i agree with feins. while it's certainly possible to remove the glass panel urself, it's very risky. better let the pros do it

If it was a macbook then its DIY doable... But for iMac better not take the risk of any accident occured during upgrading... Just pay a little bit and let those trained personal do it for you...

Hmm,

Just for those who wishes to upgrade and those who has upgraded.

I did some research before I did the hard disk upgrade on my Macbook Pro (Mid 2010), and it seems that some of the more famous mac forums are debating the suitability of the Western Digitals, especially the Scorpio Blue and the Scorpio Black (depending on what speed you want)

Complaints have ranged from drawing too much power because of frequent throttling, parking and conflict with Mac OS X SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor). One side says everything's fine, the other side says got problem, go get the seagate.

On the Macbook 2010, funning thing is the max negotiated SATA link speed is 1.5Gb, although the controller reported that the max speed it could run was 3Gps (Those having NVIDIA MCP89 ACHI chipsets). The drive was super quiet, a customized seagate drive I presumed.

Went shopping in lowyat, but it seemed that everyone there was selling WD's until I actually found one shop that sells hitachi 5k500 B's. Its a Travelstar 500GB hard drive, with some good review, and some mac forums are recommending the drive over the WD's, and even Seagates. (Comes from the IBM dna i suppose, the Hitachi Storage Technology actually is a marriage between IBM and Hitachi's storage technology).

Plus of using the 5k500b <== B version, there's an A version, don't buy that one.

1. Super quiet
2. Super low energy use
3. Full link speed using MCP89 chipset.

I'll tell more as i use it.

@mfitri77
Maybe you can share the shops name? Interested to get new HD. This scorpio blue of mine keep making clicking sound la.

yes your right. I was doing much research on it past few days. A lot of care has to be done, but not entirely impossible. Still I do not have the "sucker" so cant remove the front glass.

Agreed.

=) I dont think we have those in Kuching. Or maybe have, I have no idea. Switch can upgrade for me ?




Initially I got the Invalid node structure, and Invalid sibling link error. Found via Disk Utility (boot from DVD). Then I could not select / mount / access the HDD. After much dismay I loaded DiscWarrior which found heaps of errors and tried to repair, and gave me result saying could not save due to hardware error. I was like, is this for real ? Maybe it was failing and I manage to provoke it.

So I moved out some data which I still have not back up to my external drives via Preview. Then Rebooted again to OSX DVD. Back to Disk Utility and found that I can click the HDD again (no more grey out) ! So quickly I formatted it, and remounted it.

Did another reboot, just in case and loaded the 10.6 DVD =) (I was still on 10.5 before the Invalid's came along) By the time I was done installing it was 3.40 am this morning. So far.. So good. Did few more disc utility test. and it says the drive is healthy and functioning properly.

Anyways I'll be monitoring the HDD for now, hopefully its not an hardware error, else I really need to do surgery on it. Lucky I have my MBP to entertain me when my Imac was out!

Its C-Zone. Go and find one Chinese lady, seems to be the taiko there. I rounded the place 3 to 4 times before she served me, asking what I wanted, so I told her I wanted a 500GB hard drive, and if she carries other brand beside WD.

That's when she told me about the Hitachi's that she stocked. Especially for Mac users. Heck, one guy there offered me a 1TB WD, which after I query, he didn't really know if the drive could fit the macbook pro because of the 12.5mm height.

The clicking sound, from my research seems to be the head parking itself thinking its about to crash, a conflict with SMS. Or shifting to idle mode too fast. At least that's what is being discussed in the other mac related forums. Some solution advocated is hdapm, located at here.

It may solve the annoying clicking sound you have. Tell us if it helps, okay?

Mostly clicking sound is the symptom of a dying HDD... Its normal and everyone experience them before the HDD actually crashes... So when you hear a clicking sound, only 2 things to do... 1st most importantly quickly backup all your important documents into other HDD and 2nd get a new HDD prepared to replace it.. =)

If that's the case, WD must really make lousy hard drives that only clicks on macbook pro's.

There is no such thing as WD purposely make MBP's HDD click... Its all depend on your luck... Computer components are like this and especially HDD which is sensitive to vibration etc... You can find so many HDD failures and complaints in Hardware and Question thread... If you are lucky every HDD you buy doesnt face a problem but if you are unlucky, getting a defected unit then there is the RMA option for you or ACPP for apple

about the sudden motion sensor. this doesnt affect scorpio blue, only the earlier versions of the scorpio black (if im not mistaken, the BEKT models are fine). also, a forumer posted here on how to fix the parking problem on scorpio blue HDDs, but i've yet to try it myself.

while reviews generally claim the scorpio blue performs better, i'd have to agree with u that the hitachi seems to be the more reliable choice, adding to the fact that mac stock drives are hitachi. but then it's quite hard to find hitachi hdd around.

u can send to ITfusion at green heights mall. they have a lot of experience IINM switch doesnt do repairs on-the-spot. might take a while for them do repair

go look around any non-mac forums. the only valid 'problem' u are talking about is with the shock protection, because it clashes with apple's own technology

@dvlzplayground
I did post the hdapm workaround last time but dare not try myself as it change the Apple Power Management and make the HD spins and spins. I'm afraid it will cause more problem than solving it.

