Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Portables, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air
Good news, bad news: WD ships first 1 TB mobile drive, doesn't fit in Mac laptops
Yes, it's a lot of storage -- but the drive's form factor won't fit into any currently available Mac laptop. (Note the update at the end of this post)I was pretty excited when the Western Digital news release hit my inbox. The new drives, the industry's first in that size for portables, have pretty good specs and capacious storage space. The problem really is the size. With Apple in the business of providing slim notebooks, the drive is just too tall (12.5mm) to make it into any Apple portable, which maxes out at a drive size of 9.5mm.
The drive will be available in a USB enclosure, and WD is also offering a 750 GB version of the drive as well. The 1 TB drive lists for US$250, while the 750 GB drive is $189. Those prices are for the drive alone. Mounted in a USB enclosure the 1 TB drive sells for $300.
Currently the largest 3rd party drives you can get in current Mac laptops max out at 500 GB.
The Mac Mini may be able to house the new drive, but it would be a pretty tight fit, and according to our Steven Sande, may require the removal of the SuperDrive.
Update: We've had a variety of responses to this post, with different ideas about which, if any laptops could take this new high capacity drive. I thought the quickest and best approach would be to try the experts at Other World Computing, who make a living selling replacement hard drives for Mac Desktops and portables. The tech there told me that the last generation 17" MacBook Pro can take the 12.5mm drive, but that the 15" model can't. He also said none of the unibody MacBook Pro models can take a drive of that size. I'm sure some won't accept this information either, but these were the most expert opinions we could find since Western Digital wasn't sure and Apple doesn't generally comment on such things. Since the drives are just shipping, we'll wait for some real world experience and report back. Thanks to all who commented.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
DrewNL said 3:18PM on 7-27-2009
Are we sure this won't fit in the new MacBooks? The ones with the one piece bottom.
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Joseph said 12:10AM on 7-28-2009
what about with the MacBookPro superdrive removal option(forgot who makes it)? Think it would fit there?
Level 5 said 3:18PM on 7-27-2009
Pity it's that tall. I don't have a Mac laptop, but I would had loved to stick a 1TB jammy in my PS3. Que Cera Cera.
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Joshua Ochs said 3:30PM on 7-27-2009
Try won't fit in any current laptop, save perhaps those AlienWare beasts that sport multiple hard drives and desktop processors. The laptop market standardized on 9.5mm drives over half a decade ago (the last Mac that supported 12.5mm was the Pismo Powerbook G3, if I'm not mistaken).
This is a publicity stunt to say they're "first", plain and simple.
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nikster said 12:14AM on 7-28-2009
Apparently, it fits in any unibody MacBook Pro. Even the 13" ones. According to MacRumors forums.
amizzo said 3:32PM on 7-27-2009
Isn't advertising this as a laptop drive blatantly false if it can't fit inside of a laptop?
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smak said 5:40PM on 7-27-2009
They are advertising it for external enclosures... not laptops.
John.B said 6:24PM on 7-27-2009
"They are advertising it for external enclosures... not laptops."
As long as they will support being bus powered, I'm totally good with that. In fact, I want three (one for Time Machine and a pair for my media files).
Hobbes said 3:39PM on 7-27-2009
If it doesn't fit in a laptop I'd say they're shooting themselves in the foot as they're ignoring an existing market and hoping only new machines will support this drive.
Sounds really more like a marketing stunt than something practical.
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Beanie said 3:39PM on 7-27-2009
This will change when they are able to make 1 TB drives without having to put two platters in them. I'm actually not sure what laptop these will fit in, Alienware maybe?
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Jagger said 4:45PM on 7-27-2009
These drives have 3 platters in the actually. So, if they managed to make 2.5" platters that could hold 500GB (or more), we'd be all set.
Jagger said 4:47PM on 7-27-2009
arg.
*them,
This should be a lesson to everyone--PROOFREAD.
mooglemd said 3:46PM on 7-27-2009
The unibody macbooks and macbook pros ie 13 and 15 inchers with removable doors can take the 12.5mm drives
http://www.alexpopovich.com/blog/2008/10/30/macbook-rev-f-audio-skipping-in-vista-analisys-and-solution/
I've also personally took off my battery door to measure.
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Hawkman said 3:52PM on 7-27-2009
There are more reports of this around the web: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/dec08/121508.html#S24994
So actually, there probably are Mac laptops that can use these. :) Also, the commenter who said tall drive support stopped with the G3s is wrong – it's been patchy, depending on the case model, but some models of G4 were fine with 12.5mm drives. If I had the cash, I'd totally get one of these beauties.
DrewNL said 3:54PM on 7-27-2009
So one could then assume that it also fits in the latest macbook pro models, given that the spacing and dimensions are exactly the same as the ones with the removable doors.
mooglemd said 4:05PM on 7-27-2009
I'm not sure if you can make that assumption without knowing the clearance under the bottom plate. If anyone has opened up the new unibodies and checked the space, I would go with that.
Noah said 8:53AM on 7-28-2009
No, they can't.
Matt said 4:04PM on 7-27-2009
This blows. I've got a 250 gig in my 07-ish MacBook and I have around 1 gig free. I'd love to have a terabyte of space, but it looks like my only options are to get a 500 gb drive or wait and see if Seagate can make a 9.5" tb drive. =[
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Jagger said 4:44PM on 7-27-2009
Haha. 9.5 inches is pretty big for a hard drive. :P
9.5mm tall and a 2.5" diameter platter.
Urbz said 4:44PM on 7-27-2009
Who cares? SSDs FTW!!!
Seriously though, is having THAT much storage TODAY in your laptop really that important? Couldn't you just carry an external drive? I have a 500gig in my mac mini, though. Media servers need their storage!
I would prefer a cheap-ish 256 or 512 gig SSD to a terabyte of spinning platters!
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