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GShaps2 Author

Level 1

0 points

You can't upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive in the Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro. It is not supported. Period.

I tried unsuccesfully to upgrade the hard drive in my Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro to a 750GB 7200RPM hard drive. After several attempts with different hard drives I realized that the kernel panic that showed up was due to the lack of compatibility with the drives to the MacBook Pro. I had a Mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro that I did not have any issues with whatsoever. I sold that MacBook Pro and was able to upgrade to the brand new base model without any out of pocket cost. Upon purchase of the new 13" MBP I maxed out the RAM to the full 8GB. After 2 months of freezing, lockups, spinning rainbow wheels and having to force shutdown I tried one last ditch effort to see if a faster drive would help. After speaking with the Apple telephone reps and the Apple Store Genius Bar we discovered that Apple doesn't even offer the option of a 7200RPM drive on their website - a fact that I found quite disturbing. The concensus is that it is a power management issue that causes the incompatibility and the reason the drives are not offered on the 13" models. The problems I had were the end of the line for me. I just switched out that train wreck for the Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro base model. I got home and immediately installed the 750 GB 7200RPM Western Digital Scorpio Black hard drive and it was recognized within seconds. I'm back in business with gleeful abandon.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro

Posted on Apr 16, 2011 10:27 PM

Best reply

JasonFear

Level 5

4,965 points

Posted on Apr 16, 2011 11:40 PM

Very strange...

My wife got her Early 2011 within days of their announcement and has been using a Hitachi 7200RPM drive in her machine with zero problems. I also know of several people on various discussion boards that have installed 7200RPM drives into their Early 2011 MacBook Pros (13"). Heck, iFixit sells numerous 7200RPM models. It'd seem pretty unlikely for them to sell incompatible drives.

Just because Apple doesn't offer a 7200RPM model drive doesn't mean they're not support or don't work. I think whoever you spoke with via Apple is misinformed, I've never see one of Apple's portable computers not support a specific drive speed. The limitation has always been physical size and physical connection.

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41 replies

Nov 6, 2011 8:48 AM in response to Cristian U.

Thanks for passing on your experience with the 7200. Mine already gets pretty hot with cpu intensive processes. Sounds like apps that use hd swap would cause even more heat. I'm looking at SSDs.

Nov 6, 2011 8:56 AM in response to JasonFear

I have a 7200 rpm drive (750 GB) that has worked flawlessely. No problems in the last several months of using it.

Gippal

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2011 11:17 PM in response to mapex_venus

What manafacturer of your hard drive???

Nov 7, 2011 7:39 AM in response to GShaps2

I installed the Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM (7K500 TravelStar) about a month ago and haven't had any problems. Temp runs at about 50º C - 55º C and the noise/vibration is comparable to the stock drive.

I installed a 750GB Scorpio Black before the Hitachi and the vibration was too much for me, but others have said that there's no difference from the stock drive.

Dec 3, 2011 2:59 PM in response to dw1985

For those people who are having issue with locking up, pixelization, freezing, etc after some usage, you may be experiencing a heat issue. The issue may not be your new hard drive, but rather a more generic issue concerning heat.

If you are using high-performance apps for a while and notice that your MacBook Pro feels very hot, you may want to consider manually controlling your cooling fan.

I had a 2006 17" MBP, with the ATI display problem. See http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330060-263.html and do more research. Dozens of posts about this issue indicate inadequate heat sinking of the ATI GPU in some MacBook Pros, with subsequent overheating causing the issue. This issue affects many ATI equipped MacBooks, not just the system mentioned in the link.

Bottom line: I downloaded and installed the smcFanControl http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol and set the fans in my computer to run faster than the stock setting. This control also displays the internal temperature of your MacBook Pro, helping you decide if overheating is the issue. If you are electronic savvy, you may try adding more heat sink grease.

Even though I'm running a new 17" (2011) MacBook Pro now, I still use the smc Fan Control. If I notice the temp go above 150ºF, I turn up the fan speeds. You can set "profiles" which make it easy to make adjustments. Profiles can also be linked to power conditions, such as charging, battery and AC power. I set the fan speed higher for charging, and medium for AC power, and keep it just a little higher than min on battery.

For those who argue you shouldn't mess with the fan speeds, please note. The smc Fan Control does not let you turn the fans below minimum speeds set by the hardware.

This utility isn't for everybody, but if you are a true power user and find yourself crashing after sustained high CPU usage, I recommenced trying this fix.

Think of it as a complete part of a balance, nutritious maintenance plan.

ibderek

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2011 11:03 PM in response to GShaps2

I purchased a Seagate Momentus 750GB 7200RPM for my early 2011 MBP13", and was unable to boot up. I ended up returning the drive (thank you Amazon), and have accepted that I cannot upgrade to what I would like.

BasharAR

Level 1

50 points

Jan 1, 2012 11:13 PM in response to ibderek

I have had the momentus XT and replaced it with hitchi 7k750 7200 rpm, Hitachi is quiter, less vibration, energy and FASTER than the hybird hard drive,i did lots of benchmark and the new hitachi drive just performs better, go hitachi and dont look further.

Mar 2, 2012 5:54 AM in response to dw1985

dw1985 wrote:

You must have got a bad drive. The Scorpio Black 750GB drive is nothing short of fantastic in my early 2011 13" MBP.

You should be happy for that. Most people (including) me with WD HDDs (both Scorpio Blue and Black) have bad experiences.

Mar 2, 2012 7:39 AM in response to Charlie.F

It's been 6 months since I upgraded to a 750 GB WD Scorpio Black and still no problems. Already bought a second one to put on an external HD and running strong. I think maybe you installed it improperly.

Mar 2, 2012 8:26 AM in response to audiodoctor

audiodoctor wrote:

It's been 6 months since I upgraded to a 750 GB WD Scorpio Black and still no problems. Already bought a second one to put on an external HD and running strong. I think maybe you installed it improperly.

Good for you, I'm glad to hear that. However there are people who did not have this luck:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3761763?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2250690?answerId=11241193022#11241193022

Nov 9, 2012 9:14 PM in response to Charlie.F

Wow. I'm literally about to install the 750 7200 Scorpio Black and the 16 GB Crucial RAM upgrade right now. Hope it goes well. If not, I've got two backups and I can just go back to the stock RAM/HD setup...

You can't upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive in the Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro. It is not supported. Period.