Legweak is correct: the difficulty level of changing a notebook drive -- particularly on the Macbook -- is overstated.

Some of the notebook computers from many years past had more inaccessible configurations, but those days are way past us now.

I changed my Macbook's drive similarly when I got it two years ago. Piece of cake.

BarneyRubble

This is a slight overstatement of difficulty. Every laptop I've ever owned or used was designed so that you had to remove one screw and maybe turn/slide a lever, and you could remove the hard drive. It's not hard at all.

Then again, these were not those wonderfully designed Apple machines that just work and all that garbage.

legweak

You guys try swapping old G4 Powerbook hard drive and then tell me how easy it is.

pete

It's pretty easy on most Dells, they have the drive in an easily accessible external tray. Loosen a screw and slide the tray out, swap the new drive into the tray, slide it back in and put the screw back. It is very helpful to have something like this cable to copy the old drive to the new drive first though.

jimnutt

Just before anyone asks:

It does not void the warranty to change out a Macbook, it does however void the warranty with a MacBook Pro.

dorylomorphs

@pete: I changed my hard drive on my G4 powerbook. It was not too difficult as long as you know what you're doing and have the right tools.

whitefang2000

I recently replaced the hard drive in my MBP 15" with a 320gb and it was pretty easy. The best advice I can give is to buy two 320gb drives (internal and external), use the external to run a full Time Machine backup. Replace the internal. When you boot to the Leopard disk, select restore from backup and you're system is exactly how it was before the hdd upgrade.

plinkofrog

The MacBook is among the easiest laptop for changing the hard drive.

iBooks and older Powerbooks were among the hardest.

phoomp

Hmph. Not so easy on an iMac...

Rhywun

I've changed out a lot of laptop HDs, and I've seen that it really depends on size. The larger the laptop, the more accessible the HD. The smaller / thinner ones, you've got to go under the keyboard, turn left at the motherboard, find Jake and tell him Carl sent you, then you can get the HD out.

And Sony Viao's have always been a PITA. I hate them with a passion usually reserved for politicans.

Norcross

This is a strange topic. The Macbook was DESIGNED so as to allow easily changing drives, a revolutionary development much discussed when I bought mine the week after Apple started shipping the critters. Many marveled that Apple was no longer forcing users to use Apple's grossly overpriced drives installed at the genius bar.
The replacement installation guide we need is for the internal CD/DVD drive. My work-around was a LaCie firewire external, but it's fussy about dual-layer...

fluxam

@jimnutt: Dell Inspiron 1720. Has two slots for hard drives. Just pull off a metal plate on the bottom and screw the new drive in the second port. No file transfers. Just extra space.

smartboydan needs to stop watching the Watchmen trailer

Dells are super simple to change. Two screws, and it slides out the side. Infact, my friend carries 4 HDD's with him, that he can swap out of his laptop in about 30 seconds. Each one has an OS, so he basically has a work laptop, personal laptop, etc all in one.

crgwbr

@dorylomorphs: Actually, it only voids the warranty on the hard drive... not the rest of the system. I've tested it already.

Joseph

Does anyone know of a good tutorial for an Intel Macbook Pro?

mykalt45

With the introduction of the MacBook, Apple users get to enjoy the ease of drive replacement that PC users have had for decades. I recently swapped hard drives in my 12 year old laptops. Remove a screw, flip a release and the HDD caddy comes out.

Anyways I think it's funny that he's upgrading the hard drive in his black macbook. The black macbook that costs $200 more, for $15 more hard drive space.

Take-home message for potential Macbook black consumers: Buy a white macbook, with the saved $200, buy a replacement drive that's bigger than that in the Black macbook, buy a 2.5" enclosure, put new big drive in macbook, put original mac drive in enclosure, take remaining money and buy black spray paint and a case of beer. You still end up ahead!

