Upgraded to 320GB HDD in My MacBook Pro

I just upgraded the disk drive in my Mac Book to 320 GB (from 160Gb) and it could not have been easier.
I can’t believe how simple this was using Mac OS X. No restore or data migra­tion, just a simple backup and then install the drive. Boot and back in busi­ness.…..
Here are my tips on how to do this yourself:

Hard Disk Drive

Buy an external hard disk drive ( http://​www​.wdc​.com/​e​n​/​p​r​o​d​u​c​t​s​/​p​r​o​d​u​c​t​s​.​a​s​p​?​D​riveID=377), although I wish I had bought unit that was 7200RPM and thus gave me a per­form­ance boost. ( I will do that when I get the 500GB drive in a few months).

SASA Drive Cradle or Adapter

Buy an external SATA to USB hard disk cradle — some­thing like a Scythe Kama Connect 2 USB2.0 IDE and SATA External Adapter, but this unbranded SATA Cradle is my per­sonal choice — http://​www​.stor​agedepot​.co​.uk/​E​n​c​l​o​s​u​r​e​s​-​a​n​d​-​C​a​s​e​s​/​s​c​8​8​4​/​p​6​4​0​p​o​p​u​p​1​5​3​1.aspx?x=y. It takes both 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives of any height.

Buy SuperDuper

SuperDuper is a backup util­ity from Shirt Pocket Software. The best thing is that it makes the external hard disk EXACT BOOTABLE COPY of your hard disk drive. So you can per­form a backup to the new drive, then simply install it into your MacBook. No restore, or any other action needed.

The cost is about GBP£16 /​ USD$30 from http://​shirt​pocket​.com

I use Super Duper as my backup soft­ware for every­day use as well, so this is not a one use soft­ware. It is an incre­mental image update util­ity and a use­ful tool to sup­ple­ment what Time Machine does not do.

Consult the iFixit web site, buy tools and spudger

The iFixit has a num­ber of guides on how to dis­as­semble your Mac accord­ing to model and what you are try­ing to do. Here is the guide to repla­cing the Hard Disk Drive in a 17″ Core Duo MacBook Pro

The iFixit guide will also list the tools that you need and can sell them to you in a kit, or you can buy them on ebay with a bit of look­ing around.

Working tips

I prin­ted out the iFixit guide and then sticky taped it to the table. As a I removed the screws I placed onto the pic­ture on that page (so I knew which screw was which).

Conclusion

After per­form­ing the phys­ical install­a­tion I simply turned on my MacBook. Unlike Windows, I did not have to do a restore or data migration.

I don’t know why I waited so long. .……

Product Picture

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