Replacing a MacBook Pro 100GB HD with a 320GB HD

[AntiStalinist]

I love this demo. Can you quote your price on this job? Also, have you noticed any problems arising from a failed pram battery, such as the hard drive acting a bit weird?

[davespdsp]

This job was done by me, for me. I'm not taking quotes for similar jobs at this time. (But if the job market continues to slump, I might start a business.) I have not noticed any problems due to failed PRAM, etc. The best effect was due to changing the drive; the original was SATA 1.5Gb/s, and the replacement is SATA 3Gb/s, so boot-up time improved siginificantly.

[macbookpro57]

it looks like he is killing the computer when it is fast like that, lol

[davespdsp]

But accompanied by excellent tune-age. :-)

[davespdsp]

If a higher RPM WD Scorpio exists now, I would have used it.

[Watzo7]

whats the song

[davespdsp]

The sound loop is from Devo, "Watch Us Work It".

[guithearist]

how about hdd at 7200rpm wd scorpio? is it so better?

[davespdsp]

To migeru29: Inside my MacBook Pro 17", there is only room for a 2.5" drive. In the video, I replace a 100GB 2.5" IDE drive with a 320GB 2.5" IDE drive.

To others: I wanted the extra space on the local drive (i.e. not via external FW or USB) for video screen captures via SnapZ. For reasons beyond my ability to comprehend, I couldn't specify an external drive for SnapZ temporary storage.

[migeru29]

so it have to be 2.5... 3.0 its to big for the macbook?

[blicksflicks]

Well, you know that warranty isn't worth crap now. lol

[davespdsp]

I waited until after the warranty expired to upgrade the HD.

[coolerdude44]

aww shit, i wanted to upgrade lol, if apple upgrades it for me, does the warranty expire? will they do that? thanks

[blicksflicks]

I heard you can upgrade the hard drive in the Macbook Pro, but Apple will not cover any problems which may occur with that particular piece of hardware. Also, if you get any liquid or anything inside that thing as a result of opening the thing up, you can kiss your warranty goodbye. I would buy the hard drive, and I would have an Apple care representative install it. That way, you're safe. But, honestly, why upgrade a Macbook Pro hard drive? Mine's over a year old, and still runs fine.

[coolerdude44]

because, its fucking small!!!

lol, im plannin on running vista on vmware, so i need a large one

[blicksflicks]

If you need a large one, why not get a 500 gigabyte 7200RPM firewire external drive and hook it up to the Macbook Pro as a boot drive. You can always load it up with Windows, and leave the drive that came with your Macbook Pro in your Macbook Pro. Firewire 800? Hello? Great for a boot drive. :)

[coolerdude44]

yeah, external hard drives arent exactly practical for laptops and especially me. i rarely use my laptop on a flat surfact, i mostly actually use it on my lap lol.

i have one right now, a 500 gb, but i only use it for backup purposes. i always accidentally drop it, so yeah. not for me lol

do you know if i can get a 500gb internal hard drive for the mbp?

[blicksflicks]

It doesn't matter if you use your Mac on your lap. A firewire drive can go anywhere in the room, and you don't have to touch it.

[blicksflicks]

Oh, you use it in your lap? Well, a Macbook Pro is a desktop replacement. Not exactly for carrying around with you and putting on your lap and stuff. If you want to that, better to buy you a plain Macbook. Not a Macbook Pro.

[coolerdude44]

what the fuck? its a laptop, i can use it however i wish. the macbook is too crappy for me, too small a screen, horrible graphics card, just because the macbook pro is powerful doesnt mean i cant use it as a normal laptop.

if i wanted a desktop, i would get the imac

[blicksflicks]

Well, it gets pretty hot under my macbook Pro, and if you're going to put it on your lap, I'd be hooking up the SMC Fan Control program. lol

[coolerdude44]

... i will be wearing pants you know... lol

i have a dell right now, and its unbearable. it literally burned me one time, so i think ill manage lol

[blicksflicks]

You have a Dell? You're just kidding, right? Heard that dude on the Dell commercials got arrested for marijuana possession. "It's a Dell dude!" lol

[coolerdude44]

idk what u mean, but ok, thats nice for him

i bought this thinking it would be a great computer, my parents have dells without problems so i thought it would be a solid investment... boy was i wrong lol

the graphics card is fucked up, the mouse pad is fucked up, the screen is fucked up, the optical drive is fucked up, u name it its fucked up

the only thing im gonna miss when i get the mbp is vista. im gonna run it in vmware fusion though, thats why im gonna need a much bigger hard drive

[blicksflicks]

Well, you can always use Vista on Boot Camp and use OS X with every day stuff. Just make it a dual boot with OS X Leopard. You should be fine. :)

[coolerdude44]

mhmm im planning on doing that, vmware and parallels run with your boot camp partition.

do you know which one supports windows aero?