Macbook Pro / Air / iBook / iMac owners are still screwed and have to completely disassemble their computer to do basic upgrades.

johnsmith1234

I did this some time ago, and yes, it was very easy. No problem. Just make sure you have good tools.

onemoreday

I've done it on a number of Latitude laptops and it's a breeze, but I realize it could be intimidating for someone who hasn't done it before.

My advice to them is search for a couple different tutorials with pictures, and print them out. Read each one thoroughly. You may need to combine details of each to accomplish it.

Create a work area for yourself on a large open surface. Get a towel to set the machine down on to have a soft surface to work on. Make sure you have the correct tools; take your time and think things through. You'll be fine.

heavylee-again

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but hard drives on the Lenovo ThinkPad T series are also a piece of cake to swap out.

tuffbunny

This is NOT overstated at all. I replaced an iBook g4 hard drive recently (and yes it is older, the very last generation of PPC macs) but still works like a champ.

It was VERY involved. Dis assembly of both the upper and lower chassis, heatshield, connectors for the touchpad and the keyboard, and about a million freakin' screws.

I was successful but had a moment of freak out when I couldn't get wireless signal. then realized I simply had not pushed the antenna lead far enough back into the air card.

x40sw0n

@x40sw0n:

I work at an Apple reseller and the iBooks are thousands of times more difficult than the MB. None of them are in warranty any more, so we only do optional replacements, but last time someone asked the price was 2-3 hours of labour + the drive + data transfer (optional). We do the MB (which, as someone correctly said, is a user-replaceable part - like RAM) for 1/2 hour + drive + optional data transfer.

I've seen a kid do a MB on the sales desk in 10 minutes.

jaysee

i would just like to echo a few of the posters here...the ease of swapping out HDDs does NOT apply to iBook G4!

i did it two weeks ago and like it was said...it is very involved (it took me a solid 3 hours) and there are fragile wire connections (like the power button wire...which i heard was made fragile deliberately) that if you break...you can say buh-bye to your iBook.

i was able to do it successfully...but you can bet that i won't do it again.

bubuli

This _might_ have been worthy of the Lifehacker page space if they were swapping in a SSD and comparing the results both versus HD-equipped macbooks and the Air, for example.

I mean, it's not exactly hard to find info when the very first Google result for "replace macbook hard drive" is the photo-festooned, well-written PDF FROM APPLE.

jonny290

ive done this like three times whenever my drive fails i do this instaed of going to apple ill usually open up my backup drive which is almost always a 2.5 inch and plop it in Mackbooks are very very easy afterdoing it once

bwilliams18

I have upgraded hard drives and a CD drive on a PowerBook, an iBook, and a MacBook Pro (and a couple of Mac minis). None were trivial, but they were all do-able with patience, a big table, and good tools. Good guides are available at [www.ifixit.com] - highly recommended for Mac owners.

GBMax

You inspired me to change out the 80GB I have in my Macbook. I knew it was this easy but I had forgotten. I also didn't realize drives had gotten so cheap and large, laptop drives use to cost >200. Thanks!

drobati

I just upgraded from a 160 to 320 gig HD in my MacBook this past weekend and the whole physical process of swapping it out took about 10 minutes. I did a Super Duper backup of my whole HD onto an external before swapping, then put the new HD in, and loaded back from the external. Everything in total took about 5 hours and my computer was exactly the same as it was before the swap, just with twice the space. So easy!

mdevens

I've got a Dell Inspiron here where the hard drive only takes like two screws to remove. Granted, it's still in a small shield, but it's not buried in the laptop like the graphic card is.

EdithNiobe

As many have said, "It depends". My hard drive failed on my old averatec, and it was a 40 minute job as the hard drive was buried deep. Note: There are lots of online sources of "how I replaced my hard drive".

I got one of the new $398 Toshiba A205-S5000 laptops from Walmart. It is more than fast enough, runs 64 bit Ubuntu (as well as 32 bit) with few hiccups, but one is it won't suspend or hibernate, and of course Vista home premium it came with and XP (yes, XP is much faster).

