upgrade hard drive question....

bananashakes18 · 08-29-2008, 02:51 PM

hello everyone.. heres my story... i have a 12 inch mac book pro g4 . everything worked fine up until my clumsy self dropped it a few days ago. took it to apple.. and found out i need a new hard drive... question is... does anyone have any recommendations on what hard drive to get, any well known ones out there i should research or any experience you've had with an upgraded hard drive?? The guy at the genius bar said they can replace it with the same size for around 316.00 but that i can possibly find a bigger storage hard drive for that same price or lower. This will be the first hardware update i will be doing on my mac so any info is greatly appreciated

aknightstale41 · 08-29-2008, 03:40 PM

This looks pretty good for $260.00 ....500 gig,
I think the more hard drive space the better, especially if you store alot of video on it.
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/500GB-...e-p-17175.html

acosmichippo · 08-31-2008, 02:55 AM

There are really only two things you need to worry about: the connection and the size (not capacity). Laptop sized hard drives are 2.5", not the 3.5" for desktops. As for connections, there are two kinds: the older EIDE, and newer SATA. Only one will work on your computer. Did the Genius tell you which you needed? If not, how old is your mac?

after that, all there is left to do is decide on the brand and capacity. western digital, hitachi, and Seagate are all reputable brands. I do know that Seagates come with a 5-year warranty, whereas Western Digital and Hitachi only have 3. Capaticy is totally preference... like a knightstale mentioned, if you plan on storing a lot of media locally, you'll need a larger hard drive... if not, then you probably won't need a huge one.

bananashakes18 · 09-01-2008, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

There are really only two things you need to worry about: the connection and the size (not capacity). Laptop sized hard drives are 2.5", not the 3.5" for desktops. As for connections, there are two kinds: the older EIDE, and newer SATA. Only one will work on your computer. Did the Genius tell you which you needed? If not, how old is your mac?

after that, all there is left to do is decide on the brand and capacity. western digital, hitachi, and Seagate are all reputable brands. I do know that Seagates come with a 5-year warranty, whereas Western Digital and Hitachi only have 3. Capaticy is totally preference... like a knightstale mentioned, if you plan on storing a lot of media locally, you'll need a larger hard drive... if not, then you probably won't need a huge one.

thank you for the info. i will look into all that this week. my powerbook is about 4 yrs old. i have to checkto see exactly when it was made and all that. i was away this weekend so wasn't able to get on and check the post. thanks again for your help. i will post up what i decide and everything else when i figure out what i'm going to do.

also, once i have the hard drive.. can i take it to apple and have them install it or take it somewhere else? im kind of scared to do it myself. I've worked on destop computers before but never laptops... i dont want to mess anything up

acosmichippo · 09-02-2008, 12:26 AM

if your computer is four years old, then you need an EIDE hard drive... not SATA.

I'm not sure how apple stores handle repairs... they may only want to install apple-approved hardware (which would be much more expensive). I'd try them first, and if they want anything more than $50 or so to put the hard drive in, then take it elsewhere. I work at Geek Squad at best buy (just to let you know for frame-of-reference... i'm not trying to drum up business), and we install hard drives for $50.

Once you have it in there, you'll have to install the Mac OS, and you will need your OS discs for that. OR you can purchase Leopard (as long as it'll run on your mac), and that should get you going without having to order the OS discs.

ventrj · 09-02-2008, 09:40 PM

Would this hard drive work with a macbook pro http://cgi.ebay.com/SAMSUNG-HDSMHM50...QQcmdZViewItem

acosmichippo · 09-02-2008, 10:09 PM

sure will.

ventrj · 09-03-2008, 10:49 AM

Any difference in these two drives as far as one is better then the other??
Seagate Momentus 7200.3 ST9320421AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
and
Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

bananashakes18 · 10-06-2008, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

There are really only two things you need to worry about: the connection and the size (not capacity). Laptop sized hard drives are 2.5", not the 3.5" for desktops. As for connections, there are two kinds: the older EIDE, and newer SATA. Only one will work on your computer. Did the Genius tell you which you needed? If not, how old is your mac?

after that, all there is left to do is decide on the brand and capacity. western digital, hitachi, and Seagate are all reputable brands. I do know that Seagates come with a 5-year warranty, whereas Western Digital and Hitachi only have 3. Capaticy is totally preference... like a knightstale mentioned, if you plan on storing a lot of media locally, you'll need a larger hard drive... if not, then you probably won't need a huge one.

hello... im back lol. i am now ready to buy my harddrive.. after saving up for it. I just wanted to ask... how can i tell if i will need a eide or sata? My laptop like i said is about 4 yrs old now. is there some sort of numbers or way of telling which I would need?

dturner · 10-06-2008, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by bananashakes18

hello... im back lol. i am now ready to buy my harddrive.. after saving up for it. I just wanted to ask... how can i tell if i will need a eide or sata? My laptop like i said is about 4 yrs old now. is there some sort of numbers or way of telling which I would need?

As hippo stated in post #5, you will want the EIDE hard drive.