Question about swapping new harddisk

Hi Forum,

I am going to get new macbookpro with i7 2.2 ghz, 8gb ram, 750Gb 5200 Rpm Harddisk. This notebook is bought by my cousin from Singapore on holiday so if I need to cuztomize my harddisk to 500GB 7200 rpm may take weeks to arrive and I couldnt wait any longer since my cousin isnt staying that long in Singapore.
My question is 5200 rpm is too slow for me because I came from using SSD in my sony. I would like to know the procedure on what do i need to do if I wanted to swap a new harddisk!

1) What's the backup software/program do I need? or I could just use apple recovery disk to reinstall the OS in the new harddisk? (I dont need my files anyway).

2) What's the procedure? Can I just replace the hhd and boot my macbookpro with apple original factory recovery disk? Is that easy?

3) What steps of caution do I need to take care of when doing this process? (I am a new apple user).

4) What Brand of HDD do you recommend? Stable and Fast (except SSD).


Thanks in advance

 

If you don't have any files to transfer then yes it is pretty much that easy.
You will boot the new drive from the OS restore disks and then run Disk Utility to partition and Format the drive.
Then load the OS and go to town.

It is straightforward.

I like Seagate Drives but have had good results with WD others too.

Welcome to the fold.

Ed

 

alright thanks so much. Basically, I will change my internal Harddisk and start my laptop while holding on the "C" button to enter boot mode and follow the steps?

Is that it? Easy?


Oh yea, a second question? do mac need any registrty cleaner such as CCleaner on windows. Do mac need those cleaner? If so, what program do you recommend to clean up registry?

 

If you have no OS on the HD then it will see the Startup DVD as the Boot drive and you shouldn't even need to press the C key.

There is no Registry in Mac OS so there is nothing to clean.

The OS is really stable in general and I guess the only thing to maintain is fixing permissions some times.
Nothing to worry about really though and easily done if needed.

You will like the simplicity of the user experience,the OS just doesn't have the Windows issues.

 

So you mean all I need is to just put in the apple recovery disk and it will start up as DVD installation?

Do i need to search for any drivers since im going to install a new harddisk and install mac os x?

 

Nope
It will reload a fresh installation as it was from the factory.
Apple only uses so much hardware so they know what they are running on pretty much.

You should run Software Update though which will look for any newer version of the OS software and keep it up to date.
This will run for you when the OS is done installing and will run every week on its own unless you configure it differently and you can invoke it at any time too.

It is just a whole different deal with the Mac.

 

Sorry for the the noob question so after I insert the new HDD. I could just turn on my macbook and it will auto run installing the os x? Or I still need to insert the recovery disc which provide in the box?

 

You need to insert the recovery disc,the drive will be blank and not partitioned or formatted at all.

Then once Disk Utility is run from the recovery disc by you to prepare the drive you will install the OS from the recovery disc too.

It will be rather obvious I think at the time.

Because you will be booting the new blank disc from the DVD it will try to start the OS install but find your drive not ready to do so.

I think it will ask if you want to run disk utility then to prepare the drive and when you quit disk utility it will continue the OS install.

 

Check the links in my sig for videos on how to change it etc.....

 

@bryan --

Keep in mind, however, that the performance difference between the 750GB stock 5400rpm drive (320GB platter density) and a 5400.6 model 500GB Seagate 7200rpm (250GB platter density) is only going to be 10-15% or so... the Seagate 500GB Momentus XT will do slightly better.

This may not be very noticeable in daily uses, and you may find yourself disappointed with the results of the swap since you're used to SSD performance.

 

Yea.. SSD configuration on Mac is so damm expensive. I will upgrade it when the right price for SSD. thanks for sharing.

Anyone could introduce me a download accelerator? since on windows I use internet download manager which runs really well.