Found Footage: MacBook Pro HDD Replacement

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Hello,

Any recommendations on a "noise-less" large HD (750 GB or larger) for the MacBook Pro?

Thanks,
Helmut

Just a hint ... when you are doing any swop outs on a laptop, draw two little line drawings of the laptop top and bottom and as you remove the screws, place them in the identical position on the drawing as they came out of the machine.

In some 'books, you are going to have to make top and bottom, and inside drawings ... nothing to detailed is needed, just some lines and ideas of where major components are.

When it comes to reassembly, it makes it a hell of a lot easier. Some screws have just a few millimetres of a difference and it is easy to mix them all up.

As to the "My Lenovo only took 30 seconds" posters ... for goodness sake! Yeah, well, my MBP does not look like shitty plastic brick. Who said beauty was ever mean to be easy ... mostly the goodlooking ones take a little longer to work on.

Kudos to that guy. Just lifting out the keyboard would be horrifying for me. I really want to swap out my 120gb macbook pro hdd for a higher capacity one, but don't want to take it apart (out of fear I might just leave something not right). Plus, reinstalling the OS is a pain, and dealing with all my photos, docs, etc... kind of wish I just got a 200gb hdd from Apple. Or I can just go external!

Add me to the list of MBP hard drive upgraders (200GB 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar). I'd already taken my Pismo apart many times, and I knew I could count on iFixit's excellent instructions.

My only mistake was overtightening the two Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch, which pretty much prevented me from opening my laptop. Tense moments ensued... Fortunately I figured out what was going on before taking the whole thing apart again.

Looks easy compared to the very scary 12" PB 'remove the F2, F3, F11 and F12 keys' step. (the owner of the PB had to look away whilst I did that to their beloved mac)

Or the G3 ibook with the lovely 'shove something between the case and frame and prod and wiggle until you hear a click' process for removing the case.

Making the keyboard part of the upper case assembly makes it much and easier to take apart then the older laptops.

Upgraded to a 200 GB 7200 RPM drive from Otherworld Computing about a month ago. Their installation videos made it quick and easy - about 20 minutes total. If you're not doing this, it's not about it being difficult, it's about not wanting to unscrew about 20 screws. AND DO NOT ATTEMPT WITHOUT A TORX T-6 SCREWDRIVER. Trust me.

This is ultimately why I went with the Santa Rosa MacBook over the Pro (well, the price was a factor, too). Swapping the drive in the MacBook took me less than 3 minutes, and I'll be doing it again when bigger drives come around.

I was willing to sacrifice the video card and a bit of speed for the ability to add more storage whenever I felt like it.

I had a new AppleCare Warranty Harddrive in my Trusty iBook 1 week before AppleCare expired. I didn't link the fact that my Backlight was unstable after that to the fact that I had just had a stranger poking around in there.
I replaced the 30GB with a 120GB about 1 year later, after dealing with an out-of-warranty backlight, and while I was in I noticed that the Backlight Cable and some Shields were bent and not in correctly. I straightened the cable and shields and reinstalled them in the correct locations.
I might go back in in the future: the trusty G4 has a bit of life left in it, and replace the damaged cables and Backlight Circuitry, but not just now.

Replaced mine as well. The only casualty was my IR receiver. It's very easy to knock loose so be careful with that little cable. I may go back and fix that later when I am feeling particularly brave.