MacBook Pro 13-inch + new HDD, RAM & Battery

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
OK, so I bought my lovely 13-inch MacBook Pro(June 2009 model), last summer, in the middle of August. I have 2x1GB DDR3, 160GB HDD ... or with other words, the most basic version of it. So now, my battery is getting old and it needs to be changed, It has a little bit more than 200 cycles(do you think it needs to be changed?)

I would like to put a bigger hard drive, something like 750GB, or 1TB.

I would like to put 2x2GB DDR3 RAM, instead of the current 2x1GB DDR3.

And I would like to change my battery also. I live in Michigan, so can you please tell me if I am doing the right thing just upgrading my current laptop a little bit, or I just need to buy a better one? And can you please tell me how much it is going to cost me, with let's say, 750GB HDD, 2x2GB DDR3, and a brand new battery from Apple.

I will probably go to the closest Apple store and tell them what I want, and they will do it for me, but how much do you think this would cost me? And do you thing this is a good idea?

Do you think that Apple would take less money if I don't want my old parts(the 160GB HDD and 2x1GB DDR3?) I mean, if I buy the other stuff will they sell it to me for less or they don't care about that, they will just sell it for the regular price and put the old stuff in a bag and that's it?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Raptole View Post


    OK, so I bought my lovely 13-inch MacBook Pro(June 2009 model), last summer, in the middle of August. I have 2x1GB DDR3, 160GB HDD ... or with other words, the most basic version of it. So now, my battery is getting old and it needs to be changed, It has a little bit more than 200 cycles(do you think it needs to be changed?)

    I would like to put a bigger hard drive, something like 750GB, or 1TB.

    I would like to put 2x2GB DDR3 RAM, instead of the current 2x1GB DDR3.

    And I would like to change my battery also. I live in Michigan, so can you please tell me if I am doing the right thing just upgrading my current laptop a little bit, or I just need to buy a better one? And can you please tell me how much it is going to cost me, with let's say, 750GB HDD, 2x2GB DDR3, and a brand new battery from Apple.

    I will probably go to the closest Apple store and tell them what I want, and they will do it for me, but how much do you think this would cost me? And do you thing this is a good idea?

    Do you think that Apple would take less money if I don't want my old parts(the 160GB HDD and 2x1GB DDR3?) I mean, if I buy the other stuff will they sell it to me for less or they don't care about that, they will just sell it for the regular price and put the old stuff in a bag and that's it?



    hard drive will be around $90-180, depending on your actual size needs for an internal hdd.



    memory will be about $120.



    as for the new battery, i'm doubtful as to if you need one. i've got a unibody mb from right after they were released, and have about 750 load cycles, yet my health is still at 93% or so. download a program like coconutbattery and check out your battery health. if it's above 80%, you most likely don't need a new battery.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    Changing the ram and HD yourself is ridiculously easy. Do not waste your money to do this at the Apple Store. And the Apple Store will charge you double for the HD and RAM compared to what you can get elsewhere.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    raptoleraptole Posts: 11member
    So, I checked my battery life with that Coconut Battery software and it has 88% life, and it is not calibrated, so I guess I can get at least 91-92% out of it if I do calibrate it. And I have exactly 180 cycles. So I think I don't need to get a new battery for it. It still has life in it.



    And I got the links, I like the stuff and I picked those two things, just tell me if they will fit the inside of my laptop and if they will be able to work properly in it.



    Western Digital 1TB 5200rpm - 2.5 inch

    2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz Kingston



    I just need you to tell me if I am going to be able to order those, get them and put them inside my laptop, by myself without unneeded sweating and swearing, just with a couple minutes of work and to be done. Tell me if it will work for sure and if those two things are a good choice and is there going to be a change in the battery life, I mean if the battery will die easily or it won't make any difference.



    And I also saw some "How To?" videos on the internet, showing how to properly un-screw the bottom of it and how to properly do it. And it seems pretty easy, I just need to be a little careful, to remember which thing goes where and I will be fine. As far as the video showed it wasn't that hard, it's just a little slow because we want our work done well.



    Thank you very much! Hopefully you will help me, and I will order as soon as possible my stuff and put it in my laptop and be very happy!
  • Reply 4 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Raptole View Post


    So, I checked my battery life with that Coconut Battery software and it has 88% life, and it is not calibrated, so I guess I can get at least 91-92% out of it if I do calibrate it. And I have exactly 180 cycles. So I think I don't need to get a new battery for it. It still has life in it.