@tarvalslain87
Wahhh just 2 month only bought ... already mau kaput ka? Not all clicking sound means HD want to kaput. There are type of clicking that indicate the HD want to kaput. This 'click' is the sound when the HD head is parked. It affect a bit on the HD performance when the 'click' happens. Infact, from my previous googling on this, I found mix reaction from MB/MBP user that use WD Scorpio Blue. Some will have the 'clicks' and some don't. Dunno why that happens but from wht I've read here ... dvlzplayground, me and another forumer (that tried the hdapm) did encounter this 'clicking' issue.

Since there's other alternatives to WD and SG, might try it later and see if it solve this problem. Mmmm ... now going to have another external HD for me to use.

Last time i've always trust IBM travelstar. I think hitachi already taken over the travelstar HD. I still have 2 IBM travelstar thats already reaching 10 years, taken from my very old laptop (RIP) and still can be used up till today.

yes my friend any apple authorise should be able to do it for u on ur HDD replacement on ur iMac. Regards of SWITCH or MACHINES.

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Added on May 25, 2010, 8:57 pmRegarding on HDD replacement it's better to go for Hitachi as mostly u won't hit problem like WD as hitachi HDD are the mainly HDD provider for recent Mac.

This post has been edited by feins: May 25 2010, 08:57 PM

oh it was you? hehe sorry i forgot. yeaa the fix sounds very risky...i didnt get the clicking sound but definitely the parking problem lah. luckily im doing fine after downgraded to my stock 250gb hitachi. even if my scorpio blue was a let down...i still end up buying another WD (mybook studio) drive anyway hahah.

i guess im gonna start recommending hitachi after this. anyone know where got sell in kuching/miri? seldom see them around

Aisey, now Seagate has already come out with hybrid drives already. The Momentus XT. 4GB SSD + Hard drive spinning at 7200RPM. Think it'll be good for our macs?

As for the most reliable drives list for macs, I think...

1. Hitachi
2. Seagate / Toshiba
3.
4.
5. WD (Most problematic)


This post has been edited by mfitri77: May 25 2010, 09:23 PM

But not many has tested the new SG HDD so donno how the performance somemore apple not always fancy on latest product so maybe after install it might not even reconize it then really die hard standing.

u also have to remember that WD is the most problematic also because it's the most widely available. kinda like why there are more ppl complaining about streamyx rather than P1 ;p

any experiences with samsung drives?

I've used to have samsung drive but after only 4 months of usage already have bad blocks. Maybe it's just me.

The Seagate Momentus XD 2.5" not yet available la. If it's available, it would cost more than the normal HDD. It is fast, no doubt as its a hybrid between normal HDD and SSD.

---

Added on May 25, 2010, 9:48 pmbtw ... I've just applied the hdapm and it solve the 'click' sound. If anytime i need to turn it off, i've just need to issue the command back in terminal ... just in case something happen.

This post has been edited by frozzbyte: May 25 2010, 09:48 PM

Actually i think SG HDD have more problem compare to WD as i had 6 WD HDD some are the 1st batch SATA 1.5 until today some still in working condition only the recent 2 years WD gives me alot of headache. But i also had 5 SG SATA 2 HDD but 4 already send for warranty and all come back with a Green label with "Certified Repaired HDD" on top of the HDD the fastest kong one was 1 week and most are kong just after 1 year. You wont know that those HDD fail use as normal but for me i always Raid those HDD on all my PCs and Servers my Raid Array will prompt me that one of the HDD report fail and its always a SG HDD. So now i rather go for Hitachi and i had some Samsung HDD so fat so good.

Im not sure about macs HDD but WD is the most sought after HDD and recommended in the PC =)... But now it seems that Samsung is taking over the 500GB and 1TB category with its Samsung Spinpoint F3..

Not sure about Mac... Dont even know my MBP's HDD brand.. Haha..

Hi Guys.

After few months using my Intel X-25M Gen 2 80GB SSD on my MacBook Aluminum 2.4Ghz (Late 2008).
Before that, I tried Scorpio Blue 500GB and Scorpio Black 320GB. None of these are up to my expectations.

I would say it's worth the money mainly because ;

It is extremely quiet with no rotation speed, it was horrible on Scorpio Black due to it's 7200RPM vibration.
Yes, as some forumers reported, the clicking noise in Scorpio Blue is extremely annoying. SSD no noise at all.
Boot up speed decrease from 30 seconds (Scorpio Blue) to 17 seconds on my SSD using SL 10.6.3.
You can feel the world of differences when you are launching apps.
Example, launching Microsoft Word 2008 takes only a bounce on my dock. No waiting time for apps to be launched. Any app will launch instantly.
So, imagine
Boosting some of the battery life ? I felt that way though. It might not be true.

Yes, it may be a hefty price tag. However, if you have the extra money to spend on, get an SSD. It's really worth it in my opinion.