My first-generation MacBook laptop had only one problem – its first generation 60 gig hard disk. Actually it used to have two problems, but I installed more memory in it ages ago. 60 gigs doesn’t go far in today’s world of movies and huge software packages, so I felt it was time to upgrade. One trip to the store and a $167 EFTPOS transaction later and I am the owner of a new 320 gig hard disk, which seems to be the current sweet spot for price vs. capacity for 2.5 inch drives.
Thankfully Apple have made the job of replacing a MacBook’s hard disk extremely easy, and they provide step by step instructions. All you need is a 10c coin, a Philips #1 screw driver, a piece of stiff card, and a secret tool not mentioned anywhere in the instructions!
The surprise turns out to be a manner of fastening of which I was hitherto unaware – a TORX screw. TORX screws are used to hold the metal shield surrounding the drive in place, with the screw heads slotting into the bay runners – these must be removed from the old drive to fit the shield to the new drive.
Luckily I happened to have a #1 TORX bit in my tool kit, but finding an unfamiliar screw while a $3000 computer lies in bits on the dinner table is not an experience I wish to repeat.
After replacing the drive, I booted from the Leopard install disk, ran the Disk Utility to format the drive and then restored my data from my Time Machine drive. The end result is that my computer is set up exactly the same way as it was before, except I now have 250 gigs of free space to play with. Much better.
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Did you trust Time Machine enough to successfully restore your data?
Admittedly, I do have Time Machine backups running, but I’ve never had the balls to actually try it out to confirm that I can successfully restore my stuff.
I was relying on Time Machine to get my data back. It seemed to work OK, but it took a long time (about 2 hours) to restore everything. It leaves you with a fully bootable disk – you just need to make a partition with the Disk Utility first.
For some reason the very latest backup I did was not visible in the interface, but one from an hour earlier was. Apart from that there was no problem.
Hey Andrew, thanks for the info and good on ya!
Just wanted to know where you bought the hard drive, and what type is needed for a MacBook.
Thanks!
RJ
The MacBook takes standard 2.5 inch SATA (Serial ATA) laptop drives. Make sure you get SATA – almost all drives are SATA these days but some places still sell old-style IDE drives, these will not work.
There are a huge range of capacities and speeds, I bought a 320Gb drive since that seemed to be the best value for money in terms of Gbs per dollar. Most laptop drives spin at 5400RPM, you can buy 7200RPM drives which are faster but much more expensive. I decided it wasn’t worth the extra cost but if you do a lot of work that requires a fast disk you may think differently.
I went to PBTech in Auckland, but any good computer store should have what you need on hand. If you go in and ask for a 2.5 inch SATA drive for a laptop, the staff will know what you mean. I can’t give you any advice on brands, I just took what looked like the best deal.
Pricespy.co.nz is a good place to compare prices. Prices change daily – it pays to shop around if you can.
I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
One last thing I forgot to mention. If you are replacing a smaller drive that still works, spend an extra $25 dollars and get a USB enclosure for your old 2.5inch drive as well. This will give you a portable drive on the cheap.
great tips man, like the usb enclosure.
thanks a million.
did pb sell that special screwhead as well?
o almost forgot:
is it enough to just place the hardrive and then install osx from the dvd drive? or are there any system things that need to be done beforehand?
I just happened to have the required TORX driver in my toolkit. It came in one of those all-in-one 50+ piece screwdriver sets from Mitre10 – nothing too special.
I used TimeMachine to restore my drive. I needed to boot from the OSX DVD and then use the Disk Utility to create a new volume and format it. If you are installing from scratch then I don’t think you will need to do this (not too sure).
I’ve been looking for a way to increase my macbook’s first generation hardrive for ages. Do you know of a site where I could find them? I would totally appreciate your help in this.
Hi Paul,
you can easily do this yourself. Any site that sells computer hardware will be able to supply you with the required drive – the drives are not Mac specific so they will not be advertised as Mac drives. Normally they will be listed under “laptop hard drives” or something like that. The magic words to look for are “2.5 Inch” and “SATA”.
If you are not confident with replacing the drive yourself, ask at your local computer store to see if they will do it without sending the computer away. It is an easy job requiring no special tools (except for a TORX screw driver which are easy to find) and should take only about 20 minutes. Failing that, Apple will be glad to take your money – but be prepared to open your wallet.
I just went through the process of swapping out a 60gig for a 160 for a friend of mine. I could not get the dvd/cd drive to recognize any OSX disk even the original disks that came with the computer. I was under the impression that OSX would work with any computer. All I can assume is that the dvd/cd drive is defective. I set the Macbook as a T target drive with firewire and installed from my MacBook Pro and it works but the dvd/cd drive continues to spit out disks.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Brian
I think you are right – the DVD drive is probably stuffed. You might be able to see more information if you run the System Profiler tool, but otherwise it might be time for a trip to the Apple authorised service centre.
I just swapped a disk for the thirth time in my 1st gen. MacBook. Went from 60 to 160 to 320 to 640 Gigs. I cloned my 320 data to the 640 with CCC, but now TM insists making a new backup, it doesn’t recognize the existing one. I’m also not able to update to Snow Leopard (the installer worked on my wife’s MacBook, though), so it’s not the most smooth transition I ever made.