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Author’s note: This article was originally published on blackrobes.net and macpro.tv in April 2008.

I read about the Western Digital 320GB Serial ATA drive and its compatibility with the Mac. Most posts were along the lines of “no problem, but disable the Sudden Motion Sensor.” So I took the plunge on 3/21/2008 and replaced my internal drive.

Before powering down:

I’m running a MacBook Pro 17″ (Core Duo, designation 1,2), OS X Leopard with the latest updates, along with Time Machine backups to an external Firewire drive.

Be sure to print off the iFixit disassembly steps, or have another computer available for viewing the pages. I loaded up my old Windows XP system for online viewing.

The Time Machine restore process does not restore your Boot Camp partition. Use a Windows backup and restore utility for the Windows side. I use the Boot Camp partition for directly booting to an external drive installation of Windows, so this was a minor issue for me.

On skill levels:

While the process was straight forward, I’ve worked with computers for over 25 years. And as Norm Abram would say, I have the right tools for the job. If you’ve never taken apart a computer before, especially one as densely packed as a MacBook Pro, I do not recommend starting here.

A note on disassembly and your warranty:

Unlike a MacBook, the MacBook Pro’s hard drive is not intended to be consumer-replaceable. However, you will not void your warranty by performing this procedure. Although Apple will not cover any damage directly resulting from replacing the hard drive (such as damaging the cables or main boards), other components remain under warranty. I am not a lawyer but many Apple support discussions confirm this thinking.

Blackrobes.net is not responsible for any damages resulting from this procedure. While every effort is taken to ensure the accuracy in this article, each user’s experience level plays an important role in the outcome. To reiterate: if you’re not confident about disassembling a $2,000-$3,000 laptop, do not attempt!

Disassembly and installation:

Following the steps at the iFixit site (iFixit MacBook Pro 17? hard drive replacement) were well laid out, though I took liberty for a couple of steps.

A Phillips 00 and Torx T6 drivers are required. I already had a 00 driver, so went to Sears to pick up the T6 for $3.99.

Disassembling the MacBook Pro involved removing the battery and RAM, then every screw you can find! iFixit has a good order on removal. There’s three types of screws: short Phillips, found on most of the case exterior; long Phillips, for the hinge assembly; and two Torx screws astride the RAM slots. If I counted correctly, you’ll remove 25 screws before breaching the case.

Removing the case top (keyboard, trackpad, and speaker grilles) was a bit tricky, and required patience. Lift slowly as not to damage the cable connecting the top to the main board.

iFixit recommends disconnecting the keyboard cable from the main board. Instead, I elected to lean the keyboard against the screen, as if opening the laptop screen. The cable had just enough play to do so. Since the area we are concerned with is the lower left side containing the hard drive, it isn’t in the way.

To remove the hard drive, I removed the two Torx screws to free the right-side bracket. Instead of removing the hard drive cable, I simply freed the tape from the top of the drive. Do so carefully as not to damage the ribbon cables. There is a piece of tape on the bottom of the drive as well, to hold in the drive connector. Ease the drive from the connector after holding back the top and bottom tape.

The original drive had four Torx pins to be transferred to the new drive: metal pins on the left side, which go into rubber grommets in the case; and rubber grommet pins on the right side of the drive.

Hints for reassembling the laptop: after seating the keyboard, close the lid and turn the machine on end, so the screw holes you wish to use face up. It is much easier to seat and fasten the small screws this way. Be careful not to drop a screw in the 1/4? jacks (a screw goes between the headphone and microphone ports), or the Firewire and network ports (same story here). When attaching the three screws in the front of the battery compartment, the screw hole on the side with the Firewire ports is magnetized. It took careful positioning of the screw with the driver to seat without being pulled toward the magnet. Also, it is easier to attach those angled screws when holding the laptop on end.

Bringing back the data:

I booted the system with the Leopard DVD, and ran Disk Utility to partition and format the internal drive. Note: If you boot with the external (Time Machine) drive attached, take care to partition the silver “bare” hard drive icon, not the yellow external drives. My internal and external drives are 320GB hence the caution.

The OS X installer has a bug where the Time Machine restore process does not always detect the internal drive if you partition immediately prior to restoring. As a workaround, partition the drive, the reboot to the OS X installer. The second time reveals the internal drive as a restore destination. Restoring the system using Time Machine took about three hours for 90GB.

The initial reboot after restoring was uneventful, and I logged in normally using my account.

Software notes after restoring:

• Forum posts recommend turning off the MacBook Pro’s Sudden Motion Sensor. Since the Western Digital drive has a SMS, it conflicts with OS X’s SMS and will kernel panic. To turn off Apple’s sensor, open Terminal and type:

  sudo pmset -a sms 0

  See the links below for the Apple site (Leopard users follow the recommendations for Tiger OS X 10.4.)

• Mail requires messages to be imported on the first run. I have over 60,000 messages, which took around five minutes. All my account information, mailboxes, and rules were preserved. The unread message counts were not up to date.
• iTunes requires re-authorization to play protected content.
• If you Boot Camped your internal drive, you need to run the Boot Camp assistant and recreate the Windows partition. Follow normal Windows recovery steps. Time Machine does not back up Boot Camp partitions.

Afterword:

BigSean and I compared recovery notes Time Machine versus Super Duper.

• Super Duper performs a bit for bit (exact) copy of the hard drive, so the software notes immediately above do not apply. Your hard drive is restored exactly as backed up.
• Time Machine performs “versioned” backups, and allows restoration of individual files, on-demand. However, the system restore excludes certain items as noted above.
• Super Duper and Time Machine can work together, but generally target different audiences. Expect an article in the future on Super Duper and Time Machine.

Links:

• iFixit site for MacBook Pro 17? disassembly
• Apple knowledgebase document for disabling Sudden Motion Sensor

Pictures: