Replacing Hard Drive

Any 2.5" SATA HDD will be compatible with your MBP. Here is a selection offered by OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/

There are other vendors as well.

Though I tend to favor Seagate and HGST, any of them will do.

Installing the HDD is rather straight forward. select the video for the applicable MBP that you have:

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

Ciao.

Hey Pat and welcome,

I only use drives from OWC:

https://www.macsales.com/

You might consider putting in an SSD:

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

I've put SSDs from OWC in:

a 2006 iMac

Late 2009 15" MBP

Late 2009 MacBook Unibody - Client's daughter had stopped using it because it was so slow. Now she worries that she's on it all the time.

5 more for clients that I forgot the particulars

My personal early 2011 MBP 13" i5

Here's some videos:

Startup

http://tinyurl.com/ooe6sac

Photoshop CS 6 open job:

http://tinyurl.com/nsussol

I bumped the RAM to 8 GB and bought the smallest practical SSD, the 120 GB (budget minded).

Here's some benchmarks from OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/CS6BenchmarkPag e-MacBookPro13.html

You'll notice that the increase in RAM doesn't make much of a difference from 4 GB to 8 GB. The addition of an SSD makes a huge difference however.

Now I can't stand to work on a machine with a conventional drive, they feel broken to me now that I've been spoiled with an SSD.

"it must be pretty good."

It sure is. Been dealing with them for 9 years now. Started when I was in Chicago and since they're in Woodstock I could get things within 2 days. They are very knowledgeable and helpful. There are also install videos on their site.

Woodstock, IL is 61 miles NW of the Billy Goat Tavern. It's where they shot "Groundhog Day". There's also the best dang apple cider donuts there in the fall at this apple picking place. We met people that had driven 200 miles to get some!

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=+best+apple+cider+donuts++Woodstock+IL

The apples are expensive but loved the donuts. Went there because people that crewed on that movie raved about the donuts. There were just like my Mom used to make!

The next problem is installing software. If you really are using 10.6.8, you should have the 10.6 release DVD. You can boot from that, and all will be well.

If your Mac came with 10.7 or later, but is older than about 2012, this process can get complicated in a hurry. Post back for more help if that is your situation.