Upgrading Macbook Pro HDD

DubDJ

I'm thinking of upgrading the internal HDD of my Pro. I'm just wondering how difficult it can be, I wouldn't want to damage my Macbook Pro. I have a 500GB (7200rpm) HDD at the moment with only 20GB left. Rather than transferring stuff onto an external i'd like to have all my files on my HDD. I'm looking to upgrade to 1TB. I've been looking online at buying the actual HDD and it's a bit confusing on which one to get. Seen posts saying if it's an older SATA it won't work with certain models. I'm wondering if there's only 5400rpm 1TB HDD's for my Pro or can I get the 7200rpm version?

Specs are:

Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro
2.3GHz Quad-Core i7 - 8GB RAM
500GB HDD (7200rpm)
Running the latest version of OS X Lion

When I originally ordered I thought it would be plenty with 500GB but it hasn't worked out. Main questions are can anyone recommend a place to buy a reliable HDD, how easy is the process. And what about reinstalling the OS? My Pro didn't come with any discs so whats the best way to go about it? It has the recovery partition built in.

Any help would be appreciated.

grizzly

Why not get 1TB external drive and replace your HD with a SSD?

I'm thinking of doing this. Replacing my 500BG for this.

p.s. if anyone has any recommendations for good SSDs please let me know.

MiniNukinfuts

You could have a HDD/SSD combo in it.

Remove the optical drive, put a HDD caddy in it's place, then put a 1TB HDD in the caddy, and put a 128GB SSD in the current HDD bay.

And if you want to reinstall from the recovery partition, just buy an enclosure to put the drive in, then boot into the recovery partition on that to reinstall the OS onto the SSD. Then you can use the 1TB for all your storage needs, and use the SSD for the OS and your applications. I've done this and it works out very well.

DubDJ

Thanks for the replies.

grizzly wrote: »

Why not get 1TB external drive and replace your HD with a SSD?

I'm thinking of doing this. Replacing my 500BG for this.

p.s. if anyone has any recommendations for good SSDs please let me know.

I've considered SSD. But the prices are still extremely high for what you get. I'm looking to have everything on the interal HDD rather than having externals attached. For example if I'm out and about I'd constantly have to carry the external drive with me. And SSD still offers very low storage capacities.

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

You could have a HDD/SSD combo in it.

Remove the optical drive, put a HDD caddy in it's place, then put a 1TB HDD in the caddy, and put a 128GB SSD in the current HDD bay.

And if you want to reinstall from the recovery partition, just buy an enclosure to put the drive in, then boot into the recovery partition on that to reinstall the OS onto the SSD. Then you can use the 1TB for all your storage needs, and use the SSD for the OS and your applications. I've done this and it works out very well.

This was another idea I had. But I do rely on the CD drive a lot. I know I could buy an external Burner but it's not as compact to travel with just like an external HDD isn't. Plus the major deal breaker for me is that replacing the cd drive with a HDD voids the warranty and I'll be buying Apple Care.

That's why I'm looking for a 1TB internal HDD. So far I'm not sure where to buy it from. I'm not sure if the one you linked to is compatible? If it is then i'll get it. Since posting I came across a tool from Apple that creates a bootable OS X drive on a USB. So if I did fit in a new HDD I'm thinking I could just boot from the USB. Install Lion on the new HDD and then put all my stuff back from my Time Machine bacukp. It sounds a bit too simple I'm wondering am I missing a step? Just really looking for a good place to buy the 1TB drive from. Anybody recommend somewhere?

MiniNukinfuts

That 1TB hard drive I linked is compatible with the MBP, and you could still put the caddy in, apple have no way of telling if it voids the warranty. So if the laptop did break, just pop the superdrive back into the mbp, and send it back to apple, they'd have no way to verify it was removed. I've done it and I've got apple care.

I recommend buying from the link I mentioned, or just from MemoryC.ie, their customer service is unbeatable. They've replace 3 faulty drives within a day with no strings attached, i can't recommend them enough.

DubDJ

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

That 1TB hard drive I linked is compatible with the MBP, and you could still put the caddy in, apple have no way of telling if it voids the warranty. So if the laptop did break, just pop the superdrive back into the mbp, and send it back to apple, they'd have no way to verify it was removed. I've done it and I've got apple care.

I recommend buying from the link I mentioned, or just from MemoryC.ie, their customer service is unbeatable. They've replace 3 faulty drives within a day with no strings attached, i can't recommend them enough.

That's perfect. Gonna stick with just the HDD for now but the SSD upgrade might be something to consider for the future. Gonna order the one you linked to. Thanks for the help. All I kept finding where US sites with mad shipping prices let alone import duties. One other thing, does the drive come with any of the tools needed? Or do they sell a kit with the tools. I seen OWC sell one but I'd rather get them from the same place. The Torq T6 or T8 is the one I need.

Thanks again MiniNukinfuts.

EDIT: Didn't realise Memoryc have a search for compatible products for your laptop. Just like on Crucial. Brilliant site.

MiniNukinfuts

You'll just need 2 screw drivers, Ebay would have them cheapest, have a look at this set. It's cheap and it should do the job.

DubDJ

MiniNukinfuts wrote: »

You'll just need 2 screw drivers, Ebay would have them cheapest, have a look at this set. It's cheap and it should do the job.

That's brilliant. Gonna order them all now. I'll let you know if it's successful or not for me. Thanks for all your help.

DubDJ

grizzly wrote: »

Why not get 1TB external drive and replace your HD with a SSD?

I'm thinking of doing this. Replacing my 500BG for this.

p.s. if anyone has any recommendations for good SSDs please let me know.

Just seen this as a Bargain alert. Dunno if it's compatible or not with your Mac but a really great price (€186) for 256GB of SSD.

DubDJ

Just coming back to this.

I bought the suggest HDD and installed it. Great service from MemoryC. The installation was simple itself and luckily no problems at all. I reinstalled OS X from a Recovery Drive I created on a spare 8GB Flash drive I had lying around using this tool from Apple.

I also formatted the new 1TB drive using disc utility (from the Recovery Drive) before I installed Lion. Once Lion was back installed I restored the ~500GB of my files from my 1TB external drive using Time Machine. Took about 3hrs 30mins for the whole thing to be restored.

Started my mac back up it took about 1hr to index all my files on Spotlight and another 30 mins for Time Machine to sort itself back out.

Overall very simple process and was done over the space of around 8 hours.

Thanks for all the help MiniNukinfuts.

MiniNukinfuts

DubDJ wrote: »

Just coming back to this.

I bought the suggest HDD and installed it. Great service from MemoryC. The installation was simple itself and luckily no problems at all. I reinstalled OS X from a Recovery Drive I created on a spare 8GB Flash drive I had lying around using this tool from Apple.

I also formatted the new 1TB drive using disc utility (from the Recovery Drive) before I installed Lion. Once Lion was back installed I restored the ~500GB of my files from my 1TB external drive using Time Machine. Took about 3hrs 30mins for the whole thing to be restored.

Started my mac back up it took about 1hr to index all my files on Spotlight and another 30 mins for Time Machine to sort itself back out.

Overall very simple process and was done over the space of around 8 hours.

Thanks for all the help MiniNukinfuts.

Glad to help my man