Hard Disk Drive Replacement Options

Question

Hard Disk Drive Replacement Options

Hi:

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. Recently it started acting funny and a friend suggested it might be the hard drive. I got a copy of Scannerz to check the drive and about 10 minutes into the scan it started finding problems. I ran Scannerz in diag mode to confirm it wasn't the SATA cable, and it passed that with flying colors. I need a new hard drive.

Here's my dilemma: I'm on a budget. The most I can afford is between $125 to $150 to replace the hard drive. The question is, can I get a decent SSD for this much money?

Before I continue, I should state that I use a dual boot system. I still have a 100GB partition with Snow Leopard on it because I have some old applications that are older PPC applications. They're rarely used, but they do get used a few times a year. The rest of the drive is Mavericks.

I see the following as possible options:

1. Get an SSD that I can split so that I have 2 partitions again. It would need to be at least 256GB, and that's probably pushing it, probably more like 350GB is what I'd like.

2. Just get a hard drive. I've read on here that some of the Hitachi drives are fast for old mechanical drives and they're cheap too. I'd have money left over.

3. Create a Fusion drive with a smallish SSD and a hard drive. Setting it up using an article I read about in CNET doesn't look that hard, but the idea of taking out the optical drive and putting some type of adapter in there to hold either an SSD or HDD just seems a little risky. Also, isn't the speed of the optical drive slower than those of drives? Do I need a new cable if I consider doing this?

4. The Scannerz tech support people said I might want to get a new SATA cable anyway. Any idea why they would say that? They don't sell parts so that obviously wasn't the motivation.

When answering, please keep costs in mind. The total I'm will to spend, absolute max, is $150.

Thank you.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Hard Drive Replacement

Posted on Feb 17, 2015 5:42 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Revnron

Level 1

8 points

Feb 17, 2015 6:31 PM in response to MrWilliams201

Just did this on an old MB Pro with missing hard drive. you can get a nice drive for less than $50, even a 1 tb. A standard PC grade drive will work, 2.5 in. SATA drive. Be very careful with the cable. Ive had trouble with them. you might want to put some electrical tape between the cable and the inside of the case to avoid abrasion. I had to replace the cable because of it. Check YouTube for a good video for how to do it, pretty simple. As far as the double boot system, I assume you know how to partition and format the drive.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 17, 2015 6:36 PM in response to MrWilliams201

Where are you shopping for the SSD? I have not seen a 350 gb drive because I have not needed one. For 240 gb however, this is an excellent price: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-240GB-2-5-inch-Internal-CT240M500SSD1/dp/B00BQ8RM1 A/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1424226522&sr=8-28&keywords=solid+state+drive

Have you considered creating a Snow Leopard boot on an external drive, just a normal drive, not a SSD? If it is seldom used, you do not even have to keep it connected until you need it. In fact you can put your current drive in an external enclosure and use it for your SL installation.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 18, 2015 12:49 AM in response to MrWilliams201

MrWilliams201 wrote:

Hi:

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro…..

4. The Scannerz tech support people said I might want to get a new SATA cable anyway. Any idea why they would say that? They don't sell parts so that obviously wasn't the motivation.

When answering, please keep costs in mind. The total I'm will to spend, absolute max, is $150.

Thank you.

Several possible reasons:

They're known to be somewhat problematic
They're easy to break, or maybe I should say make somewhat dysfunctional with erratic connections
You're in there anyway, so why not do it while you're at it.

Some of the internal drives on MacBook Air's require a new cable when replacing the drive. A SATA cable isn't a simple flat ribbon cable like those on IDE drives and they really can't take a lot of abuse. Revnron's advice about using the electrical tape along the case/ground paths the cable lies across is a good idea IMHO.

If you decide to go with a regular hard drive, you might want to consider some of the 2.5" 7200RPM Hitachi drives. They're apparently quite fast for mechanical drives, and Hitachi still has a good reputation.

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 18, 2015 10:33 AM in response to MrWilliams201

If by any chance your optical drive is bad, now might be a good time to replace it too. Just a thought.

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 18, 2015 11:56 PM in response to MrWilliams201

Another idea you might want to look into might be a hybrid SSD/HDD (i.e. SSHD). You would get increased performance over an HDD, bigger size, and I suspect it will fall within the realm of your budget. In the link below they start at about $85 U.S.

http://www.toshiba.com/us/solid-state-hybrid-drives

Reply

Answer 6

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

Feb 19, 2015 12:18 AM in response to MrWilliams201

So we need to determine which 2009 model you have.That will determine whether you can use a 3G or 6G SSD:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC

and find your model identifier.

"The most I can afford is between $125 to $150"

So depending on your model a 120 GB SSD will be either $74 or $76.

Now that's small but usable. I'm running three on machines here. I keep all large storage on external drives.

Then here's the 2nd part. Buy the Data Doubler:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

and a conventional drive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/WD/SATA/5400RPM

320 GB for $49.99

and the total is $154.99.

Then probably partition the larger drive and put you Snow Leopard on there and use the other portion to do this:

Splitting data

http://blog.macsales.com/24915-splitting-your-data-an-alternative-to-fusion

Reply

Answer 7

Feb 19, 2015 10:58 AM in response to spudnuty

Thank you all. A surprising amount of insightful input indeed!

Here are some follow on questions:

1. Would it be a good idea to order a new SATA cable anyway? Mine apparently still works but I'd be fearful it might not be after working with it. If they can be as problematic as some say, maybe having a spare around wouldn't be such a bad idea anyway.

