MacBook – put a 7200 RPM hard drive in the MacBook Pro

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I have a 2009 15" unibody MacBook Pro. It came with a 250GB, 5400 RPM hard drive. Will a 7200 RPM drive make it overheat?

I have read somewhere that putting a 7200 RPM hard drive in the MacBook Pro will make it shake and vibrate. Is this true?

Is there a certain brand that is better for the system?

And finally, is there anything else that I need to worry about?

Best Answer

No, no, no and no.

Have fun with the 7200 rpm drive of your choice. Mac drive mounting hardware is excellent and the drive screws are standard sized. Unless you get a drive with exotic firmware or physically too large to fit, there will be no issues relating to design. Only a faulty drive (or failing Mac) will cause issues.

Simple physics means a 7200 RPM drive has to generate more heat than a 5400 RPM drive, but in practice, this is well within a normal Mac's ability to cool - even when you never let the drive spin down - something else like CPU load will be needed to get the internal fan to spin up.

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MacBook – What hard drive is used for the 500 GB Macbook Pro option from Apple

I don't know about the 7200, but my mid-2010 MBP has the following (from system profiler):

Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02:

  Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
  Model:    Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02                 
  Revision: PB4AC60W
  Native Command Queuing:   Yes
  Queue Depth:  32
  Removable Media:  No
  Detachable Drive: No
  BSD Name: disk0
  Rotational Rate:  5400
  Medium Type:  Rotational

I too had trouble with noise and vibration with a Seagate Momentus XT (the hybrid drive). After reinstalling the stock drive it's quiet and vibration free again.

MacBook – Issues with replacing the internal hard drive in a mid 2007 macbook

You're not the first person to have problems with this drive in a Mac - see http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/217444-macbook-pro-hard-drive-replacement-wont-format.html

It's possible there is a compatibility issue, as you seem to be doing all the right things (and it is connected properly otherwise you wouldn't see it in Disk Utility at all).

The damaged hard drive bracket would not be the cause of the error above.

Try a non-AV drive (one designed for notebooks rather then surveillance/home theatre use) and see if that makes a difference.

Best Answer

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