MacBook Pro Hardrive Question

[ttaralli]

I have a MacBook Pro that's Internal HD is FULL. Looking to upgrade the drive and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations? I'm using the laptop live and probably need a 500 GB HD. any recommended brands, models, RPM speeds etc... Thanks in advance I'm a novice when it comes to Hard drives.

[Hei©o]

hmm, do you want to switch it with the bigger one or just add an external hdd?

if i`m not mistaken, MB Pro`s have an Hiatchi HDD`s in them, 5400 rpm by default. it would be wise to upgrade it with faster one (7200rpm), since u r upgrading it. i belive 500 GB would be enough?
keep an eye on cache size too, the bigger the better.

[oblique strategies]

It would be wise for you to store some of your data on another storage medium at least temporarily. Filling up a hard drive can cause a variety of problems, including data corruption if you really fill it to the max!

[BoddAH]

Western Digital is the most reliable brand, and reliability is the most important caracteristic for hard drives. Get the model that suits your needs the best (price/size/performance). Keep in mind that faster drives use more power and produce more heat which can reduce battery life and cause overheating issues (laptop HDDs are slower than desktop for a reason).

Oh and whatever you do avoid seagate like the plague.

[Akshara]

I have a MacBook Pro that's Internal HD is FULL. Looking to upgrade the drive and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations? I'm using the laptop live and probably need a 500 GB HD. any recommended brands, models, RPM speeds etc... Thanks in advance I'm a novice when it comes to Hard drives.

Hitachi 7K500 DIY Upgrade Kit
iFixit.com Macbook Pro Repair Guides (for installing drive replacement)

Notes...

- Buy the recommended tools from iFixit.com, don't skip on these or try to do it with stuff around the house.
- With Western Digital and Seagate, avoid the "Green" drives or models which spin down often.
- Apple often uses Hitachi drives in their base MBP models.

[Hei©o]

Oh and whatever you do avoid seagate like the plague.

man it depends, i had 2 WD and one Seagate, Seagate is still running... who knows....

matter of heating at higher rpms, as you can order MB Pro with 7200rpm hdd from the factory, i suppose its safe....

[hacktheplanet]

I have a MacBook Pro that's Internal HD is FULL. Looking to upgrade the drive and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations? I'm using the laptop live and probably need a 500 GB HD. any recommended brands, models, RPM speeds etc... Thanks in advance I'm a novice when it comes to Hard drives.

Hitachi 7K500 DIY Upgrade Kit
iFixit.com Macbook Pro Repair Guides (for installing drive replacement)

Notes...

- Buy the recommended tools from iFixit.com, don't skip on these or try to do it with stuff around the house.
- With Western Digital and Seagate, avoid the "Green" drives or models which spin down often.
- Apple often uses Hitachi drives in their base MBP models.

Quotin' dis.

[Machinesworking]

Been looking at getting a larger drive myself. Researching the crap out of it!

Hitachi were sited as having the least amount of issues based on pure hardware failure by a Russian hard drive recovery service with over 2,000 drives serviced. The 200GB in my laptop has over 8,000 hours with no issues. Thanks to the Russian service for not being afraid to post this.

Western Digital still has the fastest over all laptop HD with the Scorpio Black 320GB model. WD is a close second in reliability.
The 500GB model still beats out Seagate and Hitachi in over all speed.

Largest capacity and fastest goes to Samsung with 640GB 7200rpm drive out now. <-- specs say this is in the running for fastest too. Also pretty reliable.

Seagate although not as reliable over all as the other three have a hybrid drive that outperforms the others with the Momentus XT, although there's the distinct possibility of some issues with OSX/macbooks. The Seagate forums have a lot of people complaining about random slow downs even after a fix from Seagate was released. On the other hand Seagate expose themselves to the public which I don't see Western Digital doing, in fact WD often does not post spindle speed for certain "green" and "blue" HDs....