    And I got the links, I like the stuff and I picked those two things, just tell me if they will fit the inside of my laptop and if they will be able to work properly in it.



    Western Digital 1TB 5200rpm - 2.5 inch

    2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz Kingston



    I just need you to tell me if I am going to be able to order those, get them and put them inside my laptop, by myself without unneeded sweating and swearing, just with a couple minutes of work and to be done. Tell me if it will work for sure and if those two things are a good choice and is there going to be a change in the battery life, I mean if the battery will die easily or it won't make any difference.



    And I also saw some "How To?" videos on the internet, showing how to properly un-screw the bottom of it and how to properly do it. And it seems pretty easy, I just need to be a little careful, to remember which thing goes where and I will be fine. As far as the video showed it wasn't that hard, it's just a little slow because we want our work done well.



    Thank you very much! Hopefully you will help me, and I will order as soon as possible my stuff and put it in my laptop and be very happy!



    if it's at 88%, it's good to go. if it gets really bad within warranty (and you have applecare), they may even replace it if you complain enough, even though it isn't technically covered. it worked for my friend recently, at least.

    it shouldn't come to that, though, as 88%'s still fine for its age.



    those two products will indeed work with a unibody mbp, and are of good quality. i don't know what else to say besides that watching videos and making sure everything goes in right is key. other than that, you shouldn't have any problems.

    oh, and you will need a torx screwdriver in order to replace the hard drive; the system's is on a mount which needs to be transferred to your new drive when you swap them. however, that's covered in the videos as well, and can be done in under 10 minutes by even an amateur.



    as to your final point, battery life once the parts are replaced: you will not experience any decrease in battery life. any change would come due to a difference in hard drive spin rates, but both your old and new ones will be 5400 rpm, so you won't notice any change.



    enjoy!
  • Reply 5 of 8
    raptoleraptole Posts: 11member
    So, I am planning on doing that really soon. I have 320GB External Hard Drive from Western Digital and I am planning on just Backing-Up my laptop with Time Machine and then I will take out my old 160GB HDD from my laptop and put the 1TB HDD. Then I will just turn it on, hopefully it won't be something very hard or something and I will install the Mac OS X 10.6

    What do you guys think is this the right thing to do? And then I will just Retrieve the Backed-Up Files from the External HD to the internal new 1TB.

    Do you guys think that this is possible? And do you think that it will be really hard to install the operating system on the brand new Hard Drive(1TB)? Because it is gonna be out of the box? And is this the right thing to do, the way that I am planning it? Tell me what to do?

    Tell me the easiest and best way to put my whole hard drive(with all the files) on the new one that I am going to buy and put on the laptop.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    dayrobotdayrobot Posts: 133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Raptole View Post


    So, I am planning on doing that really soon. I have 320GB External Hard Drive from Western Digital and I am planning on just Backing-Up my laptop with Time Machine and then I will take out my old 160GB HDD from my laptop and put the 1TB HDD. Then I will just turn it on, hopefully it won't be something very hard or something and I will install the Mac OS X 10.6

    What do you guys think is this the right thing to do? And then I will just Retrieve the Backed-Up Files from the External HD to the internal new 1TB.

    Do you guys think that this is possible? And do you think that it will be really hard to install the operating system on the brand new Hard Drive(1TB)? Because it is gonna be out of the box? And is this the right thing to do, the way that I am planning it? Tell me what to do?

    Tell me the easiest and best way to put my whole hard drive(with all the files) on the new one that I am going to buy and put on the laptop.



    You put the new drive in the enclosure, plug into usb, and clone the installed drive's contents onto it. I'm not sure how to clone on a Mac, but most people here know.



    Then you swap out the old drive for a new one, and after you boot, you most likely need to "fix" the partition with the cloning tool, so that the whole drive is available to the OS.



    As for going from 160GB to 1TB, be careful.... make sure your MBP has enough vertical clearance inside, as the 1TB drive may be a bit thicker.



    Width and length are always standard, a 2.5" drive is a 2.5" drive, but thickness differs.



    Your 160GB drive is the same thickness as an old 10GB drive, and will fit in any laptop that takes 2.5 inchers. 500GB and up, tend to be thicker and new "desktop replacement" laptops can accommodate that, but with older machine, one usually has to carve out some of the housing to jam the drive in.



