Need new HD for Macbook, advice?

[speeder]

I crashed my HD on my 13" black Macbook and need to buy a new one. Being only barely tech-savvy, I don't know which one to get. I searched HDs on ebay for Macbook and got this, ~1500 listings:

hard drive macbook in Drives, Storage & Blank Media | eBay

What I don't know is which brand is best, what size I should get, what RPM, etc. I basically know nothing. I do not know what I had previously because laptop will not function at all, but I guess I could remove it and look. (d'oh).

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[Don Plumley]

I just replaced the HDD in my wife's macbook - performance was slowing to a crawl, she wouldn't let me buy her a new one. So I went here: powerbookmedic.com

If you put in the serial number it will tell you what works - don't worry about what was, get whatever is cost-effective. They have instructions on how to install.

Picked up a refurb 120gb drive for <$40; five minute hardware install, Mac found the drive, New OS on and back up and running quickly.

[Gogar]

If it's that first black Intel MacBook, then replacing the HD is SUUUUUPER easy. So I'd suggest you just pop it out and find out the specs from the one that was in there and just go grab something similar.

If you need some instructions (with pictures! ) try iFixit: The free repair manual. I've had lots of luck there.

As far as brand name, etc. I'd suggest if you just get one of the major brands, doesn't seem like it matters much for casual use.

[speeder]

Thanks, guys. I found the original HD, (the one that failed was a replacement), it's a 250gb 5400rpm Seagate brand.

[Gogar]

Direct replacement (of that direct replacement )

$49

Seagate 250GB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive for Laptops ST90250N1A1 - Best Buy


BB usually has plenty of laptop drives in stock at the stores. Not that you would want to go down there today.

[Vipergrün]

I would recommend going for a 7200 RPM drive, it will really increase performance.

Edit: Or consider going with an SSD drive if the system will support it..

[azasadny]

Can you put in an SSD instead of a spinning disk? I've installed 2 SSD's so far this month and the performance difference is staggering! I paid less than $100 for 128GB Intel and Samsung SSD's and they have no moving parts and don't generate any heat... perfect for a laptop/notebook.

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Can you put in an SSD instead of a spinning disk? I've installed 2 SSD's so far this month and the performance difference is staggering! I paid less than $100 for 128GB Intel and Samsung SSD's and they have no moving parts and don't generate any heat... perfect for a laptop/notebook.

Good question. I don't want to hijack this thread but I have a 2007 MBP and I'm getting close to the 120GB capacity on the original HD so I will be watching for what happens here and what Speeder does to solve his issue. I was thinking of putting in a lager SSD in my MBP. Since it's lasted me for more than 5 years, a small investment for a good SSD would last me for quite a while.

[Scott R]

7200 RPM, 10K RPM and SSD is not as important on OSX as it is on Windows. Given the caching nature of BSD kernels a slower drive doesn't show much degradation on MAC's. Nice to have, but not as necessary. The older macbooks with less than 4gb ram benefit from faster drives, but not the newer so much.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Can you put in an SSD instead of a spinning disk?

Sure, so long as the SSD interface matches the one of the spinning disk you're replacing. Most SSDs are some variant of SATA; they're backward-compatible.

The "buy a 7200 RPM drive" was great advice; huge difference in speed over a 5400RPM drive.

If you need the performance of SSD with the capacity of a "real" hard drive, Seagate Momentus XT drives are very interesting; hybrid SSD and fast, large disk. Lot of other folks starting to copy the idea.

You end up with a decent amount (32MB) of cache, and an 8GB SSD drive sitting between the cache and a large amount of disk spinning @ 7200 RPM.

Available in 500 or 750GB sizes - and surprisingly cheap.

Momentus XT Hybrid Drive | Seagate

[motion]

I have a Macbook Air with 128GB SSD. It makes my 17" Macbook Pro look like a slug. I'm finally giving in and just ordered a 512GB SSD for the 17". Should be a new machine! Get an SSD if you can.

[Scott R]

Also best of both worlds now, HDD reliability and SSD functionality with HDD prices.

Hybrid drives

Amazon.com: Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive ST95005620AS: Electronics

Some of the new hybrid drives have better benchmarks than some SSD's, and the run cooler.

[JavaBrewer]

Wow that 500 GB hybrid drive is on sale for $70. I'm interested in upgrading my MBP (mid 2010 model) to SSD but the prices are still too high for the storage I need. Hummm...

[speeder]

What is an SSD? I'm getting that it's some different format of HD just by the conversation, is it the one that's in the Macbook Air? where there isn't room for a fan or traditional HD?

FWIW, the Seagate 250gb that I referred to never failed, it was the original one and it was physically damaged. The one that is in it now was a used one that my friend gave me when the first one got dinged, he had it laying around so he just installed it along with the latest OS, etc. Not sure what brand. I installed the MS Silverline player for Netflix the other night and it my HD crashed the next AM. I know that it's a common app and it was neccessary for NF streaming, in hindsight it was stupid to install since I don't need to watch NF on my laptop.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by speeder

What is an SSD? I'm getting that it's some different format of HD just by the conversation, is it the one that's in the Macbook Air? where there isn't room for a fan or traditional HD?

FWIW, the Seagate 250gb that I referred to never failed, it was the original one and it was physically damaged. The one that is in it now was a used one that my friend gave me when the first one got dinged, he had it laying around so he just installed it along with the latest OS, etc. Not sure what brand. I installed the MS Silverline player for Netflix the other night and it my HD crashed the next AM. I know that it's a common app and it was neccessary for NF streaming, in hindsight it was stupid to install since I don't need to watch NF on my laptop.

Solid State Drive, NAND based flash memory in place of a mechanical drive. If a normal hard drive is MFI then a SDD is EFI.

[RWebb]

SSD is a type of solid state memory - there is no spinning platter, no arm or magnetic head moving across the platter...


Now, I have a related question: the newer things have the Thunderbolt (fast) port on them, so are there any SSDs that can be plugged into a mac mini via that port and speed things up?

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Can you put in an SSD instead of a spinning disk? I've installed 2 SSD's so far this month and the performance difference is staggering! I paid less than $100 for 128GB Intel and Samsung SSD's and they have no moving parts and don't generate any heat... perfect for a laptop/notebook.

I replaced my macbook HDD with a 240 SSD. Highly recommended.

[A930Rocket]

How can I install an SSD in my HP laptop? Where do I look to see what I have and where can I get one? BB?

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by RWebb

SSD is a type of solid state memory - there is no spinning platter, no arm or magnetic head moving across the platter...


Now, I have a related question: the newer things have the Thunderbolt (fast) port on them, so are there any SSDs that can be plugged into a mac mini via that port and speed things up?

You would still be doing a SATA to Thunderbolt conversion since no one makes a native SSD drive with a thunderbolt interface. I doubt it would be a very cost effective solution given the market size. Most SSD drives are still 3.0 GBS, the newer ones being 6, but still less common.

Economies of scale really, why build a native thunderbolt drive when you can't maximize use of the interface, and of course the interface is costly and not widely used yet.

[RWebb]

yeh, but I bought a mac mini and it's sluggish...