[squelcht]

Momentus 7200 ftw

[oblique strategies]

Been looking at getting a larger drive myself. Researching the crap out of it!

Hitachi were sited as having the least amount of issues based on pure hardware failure by a Russian hard drive recovery service with over 2,000 drives serviced. The 200GB in my laptop has over 8,000 hours with no issues. Thanks to the Russian service for not being afraid to post this.

Western Digital still has the fastest over all laptop HD with the Scorpio Black 320GB model. WD is a close second in reliability.
The 500GB model still beats out Seagate and Hitachi in over all speed.

Largest capacity and fastest goes to Samsung with 640GB 7200rpm drive out now. <-- specs say this is in the running for fastest too. Also pretty reliable.

Seagate although not as reliable over all as the other three have a hybrid drive that outperforms the others with the Momentus XT, although there's the distinct possibility of some issues with OSX/macbooks. The Seagate forums have a lot of people complaining about random slow downs even after a fix from Seagate was released. On the other hand Seagate expose themselves to the public which I don't see Western Digital doing, in fact WD often does not post spindle speed for certain "green" and "blue" HDs....

Thanks for sharing your research. Have you also researched the noise levels of these drives - which of these drives are the quietest?

[ikarys]

In my 2010 MBP 17", I have a 120gig SSD by OCZ. It was really worth it. All my music apps are on it and are fast!

The boot time from off is about 20 seconds, and the resume from sleep mode is about 2-3 seconds.
2-3 seconds, then I can be surfing the web. It's amazingly quick! Best upgrade I have done to any computer.

Anything extra I have on external USB powered Western Digital HHDs (including time machine).

I just nabbed a WD 750gig for about 100 clams AUD, but you can get them in the terrabyte range, and probably cheaper.

[steko]

Been looking at getting a larger drive myself. Researching the crap out of it!

Hitachi were sited as having the least amount of issues based on pure hardware failure by a Russian hard drive recovery service with over 2,000 drives serviced. The 200GB in my laptop has over 8,000 hours with no issues. Thanks to the Russian service for not being afraid to post this.

Western Digital still has the fastest over all laptop HD with the Scorpio Black 320GB model. WD is a close second in reliability.
The 500GB model still beats out Seagate and Hitachi in over all speed.

Largest capacity and fastest goes to Samsung with 640GB 7200rpm drive out now. <-- specs say this is in the running for fastest too. Also pretty reliable.

Seagate although not as reliable over all as the other three have a hybrid drive that outperforms the others with the Momentus XT, although there's the distinct possibility of some issues with OSX/macbooks. The Seagate forums have a lot of people complaining about random slow downs even after a fix from Seagate was released. On the other hand Seagate expose themselves to the public which I don't see Western Digital doing, in fact WD often does not post spindle speed for certain "green" and "blue" HDs....

Thanks for sharing your research. Have you also researched the noise levels of these drives - which of these drives are the quietest?

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 6#p1099356

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage- ... 200_4.html

[atemkunde]

if you want to change your internal drive i would go with this one:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seag ... hybrid-hdd

its a 7200rpm hybrid drive... meaning you have a little SSD cache...

but i would recommend let your drive you currently have be the system drive and put all your audio related files on an external fw800 drive from gtech:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive-mini.cfm - the 7200rpm version of course

cheers

[Machinesworking]

Heads up on this!! $65 for a Samsung 640GB 7200rpm laptop HD with decent specs!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152237

SSDs a couple years from now will be cheap enough, but a 640GB HD will always be useful IMO.

Not dure the hybrid is worth it for music?? The 4GB cache isn't going to remember much with 1-2GB Live Sets. It's literally twice as expensive as the same specced Seagate without the flash drive.

[Machinesworking]

Thanks for sharing your research. Have you also researched the noise levels of these drives - which of these drives are the quietest?

Noise level for laptop HDs hasn't ever been much of an issue for me so I haven't. I'm using a 7200 Hitachi 200GB currently.