    Ok, i've looked now, and if your maximum drive height is a standard 9.5 mm, the largest you can get is 500GB, and that is if, and only if, you make sure to get the newer version that is 9.5 mm!



    Because the 1TB, and the older 500GB's are 12.5mm.



    So good luck!







    Dan
  • Reply 7 of 8
    raptoleraptole Posts: 11member
    OK, so I went here: Data Storage Upgrades for your Apple MacBook Pro 2.26GHz (13-inch Unibody w/SD card slot) - June 2009 at OtherWorldComputing.com

    And I found really good hard drives. But as you guys said I will be probably able to put only up to 500GB because of the space that I have. But look, it asked me to put exactly what laptop I have, what month, year, specs and stuff ... I put everything exactly like what it is. And it showed me 1TB hard drives. And it made me put what my laptop is so that they can tell me what is compatible with my laptop. So guys, please search here and tell me which one should I get. I am looking for the most memory(640GB or 1TB) but if you are completely sure I won't be able to be able to put it because of space issues, then recommend me the biggest one that would fit the space in my MacBook Pro 13-inch 2.26GHz Jun 2009.

    Thank you!

    And I found out where to get the enclosure from, how to connect it to the drive and how to clone the old drive and put it on the new. Thank you for that also!

    I just want help, to pick the right HARD DRIVE! Please help me!

    And tell me is the space exactly 9.5mm or I can put like 10mm ? Please help me out!
  • Reply 8 of 8
    dayrobotdayrobot Posts: 133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Raptole View Post


    OK, so I went here: Data Storage Upgrades for your Apple MacBook Pro 2.26GHz (13-inch Unibody w/SD card slot) - June 2009 at OtherWorldComputing.com

    And I found really good hard drives. But as you guys said I will be probably able to put only up to 500GB because of the space that I have. But look, it asked me to put exactly what laptop I have, what month, year, specs and stuff ... I put everything exactly like what it is. And it showed me 1TB hard drives. And it made me put what my laptop is so that they can tell me what is compatible with my laptop. So guys, please search here and tell me which one should I get. I am looking for the most memory(640GB or 1TB) but if you are completely sure I won't be able to be able to put it because of space issues, then recommend me the biggest one that would fit the space in my MacBook Pro 13-inch 2.26GHz Jun 2009.

    Thank you!

    And I found out where to get the enclosure from, how to connect it to the drive and how to clone the old drive and put it on the new. Thank you for that also!

    I just want help, to pick the right HARD DRIVE! Please help me!

    And tell me is the space exactly 9.5mm or I can put like 10mm ? Please help me out!



    Ok.



    I did check just now and in this teardown photo, it seems like the optical drive next to it is 12.5, so no worries there. But a lot of low profile machines would've had issues.



    http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/ig...lYsgNBq6.large



    Since you've found a good search tool, you can probably just go ahead and pick the 1TB model and go with it. Maybe even Google around for a good deal on that drive.



    When you buy an enclosure, please pick the one with the sATA connection and you will be good to go.



    ......



    For installation:



    1. Make a point to discharge any static electricity you may be carrying. Best guess would be to touch the metal back of a desktop computer that is plugged in.



    2. Open up the portable enclosure and connect the drive inside of it. Plug into USB port and see if the drive shows up. If it doesn't, unplug, check connections inside and try again.



    3. Once you know the drive is visible, clone the old drive's contents to it (Ask how).



    4. Once you are done, again discharge your static electricity and open up your laptop.. here are some reference pictures



    http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBo...-Unibody/814/1

    http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Device/M..._13%22_Unibody



    It's best to disconnect the battery and press the power button for 10 seconds to clear the machine of any stored electricity.



    Then remove all screws that get in the way of replacing the drive.



    5. Replace the drive. Put the screws back. Connect the battery. Close the bottom cover and put in the remaining screws.



    6. Boot to the machine and in case the cloning tool did not expand the drive size beyond the old 160Gb, "fix" the partition. Maybe you don't need to on a Mac, but on PC's you do.



    Done!







    Dan



    P.S. I Googled for cloning howtos... here are some links



    Using Disk utility, if you have old install disks:

    http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147



    Using SuperDuper, if you don't:

    http://lowendmac.com/ed/royal/08sr/clone-mac-os-x.html
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