Swapping the Drive On A 13″ MacBook Pro

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Posted By: Dan Cohen

Yesterday Mitchell posted a first look at his new 13″ MacBook Pro. In his terrific overview he showed a few pictures of his swapping out the installed drive for a mammoth 500GB drive. As luck would have it the 120GB Solid State Drive I ordered from NewEgg earlier in the week arrived while I was reading it. As a result, the iPhone 3G S that is “Out for Delivery” isn’t the only piece of “zipper” Apple Hardware I’ll be enjoying.

Instead of taking some shots of the install I figured I would grab my Flip UltraHD and film it. So here, for your viewing pleasure is the transition of my AWESOME MacBook Pro into the Uber-Quiet Awesome MacBook Pro.

I had hoped to simply clone the drive prior to the swap so that I could merely turn it on after the install was finished but something went wrong. Instead I did things the “old fashioned way”. I formatted the drive, used the install disk to install Leapard and then restored the image from a Time Machine backup. It took some time but went smoothly. Then, since the new drive is far smaller than any I have used in recent memory, I set out to trip the fat. Using XSlimmer I pulled all the code for PowerPcs from the installed applications. That immediately saved me 4GB of space. I trashed a lot of pictures that are both on the notebook and my iMac since I don’t REALLY need them with me all the time. Finally I removed some programs I keep on my computers “just in case” but never use. This ended up with me having about 75GB of free space. With iDism and SugarSync storage, and the option to carry an SD card or two if need be.

I must say I am amazed by the speed of the SSD and I LOVE!!! how quiet it is. Out the gate this 13″, which has a 2.53 GHz processor and 4GB of RAM was a powerful machine. With the addition of the new drive it is wicked quick!

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

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4 Comments on "Swapping the Drive On A 13″ MacBook Pro"

  1. thehotrod | June 23, 2009 at 6:40 am |

    Thanks Dan. I’m really considering getting a new MBP 13. But Apple’s HD upgrades seem waaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced. I’m assuming Apples use the same type of SATA 3.0 2.5″ HD’s like windows laptops??? Do I need to buy a special HD or will any laptop HD work? Do you have any recommendations besides the SSD you got now? (I need more storage than 120gb)

    Oh, one last thing….sorry… I see MBP comes with 5400rpm standard, but 7200rpm are optional, would a faster spinning drive eat more battery life in a Mac?

    Thanks so much, Rod

  2. Michael Anderson | June 23, 2009 at 7:17 am |

    In general, faster rotation means more motor rotation means more current draw. Of course, different drives optimize things differently, but two similar drives, 5400 is lower power consumption. Just like SSD is even lower due to no moving parts.

    And, like anything, you can *always* do better price wise doing things yourself … I can’t remember the last time I bought a Mac with added memory – it is much, much cheaper to get it yourself and easy to add it in.

  3. Dan Cohen | June 23, 2009 at 8:34 am |

    Thanks Dan. I’m really considering getting a new MBP 13. But Apple’s HD upgrades seem waaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced. I’m assuming Apples use the same type of SATA 3.0 2.5″ HD’s like windows laptops???

    Physically it is like any 25″ drive.

    There are some drives that specify OS X compatibility but they run more than others. The drive I got listed OS X among other OSs but I do not believe this needs to be the case. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong.) Worst case scenario you will need to go to Disk Utilities and format/partition the drive before you start. That noted, just to be on the safe side I jumped on a drive that listed OS X compatibility in the specs.

    Also- I believe the SSD drives Apple uses have lower Read/Write speeds than the one I put in. Another advantage of doing it yourself.

    Do I need to buy a special HD or will any laptop HD work?

    Any but remember to format and partition first.

    Do you have any recommendations besides the SSD you got now? (I need more storage than 120gb)

    I would have loved to jump to a 200+ GB drive but the prices are still prohibitive for me. They are, thankfully, coming down fast. I got the 120GB, stripped out the PowerPC code from applications using XSlimmer and figured I would use a couple of Sd cards if need be. When prices come down I’ll go larger but for now this was the best balance for me.

    Oh, one last thing….sorry… I see MBP comes with 5400rpm standard, but 7200rpm are optional, would a faster spinning drive eat more battery life in a Mac?

    As Michael noted, faster will draw more power. How much of a hit will battery life take? Sorry but I do not have an answer.

  4. Allen Hong | July 12, 2009 at 4:45 pm |

    Having worked on various computers, it makes me cringe that the MacBook Pro 13″ manual does not have the end-user disconnect the battery before changing the hard drive or memory. Yes, the circuit is open with the computer off, but I am used to removing all power sources before working on the inside of a computer.

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