DIY Macbook Hard Drive Upgrade

// October 21st, 2011 // Other

I’ve seen a few guides on the webs that show how to upgrade your macbook hard drive, but nobody has given a really great comprehensive guide all in one place. I’m going to show you a simple, quick way to upgrade your hard drive yourself for about $50 and in about 15 minutes, and a way to put the old hard drive to use once you’ve swapped it with the new one. The goal is to basically swap your macbook hard drive with the one inside the portable case, so you end up with a larger hard drive in your macbook, and an external hard drive for whatever you want.

You can see your current hard drive info by clicking on the “Apple” in the top left of the toolbar, then “About This Mac” and then “More Info” then “Serial-ATA.” Here’s mine, a 320 GB capacity hard drive.

Tools you’ll need: a tiny screw driver set, your macbook OS installer disk, Time Machine, and (if you want) some cue tips and maybe a tiny pair of pliers.

Step 1 – Back it up. BEFORE you do anything, back up your whole computer using Time Machine. I’m not going to explain how to do this, because it’s a Mac product, brilliantly designed and easy to use, and if you can’t figure out how to do it, then you shouldn’t be upgrading your hard drive by yourself either.

Step 2 – Buy a new drive. I wanted to upgrade to a 500 GB size drive, so I bought this one for $50: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047ZH0B6. Notice that this is not a “laptop hard drive” but rather a portable external hard drive. Guess what? Inside it’s the same thing, and these are cheaper for some reason, plus we’re going to use the case later.

Step 3 – Crack the case. Get at it and crack the thing. Yes, this will scratch your case. Yes, it will make a loud “pop” sound that sounds like you totally just wrecked it, but no, it isn’t broken. Be careful not to scratch the drive inside, but don’t be afraid to use some force. These cases are pretty solid and really well stuck together, but once you get in a corner, work at it and pry it open with a screw driver.

Step 4 – Remove the hard drive inside. The drive has a little connector piece on top that you must remove. It’s on there snug, but pull on the plastic (as shown in the picture) and work it off.

Step 5 – Get into your macbook. First, shut it down and disconnect it from the AC power adapter. Remove the backing by unscrewing the 8 screws. Keep an eye on those things too, they’re tiny and easy to lose. At this point I cleaned off a few parts with some cue tips. Dust collects on the fan and other parts, so I gently removed it. This is good to do periodically anyway.

Step 6 – Remove the hard drive. There are only 2 screws holding a bridge-like piece down, which holds the drive in place. Remove those screws and the bridge piece. The hard drive should now be free, so GENTLY lift it up, careful not to pull on the strip connected to the top of it! If you pull this thing out, you’re totally fubar, so be careful. Remove the connector from the top, and fully remove the hard drive.

Step 7 – Insert the new drive. Take off the 4 little pegs on the old hard drive and place them on the new hard drive. Connect the strip to the new drive, put it in place, and screw down the bridge that you removed from before. Put the backing back on the macbook.

Step 8 – Restore your macbook. Turn your macbook on, insert the install disk, and plug in your external hard drive with your Time Machine backup on it. You’ll be asked if you want to set up your macbook new or restore it from Time Machine. Again, just follow the steps and let Time Machine work it’s magic. It’s very straight forward and self explanatory, and again, if you can’t figure this out, you probably shouldn’t be doing this upgrade by yourself. It’ll probably take 2-3 hours to fully restore, depending on how much stuff you have to restore, but once it’s done, you’re back to normal, just with a larger hard drive!

Step 9 – Put that old drive to use! Take your old hard drive, connect the connector piece from the portable hard drive to it, and put it in the portable hard drive case that your new drive came from. Snap the case back together and voila – you now have a portable external hard drive! You can wipe the drive if you want using your disk utility, or you can just keep it as a separate back up of your macbook.