2. If I decide on an SSD/HD combo and pull the optical drive, is the data doubler really needed? I have an old busted OD and was thinking I could strip the contents out of the case and build some brackets to secure and HDD or SSD inside it. Does the data doubler do anything else other than act as a frame for the HDD/SSD so it can be securely held inside a unit?

3. Regarding cables, I read somewhere that some SATA cables are limited to 3GB/s but others are for 6GB/s. Is that true, and how can I tell the difference? MacTracker shows mine as have a 3.0Gb/s interface, but If I used a different cable, could it be a 6 Gb/sec interface? Is the speed limited by the cable or the logic board itself?

For future reference, here's the specs on my model

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

Identifier: MacBook Pro 5,5

Model Number: A1278

Thank you all again.

Reply

Answer 8

Feb 19, 2015 5:27 PM in response to MrWilliams201

That model uses an MCP79 chip which is essentially a combined I/O controller, memory controller, and GPU all in one. It's limited to 3.0 Gb/sec for SATA, so putting another cable on there won't change it. If you end up getting a regular HD, you'll never know the difference. In fact, unless you're actually doing a lot of disk intensive stuff, you may never notice the difference significantly between a 3.0Gb/sec and 6.0Gb/sec even when using an SSD. That point, of course, is somewhat moot since you won't be able to get any more out of it than 3.0Gb/sec anyway.

Reply

Answer 9

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

Feb 19, 2015 8:29 PM in response to MrWilliams201

So your model is limited to 3 GB. I talked to OWC about putting a 6 GB in a similar machine and they said it would run at 1.5 GB but you'd hardly know the difference.

Reply

Answer 10

Feb 20, 2015 11:39 AM in response to MrWilliams201

If you end up looking at/considering HDDs, make sure to check the specs on the drive. For example, HGST's newer 2.5" lines all feature a 32MB buffer running at 7200RPM. However, there are still a lot of their older models that look nearly identical but they run much slower, and ironically cost about the same. The speed difference is notable because the newer hitachi's use an AF format mapped to 512e sectors with a much higher areal density. The media to system transfer speeds, not to be confused with the cache to system speeds, are approaching, but not quite getting to SATA 1 speeds.

Checking specs on all candidate devices and making sure you get the right one might end up being the difference between night an day.

Reply

Answer 11

Feb 20, 2015 5:50 PM in response to spudnuty

Thank all of you once again. I'll probably make a decision this weekend and take a look at what's available at some of the local stores. I prefer brick and mortar stores over web stores because if something doesn't work I can just get in my car and take it back to the place. I also noticed that one of the local shops has a fair number of reasonably priced SanDisk SSDs, but I hear little about them.

While I'm at it, can any of you think of any drives or SSDs (I haven't made my mind up) that are known to be problem prone?

Reply

Answer 12

Feb 20, 2015 7:24 PM in response to MrJavaDeveloper

AF format

Direct Mac support for Advanced Format (4K blocks) was stable in 10.4.4 and later.

Reply

Answer 13

Feb 20, 2015 7:26 PM in response to MrWilliams201

The stuff on your Internal drive should be whatever MUST be portable. Anything else (including a 10.6 Boot Drive) can be on a drive in an external enclosure. Your Mac can boot from any drive, Internal or External. User Home directories need not be on the Boot Drive -- they can be assigned to any drive.

USB-2 is a bit slow (except for your Backup Drive) but FireWire gives "near Hard Drive" performance.

Reply

Answer 14

Feb 21, 2015 12:31 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I found the following immediately available locally:

HDD: Hitachi 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" Hard Drive 0S03788 for $53

SSD: Silicon Power S60 120GB Sata III 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD SP120GBSS3S60S25 for $55

SSD: Kingston V300 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD for $60

SSD: SanDisk 128GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"SSD SDSSDP-128G-G25 for $65

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD MZ-75E120B/AM for $70

SSD: OCZ 100 Series 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD ARC100-25SAT3-120G for $65

There are others available, lots actually, but that's what I'm narrowing it down to. I see what one said when saying to check the specs. The Hitachi HDD above clearly states it uses AF format with 512e sectors, but the store also has a 5400RPM unit with a much smaller cache, which I'm assuming is the old one, for just a few dollars less. As you can guess there are a lot more HDDs available at the store but Hitachi seems to have a good reputation and that price is hard to beat.

Now, for SSDs, I get the impression Samsung is well thought of. It seems Apple is putting SanDisk SSDs in some of the MacBook Air's so my assumption is it's a good brand too. OCZ I've read some bad things about. Kingston I'm familiar with from memory sticks but I have no idea how good there SSDs are. There seem to be few people commenting on them. I've never heard of Silicon Power.

Do the prices above look good, or are they too high? Any comments on quality?

RIght now I'm pretty convinced I'm going to go with a dual setup with an SSD to hold the OS then use the HDD as a data drive and to also hold the Snow Leopard partition. This would give me all the space I need.

Another idea is to make a Fusion Drive and leave a part ion on the HDD alone for Snow Leopard. Any comments on this idea?

Thank you all again.

Reply

Answer 15

Feb 21, 2015 5:12 PM in response to MrWilliams201

Prices look good to me, but then again I don't shop around a lot.

A Fusion would be doable but you would have to manually configure the HDD to split it. I did that some time ago on one system but I was using both the SSD and the HDD in their entirety. I think you must use the entire SSD for a Fusion to work, but I think the HDD can be split with one volume being Core Storage. I haven't fooled with any of that stuff in a long time, so maybe things have changed.

You might want to consider just creating a data partition on the HDD and then moving space consumers like photos, videos, music, etc onto that.

Make sure that none of the stuff you're looking at is a refurbished unit, especially SSDs.

Reply