How much to upgrade my hard drive?

You should be able to do this yourself - here are install videos:

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

(just pick your model)

And,, they are a good source of hard drives, either SSD or HD:

http://www.macsales.com/

Not sure if I want a regualr HDD or an SSD. I'd like to see if anybody had any ballpark estimates for both.

This is an international community. Prices vary from country, state, city, etc.

You should call the repair shop of your choice and ask for an estimate. Make sure the estimate includes taxes, labor costs, etc.

Remember, no one can give you an exact figure until the repair techs physically examine your computer.

Well, call them up! :)

The Apple store generally does not do upgrades - they'd only take it in for a repair, either in or out of warranty. You'd need to find an authorized service provider; however, it is quite easy to do yourself.

As for SSD vs. HD - if I decided on an HD, I'd get a hybrid or a 7200 rpm drive, certainly not the stock 5400 rpm drive (I noticed quite a difference in speed); SSDs are expensive, so that's your decision.

Don't bother even thinking about repair!

I just fitted a Seagate Hybrid SSHD 1Tb in my 2010 MBP and it flys.

Well, it depends on the "failing" - you can try to repair it with Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities); you have to be booted from another source though (external clone, install DVD, or boot into recovery). If that does not work, it needs to be replaced.

Before you embark on any of this, make sure you have a full backup of your stuff as you will lose everything otherwise. A bootable clone would be perfect as you can then simply clone that back to your new hard drive and be ready to go.

remairwaldo wrote:

Thoughts on an SSD vs an HDD?

SSD is much faster, more reliable, and gives you more battery life, but is much more expensive per gigabyte.

HDD is much more affordable if you need a lot of space, but slow and has fragile mechanical parts.

If you do a lot of serious computer work (video editing, photo editing...), especially for a living, an SSD could pay for itself in productivity. Amazon has some large Samsung SSDs for just a few hundred dollars, could pay for itself quickly in a business. But if you are a home user on a budget, an HDD is fine.

If you really want speed I would skip past the 7200RPM hard drive and go straight to SSD. The difference in speed between 5400 and 7200 these days is hardly worth it compared to picking up even the slowest SSD instead.

remairwaldo wrote:

I have Time Machine backups, but no clone. Should I clone on an external HD?

You can do a complete restore from a Time Machine backup, so a clone is technically unnecessary...but a lot of us like the convenience of a clone and make them anyway. I do both, and I always update my clone before any major computer surgery.

Also...the clone is easier when you are doing a hard drive transplant because you can clone to the new drive before you put it in, and so after you swap, the system is already on the clone and you can just start using it. Without the clone, after the swap you would still have to wait for Time Machine to put the system back together on the new drive.

I'd get one of those if I didn't want to spend the money on an SSD.