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General discussion

Mac-specific hard drives?

Jul 26, 2007 4:07PM PDT

I'm in the market for either a macbook or macbook pro (along with an applecare protection plan) for my next semester of school, and I was pondering about adding a 3rd party hard drive, since a couple brands seem to have 3 or 5 year warranties.
I went to newegg, chose Hardware -> Hard drives. Next, I was given options for external, internal, and Mac hard drives (among others). I took a look at the Mac hard drives, and they look like the externals (which makes sense, since iMacs aren't like PCs with the ease of hardware replacement). Is there any difference at all? I assume maybe they're formatted differently at the factory, but that can always be done by me just as easily, right?

What I want is an internal laptop hard drive (2.5" SATA, right?) to replace the stock 80GB that macbooks come with. I just go with the regular stuff, right? Ignore the "Mac hard drives" area?


If you're curious as to why I'll "need" the extra storage, I'm interested in either dual or triple booting it ... I wanna see what the Vista hype is about, and to tell the truth, I've enjoyed the linux experience on my PC desktop. While 80GB COULD do it, I would feel cramped on such a small drive.


Thoughts?

Discussion is locked

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Seagate 160GB
Jul 26, 2007 4:40PM PDT

I was checking newegg, and I found this one ... and out of 31 reviews, it averaged 5 stars, only two people had bad experiences with it, giving it one star. Several people mentioned they used this drive in their Macbooks/Macbook Pros, and said it was as quiet or quieter than the stock drive, with the same amount of battery life.
$100 is a bit much, but I guess it's $35 cheaper than getting it with Apple, and I get two years more of a warranty with Seagate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148184

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Go big. Go external.
Jul 26, 2007 9:03PM PDT

For under 99 bucks geeks.com has some 500GB Seagate SATA 300 drive. They have drive cases (pick one with firewire and fan). This should solve having a place to keep a copy nearby.

You should see full retail externals in the near 200 buck range.

The drives Apple used are your common SATA laptop drives. I'd not use a 7200 RPM due to power consumption and heat. I'd stick to 5400RPM.

Bob

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Another thing to consider
Jul 26, 2007 9:53PM PDT

You "may" void the warranty, and any subsequent AppleCare coverage, if you replace the stock drive with a larger drive.
Should this machine have to go back for any warranty repairs, Apple will notice that this was not the machine that they provided warranty coverage for.

Just a thought.

P

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Going external should address this.
Jul 26, 2007 10:46PM PDT

Yes, I have externals.

Bob

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5400rpm, externals, and warranty
Jul 27, 2007 3:33AM PDT

Yeah, the drive I linked is 5400rpm, and I know that the slower speed allows for greater battery life.
About the warranty, we've been through this a few weeks ago, p ... hard drives and memory are both considered user-replacable, and if I don't screw up, I shouldn't void the warranty. I'll see about giving apple a call, though
if I send the computer back for replacement, I'll put in the stock drive

Also, externals don't really work as well (speed) as far as running OS's on 'em ... and besides, I'd rather have a larger internal, so I don't have to carry around an external.

anyway, thanks for the replies ... later for now

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Short term memory failure!
Jul 27, 2007 10:43AM PDT

Good idea to replace the drive if the thing goes back to Apple.

I see it is quite easy to replace the thing, unlike the previous iBooks!

P

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no problemo & a call to Apple
Jul 28, 2007 12:17AM PDT

Hey, p ... sorry, I had a reply written last night in linksboks (a basic HTML xbox browser), but then I couldn't send it for some reason.

Anyway, I wanted to say sorry for being a bit harsh on you yesterday ... as I forget a lot of stuff, too.

In other news, I called Apple and a REALLY nice dude confirmed that I would not void my warranty as long as I didn't screw anything up while replacing the drive. He even linked me to ifixit.com, a site he said has very good instructions, even telling me when to sneeze, if I need to, as well as very detailed pictures alongside the text instructions.

One other thing ... a friend suggested to me that I could possibly get my mac from amazon for a bit cheaper and still get the warranty ... what do you all think of that?

Yah, well talk atcha guys later ... be cool! Happy

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Amazon
Jul 28, 2007 2:33AM PDT

The warranty from Apple, including AppleCare, is valid no matter where you purchase your machine. Buying from the Apple store incurs Sales Tax in the State you live in, if Sales Tax is applied in that State

Most mail-order type places, MacMall, CDW, etc., do not charge tax, yet.

So while the machine itself is usually a few dollars less in those places, there is no tax which makes the whole price lower.

Wherever you get it from, Enjoy.

P

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re: amazon
Jul 28, 2007 11:45AM PDT

Looking at amazon, macmall, and other such places, it seems everything's more expensive than at apple's site. But that's because at apple, I've been telling them I'm a student. Do the other places have student discounts?

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(NT) Dunno, you could ask
Jul 28, 2007 11:11PM PDT
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No warranty problem...
Jul 27, 2007 6:18PM PDT

Yeah, I too don't believe that replacing your hard drive voids any warranty. Apple even explains how to do it on their website. It's so easy, by the way...

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Yeah, we already agreed on that.
Jul 27, 2007 11:20PM PDT

Don't try it on an iBook though

Happy

P