13" MacBook Pro Hard Drive upgrade

PR.

PR.

PR.

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I know there is a few threads here already (and a whole lot more across the web), but I really need some help!

I got a refurb 13" MBP July last year and have been enjoying using it, but noticed that my Photos and iTunes libraries have almost filled the stock 160Gb HDD.

So thought I'd just get one of these HDDs to upgrade it but a quick search indicated this suffers the freezes/beachballs/clicking issue. So thought about the 500Gb version... same issues. Seagates... same issues. It seems they all potentially suffer the same problem.

So what can I actually get?! I really need a 500Gb drive at least. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
PR. said:
I know there is a few threads here already (and a whole lot more across the web), but I really need some help!

I got a refurb 13" MBP July last year and have been enjoying using it, but noticed that my Photos and iTunes libraries have almost filled the stock 160Gb HDD.

So thought I'd just get one of these HDDs to upgrade it but a quick search indicated this suffers the freezes/beachballs/clicking issue. So thought about the 500Gb version... same issues. Seagates... same issues. It seems they all potentially suffer the same problem.

So what can I actually get?! I really need a 500Gb drive at least. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I had a 500Gb Samsung in my MBP 15" and didn't have these issues, only a 5400rpm drive though.

Adam
 
Any hard drive can suffer problems. The fault is related to the MacBook and not the hard drives. The only way to find out if you will be ok is to buy one and find out.

However most people can fix the issue by downgrading their firmware to version 1.6.
 
Well I've gone with the 640Gb WD drive, I noticed that most of the people reporting issues were original MacBook 2008 users someone mentioned the nvidia chipset versions don't suffer problems.

Fingers crossed, otherwise OCuk will be getting a return request! :)
 
I'm wanting to sell my iMac to get a 13" MBP, but these problems are making me hold out for updates this spring/summer. :s
 
I can't understand why Apple could be so daft not to provide solid information on all of this? Upgrading hard disks has been going on for ages and we should be free to perform such a simple upgrade at will.
 
Kami said:
You bought an Apple matey, you takes what Apple gives you in terms of support :)
Click to expand...

You'd get one... if ya misses gave you permission! :p

Got drive superdupered to an external disk so ready for tomorrow.
 
PR. said:
Well I've gone with the 640Gb WD drive, I noticed that most of the people reporting issues were original MacBook 2008 users someone mentioned the nvidia chipset versions don't suffer problems.

Fingers crossed, otherwise OCuk will be getting a return request! :)
Click to expand...

The problems, as far as the original MacBook's are concerned, are because of these HDDs having built-in shock protection. MacBooks have that built into the laptop rather than the drive (by default). So when you have the shock protection on the HDD doing its thing and then OS X getting in on the action problems arise.

Anything in the Toshiba MK****GSX range works great - my original drive was the 60GB version so when I needed a bigger one I just upped to the 160GB one. Though now i'm running out of space :(
 
As an update; OCuk deliverd the drive this afternoon, all went ok SuperDupering the data back to the new drive. Ran ok on mains but on battery I could hear the drive spinning up and down, in a matter of 30mins I'd clocked up 88 load cycle counts which you'd probably not see in a year of normal use.

Applied the hdapm 'fix' and so far all seems ok without any cycle count increases, and no major battery life issues. Most importantly lots of extra space!

hdapm fix - http://mymacfixes.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-do-i-stop-clicking-noise-from-hard.html

Thanks for your help everyone :)
 
Interesting thread.

I don't have any clicking issues with my current drive (WD 320Gb), but did with my previous drive (Seagate 160Gb). The Seagate was replaced under warranty.

But my loadcycle count is 556,693, so I installed hdapm and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor. Hopefully this will prevent the cycles for increasing so rapidly.
 
Rambaud said:
Interesting thread.

I don't have any clicking issues with my current drive (WD 320Gb), but did with my previous drive (Seagate 160Gb). The Seagate was replaced under warranty.

But my loadcycle count is 556,693, so I installed hdapm and disabled the Sudden Motion Sensor. Hopefully this will prevent the cycles for increasing so rapidly.
Click to expand...

500k load count?! Wow, make sure you keep a backup! Most of what I read is 100-200k is pretty much a drives lifetime.
 
I'm trying to do this hdapm thing but can't seem to get it to load properly - Can someone do me the appropriate screenshots of lingon where it's all configured please.

How do I disable my drives sudden motion sensor? WD320Gb 7200rpm drive.

17/01/2010 16:36:09 [0x0-0x18018].org.lingon.Lingon[217] com.feek.launchd.hdapm: Already loaded
17/01/2010 16:36:58 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.feek.launchd.hdapm[46]) posix_spawn("/Applications/Utilities/hdapm disk0 max", ...): No such file or directory
17/01/2010 16:36:58 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.feek.launchd.hdapm[46]) Exited with exit code: 1
Click to expand...

That's what I get in the log when I restart but hdapm is in /Applications/Utilities
 
PR. said:
500k load count?! Wow, make sure you keep a backup! Most of what I read is 100-200k is pretty much a drives lifetime.
Click to expand...


Yes, indeed.

I have a cloned system + Time Machine.

[But I wonder if the Mac OS is reading the drives correctly?]
 
Feek said:
I'm trying to do this hdapm thing but can't seem to get it to load properly - Can someone do me the appropriate screenshots of lingon where it's all configured please.

How do I disable my drives sudden motion sensor? WD320Gb 7200rpm drive.



That's what I get in the log when I restart but hdapm is in /Applications/Utilities
Click to expand...

I used this guy's blog :

http://tiny.cc/zzt7w
 
That's what I've already done, hence asking for the screenshot for clarification :)
 
If you restart then once logged back go to Spotlight and type "Console" then in the search area of Console type hdapm it should then show three lines one saying it was successful.

6/30/2009 9:15:41 PM com.AaronShep.launchd.hdapm[42] disk0: WDC WD3200BJKT-00F4T0
6/30/2009 9:15:41 PM com.AaronShep.launchd.hdapm[42] Setting APM level to 0xfe:
6/30/2009 9:15:41 PM com.AaronShep.launchd.hdapm[42] Success
Click to expand...

That means it's working
 
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