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Model A1181: 1.83, 2, 2.1, 2.13, 2.16, 2.2, or 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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Upgrading hard drive on a MacBook duo 2

Will my MacBook duo 2 be able to handle an upgraded hard drive like the Seagate Momentus 7200 750 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16 MB Cache 2.5 Inch without any issues or other needed hardware?

My hard drive is unreadable or able to be erased and reformatted. The computer is considered "vintage" by apple and they won't replace or work on it anymore. I see that replacing the hard drive is relatively easy to do and want to replace it myself. If I can improve speed and increase space at the same time that would be twice as cool.

Thanks for your help. Cheers

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Sadly, the Seagate drive you have selected is not able to run at the SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) your system runs at. A better choice would be the Seagate SSHD unit. It has the ability to sync up with the slower SATA I interface your system has.

You should also make sure your firmware is upto date. Follow this Apple TN EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs on how to check and update if need be.

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The 500 GB 7200 RPM Seagate SATA Hard Drive from my research browsing the other post threads would work with my bus speed. Is this correct?

Thank you for the firmware update info.

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Here's the spec sheet for this drive: Seagate HD spec sheet

Note the Interface line - SATA 3Gb/s It does not offer other SATA I/O speeds.

Here's the SSHD models Spec sheet: Seagate SSHD spec sheet

Note the Interface line - SATA 6.0/3.0/1.5

Each series of system offers different a interface speed in your case yours is SATA I (1.5 Gb/s). While it might appear to work if you tried you will over stress your system (overheat) as it will need to constantly retry reading/writing the same blocks over and over again until it gets it right. This causes both the CPU and the HD to run very hard which leads file & OS problems and premature system failure.

Besides the SSHD will give you better startup speed and general performance than the 7200 RPM drive. We have well over a 200 Seagate SSHD drives in service in MacBook Pro systems some that have the slower SATA I/O speed with great success.

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Your machine has a Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s) BUS. Check to see if the new drive you want to use is backward compatible. New drives are generally 6.0 Gb/s, but some are backward compatible. Just check the specs.

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