How to remove your macbook harddisk and upgrade it with a higher capacity hard disk?

It has been almost a trend nowadays for macbook/macbook pro owners to upgrade their old laptop with a higher capacity hard disk, from 80gb to 320gb or 500gb. I’d know sometimes for a casual user, 40gb is probably than enough, but who’s the complain when you can have extra (MORE) space? Blame it to technological indulgence. Anyway, this guide serve to aid you on how you can remove the original hard disk that came with your macbook and replace it with your newly bought hard disk.

To start off, you’ll need few things in hand prepared so you won’t go “Ah shxx!” half way through.

• 

  A 2.5 inch notebook harddisk, ranging anywhere from 120gb to 500gb is fine, 5400rpm/7200rpm is fine either.

• 

  But it’s best if you get yourself an external notebook harddisk that is pre-packaged, so that you can use it to backup/clone your current hardisk’s content, and then rip the external hard disk off, remove the enclosure, and replace it with the new hard disk, so then your old macbook hard disk can still be used as an external one.

• 

  A set of screwdrivers  for removing screws inside the laptop.

• 

  A TORX T-6 screwdriver to remove the screws that hold the macbook hard disk, this is important and crucial since I halted halfway through the entire process because I didn’t have one. You should be able to find this at your favorite hardware shops.

This guide basically is divided to 3 parts where it consists of :

1. Plugging in the external hard disk, and make a carbon-copy of the current hard disk’s content, so nothing is lost.
2. Removing the external hard disk’s enclosure and take only the hard disk to replace the old hard disk inside your macbook.
3. Installing the hard disk inside your macbook.

Making Backup Copy from External USB hard disk

If you have no idea what to start, perhaps you can refer to How to connect a 2.5inch external harddisk to your computer/notebook?

And once you got the external hard disk connected to your macbook, download Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s a free software an extremely ridiculously easy to use!

If you have plugged in your hard disk, it should appear as an external media icon with the yellow USB logo.

Thought it might not always be this case, that some pre-packaged hard disk might have some softwares included inside, just like the image shown above. Do not fret, we’ll deal with this later.

Save the .dmg installation file on your desktop. Double click to open it.

And a window will open instructing you to copy the software to the Application folder on your mac.

Once copied, you should be able to see the new software inside your application folder, launch the software, and select Open.

Once the software is launched, you should see the window as above. There’s only 2 panel that you need to fiddle with. Select the hard disk that you would like to “Clone/Backup/Copy” on the left hand dropdown menu.

And select the hard disk that you would like the backup content to be copied to. As you can see, the external hard disk that came with the software are formatted in a partition that Mac couldn’t write files. We will fix this with few of the steps below.

Formatting the external harddisk using Disk Utility

Every mac comes with this software that lets you diagnose and partition your hard disk, namely Disk Utility

If you can see from the list on the left, you can select the external hard disk, then go to the Partition tab, and Under Volume Scheme, select on 1 Partition to repartition the disk in the correct format.

Click on the Options

And you should be prompted with a list of partition table. Select the first one on the list.

And click on Apply when everything is done. The formatting only takes about 1 minutes.

When it’s completed, you should see this message if you’re on Leopard, but on other version of the Mac OSX, there should be indication that it’s completed.

And if you notice, if you didn’t give it a name to the hard disk earlier when formatting, you can actually rename it later.

Now when you check on the content of the hard disk, there’s nothing in there because you have just reformatted it! We are now good to go and make backup.

Making carbon copy of your Mac OSX with Carbon Copy Cloner

Select the hard disk that has your current operating system on the left dropdown menu.

And select the hard disk that you want the backup to be copied to on the right dropdown menu.

When selection is done, click on Clone.

You should be prompted for an Adminstrator password to proceed, if you didn’t have one, just click on OK.

And now sit back, and relax. this whole process is really dependent on :

• The speed of your computer
• The amount of content inside your hard disk that needs to be copied

Mind took approximately around 1 and a half hour on a 80gb hard disk.

When the backup is complete, you should see a folder structure inside the external hard disk that resembles your current hard disk.

And we now ready to remove the old hard disk from the macbook. We will need to shut down the computer.

Disassembling the macbook harddisk and replace it with a newer hard disk

After shutting down your computer. Remove the external hard disk from your USB port.

Make sure that your laptop’s charger is not switched on.

And remove the laptop charger’s cable. And the steps below is actually varies to what type of external hard disk you used, and it’s even not necessary for you sometimes to go through the trouble that I did. But I’d recommend you to read what happened below.

Removing the enclosure of your external hard disk

If you bought the new Western Digital Passport Essential 320gb like me on 2009, behold, something interesting and frustating at the same time going to happen. Anyway, the steps below going to demonstrate on how you can remove the enclosure and take out the hard disk enclosed inside.

You can start doing the “peeling” motion on the side of the enclosure itself.

Move your peeling motion all around the enclosure and it would definitely feel like you are going to break the case at any time, but do not worry, it’s a pretty durable plastic.

It would be better and faster if you have several cards that you can use and slot it in between the enclosure to create an opening.

There’s actually no screws holding the enclosure together, but much more like a “snap-on” mechanism like our plastic toys.

Once it gets loosen, it’ll be pretty easy for you get it out.

The enclosure with the hard disk separated.

The blue rubbers are actually noise damper to reduce the rattling noise created by the hard disk itself.

Be sure to keep everything in place not to loose it. To my surprise, there’s actually no screws at all inside this enclosure, yet the built is pretty solid.

The moment of truth

Something that you are about to witness below are going to break your heart if you have just bought the newer batches of the Western Digital Passport that is not sealed through those old blister packaging.

As I’m very excited to remove the hard disk from the enclosure. I noticed something very weird…

THE USB PANEL IS SOLDERED/CONNECTED to the logic board of the hard disk!?!

That leaves me no choice but to get a newer hard disk…I’d guess it makes sense they eventually creates this kind of security measure since if you were to calculate that it’s much more cheaper to get this one (older batch) and take off the harddisk, and you get both hard disk and enclosure that is high in quality at a lower price than you get it separately.

Removing the hard disk from macbook

As someone said on the internet, removing the hard disk on the macbook can be easy as a 5-years old can do it! Really? Let’s see, to start off, you will need to use coin to open the back cover that holds the battery.

With the coin pressed down, turn it towards the “unlocked” icon.

The battery is now free and you can remove it from the laptop.

We will need a screwdriver for the steps below in removing the L-bracket that protects the RAMs, and harddisk in place.

There’s total of 3 screws to be loosen.

Remove the bracket.

And you should see a white paper strip that is located on the left corner.

Pull the paper out to retrieve the hard disk.

As sweet looking as it is, you can actually see it bears the Apple logo on it. There’s actually an aluminium cage that is holding this hard disk.

And if you place a close attention, normal screwsdriver wouldn’t really work in removing it, unless you want to destroy it.

You will need the unusual Torx screwdrive that is more common towards electrical components (not daily use). The one I used are the Torx T-6.

Remove the 4 screws on the side of the harddisk that holds it. 2 on both side.

This is the new hard disk. Install it with the aluminium cage.

And place everything back in place. Hoo-ray! You have successfully completed in upgrading your hard disk! Enjoy your newly overkilled disk space!

And below are some links that might be helpful, for you to check out how others are doing this instead. Most importantly, Enjoy!

• Macinstruct – how to upgrade your macbook harddisk
• Macrumours – 320gb on macbook
• Insanely mac – upgraded
• A 320-gb birthday

Filed under: Apple, Hard Disk, Hardware, Technology, Tips , 320gb hard disk, Hardware, macbook, macbook white, new wd320gb passport, Tips, tutorial, upgrade hard disk, western digital scorpio blue

How to connect a 2.5inch external harddisk to your computer/notebook

It must have been a while since I shared anything useful but here I would glad to share to you no how you can use your newly bought external hard disk drive (shown on picture) which are normally the notebook hard disk (2.5 inch) nowadays that you can find at your favorite computer stores.

As shown on the picture above, this is one example of pre-packaged and formatted hard disk that you can use take it off the box and use it directly without much fiddling on the computer settings.

It’s rather delighting to see manufacturers adopting a “non-blister packaging” method to sell their products nowadays, of course this would definitely be a big question towards the seller if the product has been used before. But opening it has never been so easy.

And carefully slide the packaging off the harddisk.

The usual package you would get from a pre-packaged external hard disk.

To start off, you will need to get the cable of the hard disk and plug it into the hard disk itself.

And make sure it’s perfectly fit in, not much force needed in this case.

While there’s not much effort in setting this up, this is how normally an external hard disk will look like when it’s ready to be used.

Next you’ll need to make sure your computer or laptop is switched on.

Find the appropriate USB port and plug the cable into it.

One it’s in, you are ready to use it! Congratulations!

Filed under: Hardware, Technology, Tips , 2.5 inch hard disk, harddisk, Hardware, notebook, Tips, tutorial, western digital hard disk

How to prepare sanitary napkin for use

It may seem that generally all woman would be able to understand this technique in using sanitary napkin during their period at every month, but it would really deem difficult for those who is new at this, especially with teenagers that reached their puberty. I’d hope by sharing this would benefit you in any way. Do drop down your thoughts and share your experience with other readers as well! Enjoy!

First you will have to prepare,  both the napkin, which is available at any major supermarkets, and of course, there is a lot of varieties to choose from, which is down to your preference, be it, soft, hard, or for night use, I will try to cover the different types of napkin on a different article.

Next, which most of the napkin will share the same packaging, which you can open it by removing the plastic bag that is enveloping it.

There is usually a piece of paper that is attached onto the napkin that is protecting the ‘glue’ or sticky area of it from dirt or dust, remove it and you are ready to move to the next step.

Once you are ready with the napkin, turn your undergarment inward so that you can place the sanitary napkin onto the correct place.

To ensure that you are placing this in the correct orientation, if your sanitary napkin does have ‘wing’ support, make sure that the wing is placed near the front of your undergarment. Upon positioning it correctly, press and hold on the side of the napkin to ensure it fits correctly.

Next, you may skip this step if the sanitary napkin you are using does not have an extra support with wing. Usually this will aid in ensuring the napkin does not moves around or fall off when you are moving around. Remove the paper that is covering the glue/sticky are and turn the wing around to stick on to the bottom of your undergarment.

And we are almost ready. To ensure that it is correctly place. double check if it’s loosely fit.

And now we are ready to put it to use.

As you can see, it will be easier to identify if you are placing the sanitary napkin on the correct orientation by checking if the wing of the napkin if facing the front of the undergarment.

And of course an extra tips for those who is using this during the night time, where you might afraid of overflowing during sleep hours, that you can push the napkin to fit properly before going to bed. Thank you and I’d hope you are able to benefit from this sharing.

And there might be some related sites that you might be interested to read :

• Wikipedia – Sanitary Napkin
• About.com – Sanitary Napkin
• Sanitary Napkin Manufacturer (Alibaba.com)

Filed under: Health , Women's Health

How do we use Post-It notes?

Though it might not be the best to use Post-It notes that often due to massive wastage of paper, but somehow I find this is exclusively important to some that might find this useful.

Any typical Post-It notes will look like the picture shown above. And unlike ordinary notebooks, we will note that the stack of paper are being sticked in a form of zig-zag. This is a method to ensure that upon tearing the highest piece of the paper, we wouldn’t take off the rest from the bottom.

What we’ll normally do on it is to record down important meeting notes or dates.

Just in case we forget, we’ll find a spot where we can normally take on, and always work in front of the area. Upon finishing the writing, you can remove the top piece of the note which the note’s back will be sticky enough for us to stick on any common surfaces.

It’s best that we would stick the note right after tearing it from the stack of Post-It to avoid dusts sticking on the sticky area behind of the note. We’ll find a spot where it would be most obvious to always remind us of our task.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Foods & Lifestyle, Stationaries, Tips

How to put your key into the keychain?

Sometimes we might just have too much thing to keep track off and afraid of losing it, for example, our keys. The best is to actually keep all of our key into a keychain. Besides keeping it organised, we’ll able to access to it for opening doors quickly.

To complete this guide, we’ll need to have a key and keychain. Shown on the picture are ordinary keychain that you can get very fancy ones for less than R.M.2.00 on the market.

Take note that the keychain has a ring where we can slot the keys inside. And we can insert the key into the keychain by forcing the keychain to open slightly.

And push the key into it.

And there we have it! Enjoy!

Filed under: Lifestyle, Misc, Tips

How to shake hand with other people?

Perhaps one of the greatest gift in this world is the art of saying hello, using our body language. In which it could generate a lot different response on different culture, religion or beliefs. Sign language that we think that it might work and be friendly in one country might not apply in other. But here’s a quick guide on how you can use this global method of saying hello. Shaking hand.

First before proceeding, we’ll have to make sure that it’s best to keep our hand clean before  shaking our hands with our friend or any stranger.

Though it’s not a must, but it’s best practice to use your right hand to greet the other person. Do not hesitate to volunteer to offer a handshake upon meeting a new friend or colleague. It’s best also to lean your body slightly over the other person while shaking hand. Firmly hold the hand of the other person to complete the handshake.

It’s a general custom to apply less pressure during handshake towards female while for male, to express friendliness, there are some males prefer the handshake to be applied with moderate force. But please BEWARE not to apply too much pressure or force else you will end up hurting or offending the other person. With a motion of up-down, move slowly for 3 times before ending the handshake.

Once done, you can release the grip of the hand.

This step is not necessary but just to demonstrate that we have successfully demonstrated the art of handshaking. Enjoy!

Filed under: Foods & Lifestyle, Lifestyle, Misc, Social, Tips

How to apply thermal paste for Pentium 4 processor?

From the questions asked frequently among the visitors, how can they clean up their processor’s thermal tape/paste before reapply a new one? How much is enough? How much is too much? I’d often got this question running up in my head until I solved it by myself and through a series of random trials and errors. Hope this will be helpful.

What do you do upon realizing a bunch of mess below the processor cooler? Release the lock and remove the processor from its seat.

You need your most trustworthy tissue paper. Trust me, it works for me all the time.

The best bet is not to hold the bottom of the pin of the processor with your hand and not to let any of the thermal paste to touch it. At this point, I only clean it with tissues and the results are normally promising. And some might suggest to use nail polishing oil to ensure there will no more old paste stucked onto the top of the processor.

Once it is clean, take a good look at it.

How to ensure that you won’t break the pin when installing the processor back onto the motherboard? Face the processor pins towards you, and note that there is 2 missing pins on one edge of the processor.

Make sure the 2 missing pins will face the top right of the processor socket when installing, and do not worry, you need not to apply any force at all, and it will only fit in at one angle.

Once it’s fitted in, lock it.

And we will prepare to smear some paste on top of it. For this guide, I’ll use my trustworthy Arctic Silver 5.

Note : Pictures below are taken from my other tutorial, which the rest of the pictures, I’ve decided not to use it, since it’s related to installing CPU fan. 

Do not  put too much force in applying the thermal paste, else you will need to clean it up again.

Put/Use only HALF of what is shown on the picture above. The picture above is an example of too much thermal paste is applied. This will cause your processor to overheat even faster. Enjoy!

Filed under: Hardware, Technology, Tips

How to deposit cheque into your own account?

I guess most of our most happy moment in our life is when we receive our paycheck, especially the first one. But there comes our most frustated moment on how we can turn the piece of paper to money. I’d hope this will help most of us in the future, and I think this would be applicable to any banks around Malaysia. Disclaimer : I offer no responsibility if any bad thing happens in the midst of the process, please consult to your nearest bank officer if you’d have any inquiries. I come in peace to help.

First  of all, we will need to obtain the cheque deposit slip from your nearest friendly bank, which will look exactly like the picture above and also you will need to have a cheque from your boss, or client. *NOTE* This is extremely important, before making any move beyond this, please check if the date written on the cheque is at least the same date or already passed the date where you are now, else you will go into a lot of trouble at the adminstration. For example, if the date of the cheque is 30th May 2007, and today is 25th May 2007, kindly wait until the date itself to make a cheque deposit.

We’ll move on by writing our bank account number and phone number for verification purpose.

And we’ll move on towards the bank slip, which we will have to fill in the details of the cheque. You’ll just need to tick on “Local cheque” if you have a cheque from around Klang Valley, and your bank is located around Klang Valley, except if it’s on a different state.

As for the bank field, I filled in MBB which stands for Maybank Berhad and note on the bottom left of the cheque that has the 6-digit code that you musn’t reveal to anyone of the cheque number.

And lastly at the bottom of the slip, you’ll have to fill in your name as per your account information and the account number.

Now we will turn to the back of the envelope/slip and note that there is an area and instruction where we can insert your cheque into it.

With care, slowly push the cheque into the envelope until it fits properly. We’re almost there!

And if you notice, there’s running dotted lines across the left edge of the slip, which you will need to turn it over and fold it so you can get the customer copy of the slip in case anything *finger crossed* happens.

By making sure the paper folded correctly…

Tear only the customer copy (yellow paper) carefully.

With that, you can keep that in your safety. And proceed towards your nearest bank to make the cheque deposit.

At the bank, locate this machine where we can put in our dearest cheque and turning it into tangile money form.

Wait patiently while it processes your request, and there will be a receipt appearing on the bottom left of the machine. Enjoy!

Filed under: Banking, Tips

How to install Windows Vista using Bootcamp 1.2 into your mac?

It must have been a blessing to be able to run different operating system at the same time. Despite Mac of running with Intel processor now, we’ll able to install Windows using  our Mac’s hardware. For this example, I’ll share on how you can install Windows Vista onto your Mac that is running Intel processor. We’ll need a copy of Bootcamp version 1.2 which is available for download on Apple’s website. Please ensure that you have at least more than 10gigabyte (10gb) free disk space on your computer.

Upon installing your copy of Bootcamp, launch the program to proceed.

While proceeding towards installing your new operating system, you’ll be asked if you want to create a Window’s Mac Driver CD. Prepare an empty CD-R for this so that after you are done with the Windows installation, you will just need to insert this CD and install it to make Windows recognize all of your hardware. It’s a must since it will also enable the trackpad and Apple Remote to work with Windows Vista.

After you’re done with the drivers CD, you’ll be asked on how much you will allocate for your Windows partition. Note that this partitioning process is so EASY that you have to only drag the column bar in the middle to determine the space you’ll need to allocate.

When you’re done, press ‘Partition’. Please note that to install Windows Vista Home Premium requires at least 8GB of hard disk space.

Upon completion of partitioning, you may now proceed with installing your Windows Vista. Insert the Windows Vista DVD that you have into the DVD Drive.

It will reboot into the installation menu.

Windows Vista installation screen.

Select ‘Install Now’. If you do not have the product key with you now, you may proceed with the 30 days trial.

Select the desired packaged that you have purchased.

Choose fresh install, and the partition that you have just made earlier in bootcamp.

What’s left is to just enjoy. And to remember install the Mac Driver’s CD when you’re done! Enjoy!

Filed under: Apple, Software, Technology, Tips

How to open a packaged hardware?

Occasionally, we indulge ourselves with different type of new computer accessories or hardwares. But we normally find ourself in trouble trying to open up the package which is nicely enveloped in plastic. It’s often where we damage the hardware during the ‘opening’ process. Here I would like to share on how you can gently open the plastic package to avoid any damage onto the product.

For this example we’ll have this Logitech Earphone which is tightly air packed with plastic.

We’ll need a small blade/cutter for this. Be very cautious to avoid any injury onto your finger/hand. Avoid doing this with childrens around.

Start by cutting through the top of the plastic and make a hole onto it.


It’s not necessary to always create a hole in the middle to rip of the plastic case, for this instance, we’ll cut through the side of the packaging so we’ll able to remove the plastic case.

With the top and both left/right side of the plastic case is cut, it’s now easier for you to take out the product. Enjoy!

Filed under: Hardware, Misc, Tips