden motion sensor?

Inspector Gadget

Yes, it's true that you can turn off the laptop's own shock protection feature, but that will remain off after that; if you replace the drive again for some reason, and you get a non-shock-protected drive, the laptop's own protection system won't reactivate (as far as I know, anyway...) and you'll be left more vulnerable to disk shock problems.

I don't like those kinds of fixes for that reason as they're something that people (well, me, anyway) will definitely have forgotten about by the next time a hard drive upgrade comes around. If there was some way of doing it in the drive, it'd be a much smarter overall option as the settings change is only active when that specific disk is in the machine.

Also, WD's Shockguard is an example of exactly what I've been describing, so yes, it will clash with the laptop unless you turn one or other off.