Macbook hard drive help

pitchfork

pitchfork

pitchfork

Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2007
Posts
8,704
Anyone know if it's okay to change the hard disk in a macbook, just bought a cheap 13" macbook for portability but when recording with it I get some problems with the throughput because the hard disk is so slow.
I don't really want to buy an external drive because that defeats the object of portability, so if i bought an installed a decent laptop drive would the mac spit it's dummy out?
 
You won't invalidate the warranty on the Macbook, and it's an easy replacement (unlike the Macbook Pro thankfully). However if you're thinking of replacing a 5400rpm drive with a 7200rpm one I'd be slightly concerned at the extra heat generated.

If you're into video work then I'd just stick with an external drive..the 2.5" ones will offer a good performance boost, don't cost too much but are still light and portable. It'll also act as a nice backup drive too.

Although I'm not aware of your circumstances, you probably won't need to take it with you everywhere you go too.
 
It's used mainly for logic and various other audio apps.
As I say i only bought it for portability, i got a pro and a rock laptop which are fine but weigh a lot compared to this lil thing. So I don't really want to have a big external drive to carry around too.

So if I put non mac hardware into it, it'll be fine, because i've heard that mac osx must be run on the right hardware.
 
No, they won't require a specific 'Apple' harddrive, so you'll be fine with any, although I did read of an instance where the replacement drive was slightly too thick - not sure where the measurements of these can be found though.
 
If you are writing lots of LARGE files to the hard drive then the 7200rpm will be worth it. By large I'm talking > 50mb.

Otherwise not really worth it. Short read/writes theres hardly any difference between the two.
 
If you're running it in a studio it might be worth considering using Target FireWire mode (hold down T when booting).

This will allow you to connect your MacBook to the main tower/Mac Pro and it will show up as another hard drive on the desktop. Also, it will improve speed :)

I suspect a decent 7200RPM drive will suffice, but it's an option :cool:

..I've done it in the past is' all.
 
I'm actually experiencing problems with recording due to hard disk speed on my macbook.
Hence, it needs a new drive.
First thing I did was put 4 gigs of ram in it.

Thanks for your help though anyway guys, much appreciated.
 
Rather than start another thread is there a maximum size 2.5 sata drive you can install in the macbook?

Western Digital 250GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATA 5400rpm 8MB Cache - OEM

Would this be too big? My 60gb is nowhere near big enough for me?

Thanks guys
 
If it fits, it'll work :)

A 7200rpm drive might yeild better results though, mate.
 
All the 2.5" HDs are roughly the same power, +/1 1-2W. (and I did a lot of research on external 2.5" power requirements, most came out at about 5V x 0.5A = 2.5W seek, 5W start up.

So all you have to worry about is 200Gb 7200 (what I'd get) or a 250/320Gb 5400..
 
You could always get and external FireWire drive with a fullsized 7200rpm HDD in there. You can boot fromt eh Firewire drive or just have it as your scratch drive when using Logic.
 
Lol I have ordered a 160gb 7200rpm just couldn't get that last bit of cash for the 200gb but I'm more than happy with that storage space and speed on a laptop :)


Thanks Guys ;)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom