Mac laptops forum: Best way to upgrade 2008 mbp

1. If you are going to increase the HDD size, then you may as well max out the RAM while you are at it.
2. 2.5" drive. The 3.5 is thicker than the MBP!
3. Crucial.com, Ramjet.com, in that order
4. Not without the aid of a piece of software on your PC or Mac. This depends on whether you want to keep the stuff currently on the drive. If not, then connect the drive to a Windows machine and format the drive as FAT32. This is how drives normally arrive from the manufacturer. You will need an external enclosure, USB, to house the drive.
Alternatively, you can format the drive as NTFS (Windows default) and use a piece of software called NTFS for MAC, on the Mac.

Is that enough for you to be going on with?

P

Some supplemental info to the answers already given.

You don't NEED to upgrade your RAM at the same time as the HDD. It's probably a good idea, but it is not necessary.

Having run into this recently at work... Check the official specifications page for your system. Find out what the max sized HDD was that could have been in the system from the factory. That is what Apple will consider the maximum tested and supported size drive for your system. Larger capacity drives may, or may not, work. I've had an ongoing issue with a customer at work regarding this basic issue, so I'm just going to try and help manage your expectations a little. Just because you see forum posts about the Internet from people who have gotten this or that to work does NOT mean you will meet with similar good fortune. If you go beyond what the largest CTO option was for your particular model, then there's no real telling what will happen. It may work perfectly, it may work poorly, it may not work at all. Just be prepared for those latter two options, and don't get it in your head that it's always going to work perfectly.

Apple doesn't make RAM, they just buy it from other companies. Any RAM, meeting the same spec as the RAM that came in your computer, will work. Just make sure it's SO-DIMMs for laptops, and not regular DIMMs for desktops. Regular DIMMs are about 2.5X too long.

There was also a recent discussion on one of these Mac forums here at Cnet covering the issue of using a drive with both Windows and Mac OS X. Might be worth perusing.

I also suspect you actually have the aluminum MacBook which later became the Mid-09 13" MBP. Easy mistake to make, I still sometimes do it, and I am a professional Apple repair tech. Either way, when you go to replace the drive, BE CAREFUL! The cable that connects the drive to the logic board is a bit fragile, and can be torn fairly easily if you are not careful. You will have to go to an Apple store or AASP to get your hands on a replacement of one of those, and they may insist on charging labor to put it in for you.

Your input has been very helpful, except there's one problem.

I'm in india right now. So could you suggest popular (multinational) companies that make ram for macs ?

Also, is a 7200 rpm drive considerably faster than a 5400 rpm counterpart ?
And does the 7200 drive suck a lott more juice ?

Opinions anyone ?

Will it work right away with the mbp or will I have to format it or something before i can install it ?

Also, I went to a shop selling me the hard drive in a translucent grey plastic bag.
It was sealed and everything.
But is that how seagate sells hard drives ? Cos this shop is actually a distributor fr seagate, i found him from the seagate website.

Then in what way/how am i to format it ?
I just erase everything ?