[blicksflicks]

All you do is buy OS X Leopard and it comes with Boot Camp. Boot Camp runs a native partition of Windwos. No VMware needed. You can run any Windows applications, game... anything. If you want to play high end Windows games, just use Boot Camp and OS X. But, if you only need to run regular Windows applications, use Parallels like I do at present. I have been mostly playing Mac games, but I might upgrade to Leopard with Boot Camp Windows come this November only because of Tombraider: Underworld.

[coolerdude44]

yeah, im doing that too. parallels/vmware works alongside boot camp. its using the same files, accesses the same desktop, thats whats cool about it. what i asked is if parallels/vmware will work with windows aero. i know they didnt last year, but they both have new versions. do the new versions support aero?

[blicksflicks]

Aero Glass needs at least DirectX 9 to run, and I believe Parallels only has support for up to DirectX 8, so that could be why it's not working.

[blicksflicks]

Parallels 3.5 coming - with Aero support

Parallels support staff have confirmed in the Forum that a beta will be out soon of 3.5 which will support directX 9 and Aero under Vista. Personally I can't wait for this as it means I can upgrade my current VM to Vista and enjoy a smoother interface!

[coolerdude44]

woah thanks for the detailed response, i thoroughly appreciate it. btw, dont hesitate on moving up to vista.  its amazing. much better than xp. in fact, xp is easily one of the worst versions of windows ever made. it gets viruses nonstop, vista doesnt. vista doesnt get errors either. none of that gay "window not responding" like youll constantly experience in xp. but, make sure you get service pack 1 with vista. vista without sp1 is a disaster.

[blicksflicks]

Yeah, I might get Windows Vista in November along with OS X Leopard and Boot Camp. Can play Tombraider: Underworld with that combination. The trailer is the bomb. :)

[blicksflicks]

Under OS X Leopard's Boot Camp Final release and Windows Vista installed alongside OS X, aero interface works fine on Macs. Nothing to worry about.

[coolerdude44]

your not listening to me, vmware fusion didnt support windows aero a year ago, i wanna know if it does now. i know that macs by themselves will support aero, any computer can really, but i heard virtual machines had trouble. do they still have trouble?

[blicksflicks]

Ohhhhhhh. Okay. Well, if you want that fancy Aero interface, you're gonna have to use Boot Camp. The reason it won't work is because Parallels, Fusion and such, doesn't support the proper resolutions and it takes way too much to run it in virtual machines. Plus, if it did run it, it would be rather slow, too. Anything requiring high end Vista graphics would force you to dual boot your system. I haven't heard of Aero working in Parallels for example, but if it does, I imagine it's very slow.

[blicksflicks]

But, coolerdude, don't take my word for the Aero, because I only run Windows XP in Parallels, and it runs perfect. However, the Vista Aero as of 2007 wouldn't run on Parallels. Still, maybe they have done that now. I haven't tried running Vista on my system though, because I used it once on this person's machine, and I just literally hated it. Anytime have to upgrade hardware to run one operating system, I'd run the other way.

[blicksflicks]

I also don't believe any other VMware will support Direct X 9 either, but there is some talk that future versions of Parallels will support Direct X 9, so in another year, you might be in luck. As of Parallels 3.o, there's no Direct X 9 support. By the way, I'd run XP Service Pack three, because it has far less overhead and is still mean at playing Windows games. Vista is gonna flop anyway. Microsoft screwed up big this time.

[coolerdude44]

i also would like to add that i will never use xp again. thats how good vista (with sp1) is. i strongly recommend you upgrade now

[blicksflicks]

No one can tell me Microsoft isn't making money off of their Office for OS X. lol

[blicksflicks]

coolerdude, I just found out that Parallels 3.5 is suppose to be boasting Aero support. I'd go that route when it comes out. I only use 3.0 right now. I played Tombraider II on my Parallels 3.0, and it ran fine, but that's because the graphics back then weren't needing Direct X 9+.

[coolerdude44]

i thought id also say that i dont really play any windows games. i have a 360, and that suffices for games. i never got into computer games. im gonna use windows for productivity (i think that office 07 is lightyears ahead of office 08) and i love outlook, and word 07. i also think windows media player is wayy better than quicktime. also, safari is the worst internet client ever made. but other than that, os x seems so cool. thats why i want both.

[blicksflicks]

Well, you know they have Microsoft Office for OS X, right? The Mac apps always are much better made the Windows apps in my opinion. Just from my experience anyway.

[coolerdude44]

also, vista has compatibility settings, so you can mimic the settings of any windows back to windows nt. you can play any game as long as you install it with the correct settings

[blicksflicks]

Well, the only reason I'd even install Vista is for Windows games. I mean, OS X does everything so much better than Vista. But, if I just want to play computer games, I'll buy Vista since Microsoft dominates the gaming software market. Sometimes, I get lucky though, and they port a copy to Mac, too. I really enjoyed the Mac copies of Tombraider: Anniversary and Neverwinter Nights 1&2. Hordes of the Underdark was the bomb. I got 4 gigs of RAM, so yeah, I could run Vista smoothly.

[blicksflicks]

Ah... nothing wrong Windows PC. I mean, they're awesome gaming consoles. But, if I want a real work horse, I run a Mac. Web design and other Windows forms of productivity just can't compete with Macintosh. Nothing like a Mac to save the day. :)

[coolerdude44]

i know, my friend has an imac, and he has office 08. office 07 has more applications built in and looks much better. its also wayy more organized. there are no real file/view/edit buttons in word. all the options are in a large button in the top, and all the format and stuff options are all spread across the top. its way better than word 08 for mac.

[blicksflicks]

I don't usually use Office. I mean, I'm more into my blog, creating podcasts, making movies and playing an occasional game title. I can't wait until I get the Snowball microphone. Nothing like designing web pages on a Mac and making your own radio show, you know? :)

[coolerdude44]

in that case, stick to xp. vista is too much of a hassle for games. if all you use your xp partition for is games, you will be much happier with xp. trust me.

[blicksflicks]

Yeah, I know. But, you know, I'm really counting on Microsoft to make Windows 7 the end all be all to operating systems. If that fails in popularity and first impressions, Microsoft can hang up the Server area and the operating system altogether. I used that Vista, and I tell ya... it was trash, man. I mean, I've been using computers over 20 years, and I've never seen something so non-user friendly in my life. It was disgusting. With all that money, and that's what they give people?

[coolerdude44]

WHAT?!?!?! i thought it was the most user friendly of all of them!!!

you never have to hunt for files, just type the name into instant search, and its lightning fast too. windows 7 is basically gonna be vista with a couple of more features

[blicksflicks]

Well, you gotta forgive me, because I'm use to hold down the Apple command key, hit the space bar and search for any file I want. I used it. It reminds me of... well, Windows. :) Not very exciting. I think XP is more navigable than Vista in some respects. I don't know how many people that I know had Vista and downgraded to XP. If that's doesn't say something, I don't know what does. A lot of people feel the same way I do. Vista is missing that ease of us that's found in OS X.

[blicksflicks]

Then... if I want to just say switch through applications easily, I just hit the Apple command key and hold down tab, and I can scroll through them right in the middle of my screen. Vista just doesn't have that simplicity and ease of use. Makes things a lot easer.

[coolerdude44]

actually dude, vista has the 3d window preview, or if your old fashioned (you cando this on xp too) hold down alt and then press tab. the exact same thing as mac.

[blicksflicks]

Yeah, you're right. ALT + TAB. Guess it's been awhile. Sorry. :)

[coolerdude44]

lol, i cant wait til i get a macbook pro. the reason im waiting is because i hear rumors that it will be redesigned in october. it will have a standard 2.6 ghz processor, 17 inch screen with an optional 19 inch screen, have larger hard drive configurations, and on top of all that, its supposed to be cheaper

[blicksflicks]

That Snowball microphone rocks! I can't wait to get one!

[coolerdude44]

im planning on vista just as much, if not more than im gonna use os x

[blicksflicks]

Hasta la Windows Vista, baby! LOL

[coolerdude44]

*planning on using lol

[blicksflicks]

I got to give it to Apple. My Macbook Pro logic board failure happened right around the year mark, and they fixed the thing for me. I had spilt water on the left speaker grill, but it looks like I was right. It never leaked through the speaker grille. Also, my iSkin saved the liquid on the speaker grille from spilling in the keys area & onto the motherboard. People, iSkin saved my life! Macbook pro still running strong. Please buy iSkin! iSkin saved my life! lol

[kibuzoSonoIo]

new record! in less than 40 secs! :P

[reno1hofman]

what HD did you use?

[davespdsp]

WD Scorpio

[thesloc]

Sweet, now I can store all my porn without worry...

[albertoxFTW]

good man , good man

[arthurjo2]

How long did it take you becus i got an 14 inch iBook and i changed the HD my self from 60 GB to 160 GB and it took me 2 hours. BTW i am getting an 17 inch MacBook Pro hopefully before or after summer gonna be so awesome

[davespdsp]

Actual time, including breaks, was a little over an hour. The instructions at ifixit . com were extremely helpful.

[coolerdude44]

dude, lol thats why i love pcs, it takes me the better half of 2 seconds to upgrade my hard drive on my dell laptop

[pinap9]

Quick question for you guys, how much can a lregular macbook handle? Can it handle the 320gb or is it too much?

[davespdsp]

Not sure about MacBook. Try searching the MacBook discussions at discussions . apple . com

[jthebrownboy]

wow, this is amazing. i'm looking into buying a 320GB scorpio for my macbook really soon. it's crazy how fast 250GB gets used up. haha