Upgrading the hard drive on a 2009 white macbook

Z

z@ng3tsu

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Howsit, mense.

Finally had the opportunity to purchase a Mac. Is immaculate. Came with a crumpher case. Specs were 110gb hd as well as 4 gb ram.

So I plan on doing an upgrade by installing a 320gb 7200rpm seagate drive. At the same time I intend to do a brand new install of lion os on the drive. So my query is concerning the installation. Will make my own installation cd. Is there anything I should know and do before the installation on the new hard drive?

Have the tools and YouTube videos on changing the hard drive so don't forsee any problems concerning that
area.

I hope that it would be the same as windows and do an install on the new hard drive automatically; but it's Mac. And rather have as much info as I can get before I proceed.

Thank you in advance.
 
Look at iFixit guides as well. They have one for the machine you have. Give it a read before you proceed. Even print it out as a reference while doing the change.

For the install of lion, it should be mostly painless. I would however make sure that the install disk (DVD/Flash) starts the machine up and gets you to the beginning of the install procedure before taking anything apart. You'd hate to change HD and then find the disk has an issue that could easily have been remedied beforehand with the old HD.

I have done similar things in the past and found that putting the old HD in an enclosure and making sure it starts up via USB is handy. IF anything goes wrong, you do have a quick fallback to remedy things.

Good luck.
 
You can make a USB flashdrive as the installer - much quicker to install from :) I have two tips:

1. Make sure you can boot off your install media (DVD or USB) *before* you swap the drives

2. After booting from the install media, open the disc utility, partition the drive, hit the options button and set the partition type to GUID. If you don't do this, the install will complete but you won't be able to boot off it.
 
Thank you for the help. Gonna get started with my download this evening.
 
I did this a couple months back on 2010 Macbook. Was very straight forward. Used the disks supplied from Apple and fresh install. (I put in a 1Tb)
 
nicvon said:
I did this a couple months back on 2010 Macbook. Was very straight forward. Used the disks supplied from Apple and fresh install. (I put in a 1Tb)
Click to expand...

Except, with Lion, there are no disks supplied by Apple, hence the advise from both myself and koffie to make sure the install disk works before any fiddling with hardware. And that GUID advice - essential. Nice one Koffie!
 
I also got the Lion disk from Apple but I don't think it is bootable. So Gregs advice is important.
 
GreGorGy said:
Did you pay for it? I went to DigiCape in rivonia and they just gave it to me gratis. Core iStore could learn.
Click to expand...

Nope didn't pay for it but had to make a bit of stink when buying my new iMac as they didn't want to give it to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am so busy right now with work. Also leaving for joburg tomo with my bro. So I will only have time to get the harddrive next week. The info you guys have given me is brilliant. Just wanting to say thanks again. I will keep you posted on how it goes.
 
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