On the Toshiba, the hard drive slot is two screws and a 4 screw carrier. The Drive is SATA, and one online place had Seagate recert 7200 rpm drives for a good price, so I got two so I could mirror Very easy. The DVD writer was standard, but I swapped in a DL burner - one screw under the memory door. And the ram door is one screw but it only went up to 3G.

Each of these things would take 15-30 minutes on the Averatec - which is designed to be compact (8x10inch) so there is a lot of circuit origami. The CPU on the Averatec isn't that much worse though. The Toshiba is much larger, so there is a lot more room so burying things and creating actual compartments is easier.

So a lot depends on the brand, model, and size of the laptop. Since there are guides on the internet, if you plan on ever upgrading or repairing yourself, I'd look at them to see how much trouble it is.

And after swapping a new drive in the Averatec, I found the old one was under warranty. So I will have an extra, so I can image my iPod. Normally I forget to check such things.

tz

On my Tablet PC I've changed the hard drive to a solid state disc.

I've since learnt that there are two types of disc.
SLC and MLC.

Only MLC will support an operating system.
Hope this helps someone else.

5manarmy

This inspired me to purchase a 320 GB hard drive to replace my 80GB Macbook drive. I currently have 4GB of space left...should have done this a long time ago.

csmith75

I recently swapped out the hard drive on my Powerbook G4 and it was pretty involved, but doable for anyone with a little time and patience. I used Powerbook Medic.

It isn't mentioned in those instructions but I would strongly recommend labeling the screws as you remove them, it seemed that there were about one million to keep track of.

eddieshore

@pete: I recently replaced my Powerbook G4's 30gb drive with an 80gb. It wasn't all that difficult, but you gotta have clear instructions. I managed to bend a couple of those exceedingly thin metal "fingers" in the drive bay, but it still works OK.

Now, the HP Pavilion's drive is supposed to come out easily, but what the diagrams and instructions do not tell you or show you is that there is one hidden screw that must be removed or the drive won't slide out.

Of course, the fact that I took the Toshiba master tech class about ten years ago might have helped me a bit in those endeavors. :)

infmom

@pete: Been there. I felt like one of those bomb squad dudes. Hands shaking. Brow peppered with beads of sweat. Praying that I wasn't about to destroy my working Powerbook...

Jrsy

Replacing the drive on a Macbook is very easy. I think Apple even has instructions on their website.

Replacing the drive on a Macbook Pro is a different story. It will void the warranty and it is an absolute bitch to get to. I'm going to be replacing the 160GB drive in my MBP this weekend with a 320GB drive. Can't wait!

Here is a good tutorial for replacing a MBP drive:

[www.ifixit.com]

iwantcokeinabottle

I replaced a hard drive in an Averatec 1000 (which is like a grandfather to the Eee PC) the other day...WOW what a pain in the ass. I spent about 2 hours total on that job just taking it apart and putting it back together, and no information online like for most other notebooks about how to disassemble it. Every single screw had to come out, and the keyboard had to be taken out too, which would have been easier if I had 3 hands. Then the whole bottom part comes off, and I had to guide every single port and the DVD drive with a curved fascia through the cover. Most notebooks are much easier now, just requiring a screw or two holding a cover on and then pulling the drive out.

nitrous9200

I recently had to replace the hard drive in my wife's computer, a 12" PowerBook G4, circa 2004. The computer still performs wonderfully, it was just the dinky 60GB hard drive that finally croaked. Briefly: bought a 250GB Western Digital drive from TigerDirect.com. Dowloaded the disassembly instructions from ifixit.com. Bought a torx driver set from Home Depot. Disassembly went fine, replaced the drive as directed, and only when I had screwed everything back together, I realized I forgot to secure the new drive to the drive bracket. It took me about an hour or so to get in the first time, ten minutes the second time. Booted it up with the original system disc, I think it was a Tiger disc? Couldn't recognize the drive, but found it via Utilities. Installed Tiger, bought Leopard the next day, installed that, and now we are Time Machine and 250GB hard drive happy.

AlbionSongbird