13" Macbook drive died - Max Replacement Drive size

[Ogi]

Hi,

My Macbook OS froze on Sunday night, after turning the power off and then on/off 2/3 more times, the folder icon came up flashing.

I've been told I've now lost everything! Should of done some backups but hey ho!

Now!

I would like to put a 250Gb 2.5" drive in, rather than the 60Gb (or might be 80Gb) drive. How can I find out what is supported?

I've tried to install my original Tiger disk and tells me that the installs has errors and to restart. So I erased, tried again and it failed. I then thought that I'd upgrade it to Lepoard. The install starts, I select Erase and Install but then that fails!

Can I presume that the 250Gb won't work in my machine???

Also, any idea if there are products out there I can try to see if I can recover the data from my old drive?

Cheers in advance,
Carl.

 

[biglebowski]

I had the same thing happen and replaced it with a 2.5" 250 GB SATA disk and have had no problems.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148375

 

[jpadie]

likewise I have a 360GB sata drive installed with no probs.
take care on the spin rate though. the original was 5400 and if you go to 7200 not only will you pay more but there will be faster battery drain.

 

[jpadie]

it may be the sata interface that is fried. try having a butchers at the connections before putting the new disk in.
also buy a cheap usb drive caddy and shove the hdd in that. then see whether you can boot from there with the old drive/install to the new drive. you should be able to pick up a drive caddy for ukp5-10 or equivalent. useful to have around too.

 

[Ogi]

It might be that I've upgraded the memory, luckily I have the original memory so will put that back in and try a Tiger re-install.

The interface isn't fried as I can seen the new drive and even erase/create a new partition.

Will try it again tonight with original ram and report back!

Thanks for the info guys!
Carl.

 

[Ogi]

Turns out it was a faulty new HDD, installed a replacement one and it's working like a dream!

This time I'll make backups!!!!!!

Thanks for your help!
Carl.