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Early 2011 Model: A1278 / 2.3 GHz i5 or 2.7 GHz i7 processor

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Hard Drive Replacement Suggestions

My Macbook Pro model A1278 2.3 GHz i5 mounts a 320Gb Hitachi hard drive as you know. During my last scan with Drive Genius, it showed I had more than 900 bad or suspect block at 1% of scan. The mac has been backed up fine with time machine and I haven't encounter yet in any corrupted files. However, I know it would only get worse. Should I replace my hard drive, and if yes, can I upgrade to a 7200 RPM or should I replace it with a 5400 RPM. I have two options for 5400 RPM. A 500Gb Hitachi Travelstar with a 7mm profile or 1TB Hitachi Travelstar with a 9mm profile. Would the 9mm fit? Which one would you recommend?

Hope I wasn't too painful!!!

Thank you for your time and best regards

MS

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I personally would go with a hybrid drive (HD/SSD combo) and you can use a drive that is 9.5mm high. Here's Seagates offerings Seagate SSHD and here's Western-Digitals offerings WD Blue series and Hitiachi Travelstar series

Your system can also support a larger drive than 500GB. The current largest drive that would work in your system is a Hitachi Travelstar 1.5TB

Both Seagate & Western Digital (Hitachi) make good drives.

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The Seagate ST500LM000 is half the cost of the ST95005620AS. Do you know what the differences are?

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Thank you very much for your help. My question though is: Can I upgrade to a 7200RPM HD or should I stick with a 5400RPM?

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Either will work

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Will a 7200rpm drive make any difference in speed in a mid 2010 unibody 2.4Ghz MacBook?

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This post is a bit dated ;-} The largest HD available now is 2TB. As to RPM if all things are equal a faster RPM drive would gain you some improvement. But it comes with a cost! Uses more power creates more heat and tends to burnout sooner. I would again focus on hybrid drives like Seagate's SSHD or a dual drive like Western-Digital's Black2. Or if you can swing it go with a SSD drive. SSD's are still expensive when going with a 1 or 2TB drive ($400 ~1000 US). So think long and hard if that kind of investment is worth it for you.

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First determine if it is indeed your hard drive or the hard drive cable ( known issue and pet peeve of mine). These bad cables will also destroy a hard drive. So test your hard drive outside of this machine. Use another Mac or a Universal Adapter Universal Drive Adapter. My favorite hard drive replacement in this machine is a hybrid drive, the Seagate Momentus XT, such as this one: [linked product missing or disabled: IF107-098].

Universal Drive Adapter Image

Product

Universal Drive Adapter

$24.99

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marcosa, why the down vote? I might be right. You won't know till you try to replace the drive.

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Sorry Mayer didn't mean to. I was trying to give you one up but doesn't let me do it. Even if I hit the upper arrow will go down 1!

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These MacBook Pro models support a 2.5" notebook hard drive or SSD that is up to 9.5 mm tall (0.37 inches) & use a SATA interface. Your model supports 6.0 Gb/s aka SATA 3.0.

So how much you want to spend will determine what you buy...be aware that the industry nickname for "Travelstar" is "Deathstar" (due to a high rate of failure) perhaps a different manufacturer is worth considering.

If this Answer is helpful please remember to return and mark it Accepted.

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Thank you very much for your help. My question though is: Can I upgrade to a 7200RPM HD or should I stick with a 5400RPM?

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