Macbook Pro Harddrive Upgrade

MonkieMann

MonkieMann

MonkieMann

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30 Aug 2004
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Sheffield
hey all,

just a quick one, i have decide to get the bottom range macbook pro for christmas (for myself :rolleyes:)

i'm just wondering whether the harddrive in the macbook pros is a user replaceable part? or would i have to get an apple store to do it for me?

i was thinking about paying the £50 to upgrade from a 120gb to a 160gb harddrive, but i might as well get a 250gb for £90 if i can :)

thanks in advance! :)
 
Not user replaceable, but fairly simple to do if you follow that guide. Although changing the HDD does void your warranty.
 
cheers, so there isn't a way to do it without voiding your warranty? even via an authorised apple store?

cheers for the advice, but i really don't want to void my warranty :(
 
bugger, either that or get an external drive, the reason for wanting more storage is because I have to run windows on my macbook, because i code websites using .net for work, and I hear you can't run windows from an external drive via bootcamp, have i heard correctly? cheers
 
MonkieMann said:
bugger, either that or get an external drive, the reason for wanting more storage is because I have to run windows on my macbook, because i code websites using .net for work, and I hear you can't run windows from an external drive via bootcamp, have i heard correctly? cheers
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I'm afraid you have (to my knowledge).

I have 120 in my MBP, running osx/vista and dont find the lack of storage to restrictive. I play a couple of games and all my tv/movies/music is on an external drive. I have a 70/40 split for vista/osx and find it sufficient, althought the lack of NTFS support in mac is very very frustrating.
 
Chris1712 said:
lack of NTFS support in mac is very very frustrating.
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yea, i'm thinking it will be too :( do you have your external harddrive formatted to FAT32 then? doesn't that mean i'll be limited to 4gb files?

do i have to get an external harddrive and spilt it 50/50 for mac and windows?

thanks for the advice :)
 
FAT32 means you'll be limited to 4GB files, yes.

I think OSX can READ NTFS formatted drives though if thats any use to you.
 
You may wish to try MacFuse and NTFS-3G (google them), these will allow you to read/write NTFS from OS X, I was using it to move files from an external NTFS formatted drive but it "should" work for an internal partitioned drive too

I had problems with unmounting drives afterwards thought so wouldn't dream of using it day to day.... still a little to buggy for everyday use in my opinion
 
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If you want Apple to upgrade your HDD for you, you have to use one of their upgrades which mean not being able to buy your HDD beforehand, and you have to pay their ludicrous prices.
 
It's a bit of a pain. 20+ screws of different sizes and the keyboard is a bit of a mare to persuade off the chassis. I've been pulling laptops apart for years and was Tosh trained in the late 90s. Give me an IBM ThinkPad any day :D

I've got an original MBP and swapped the 80Gb for a 250Gb Samsung a few months ago. Bit of an issue with a firmware problem on the drive so it kept going get removed and replaced in the Mac, got it down to about 15 minutes in the end. All is now well after firmware flashing the drive. Still running out of space again tho ;)
 
Macbook hard drives are simple to replace, remove battery, 3 screws, pull the drive out... bingo...

Macbook Pro hard drives are a lot harder to get at involving vast amounts of screws, remove keyboard, removing ribbon cables... generally not a nice experience

I've was thinking to replace the 5400RPM 160GB drive in my Macbook Pro for something faster but having looked at the task just went for a 4GB memory upgrade instead
 
mdjmcnally said:
On a MacBook the Hard Drive IS user replaceable. If you want to put your own HD in then probably better getting a non Pro version.
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yea, but i'm wanting a pro for the larger screen size, i do quite a bit of web design and image stuff, so a 13" isn't much good tbh, 15" is that great either, but i can't afford a 17" lol, so it'll just have to do, lol :p

using a 15" laptop at the minute, and it does me fine, when it doesn't randomly shut down (its a packard bell :rolleyes:)

cheers though :)
 
MonkieMann said:
yea, but i'm wanting a pro for the larger screen size, i do quite a bit of web design and image stuff, so a 13" isn't much good tbh, 15" is that great either, but i can't afford a 17" lol, so it'll just have to do, lol :p

using a 15" laptop at the minute, and it does me fine, when it doesn't randomly shut down (its a packard bell :rolleyes:)

cheers though :)
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Have a look at the refurbs, could pick up a cheap 17"er from Apple.
 
Justin said:
Have a look at the refurbs, could pick up a cheap 17"er from Apple.
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well i'm a student, and as far as i know you don't get a discount off refurbed ones?! :confused: so i can usually get a new one for less, which is nice :)

yea, i would love a 17" but i think the 15" would be better overall, i still want it to be portable

thanks for the idea tho :D
 
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