Hi guys.

My computer is definitely slower than when I first bought it. Only 13.6 out of the 55GBs is free and so I'm thinking I should just upgrade the HDDfor more space and to improve performance.

I'm guessing its still better to stick with a 5400 over a 7200RPM because it'll be quieter, less energy consumption, and as long as I have enough free space, it should be relatively fast, correct?

And secondly, can someone help me with finding a decent deal :D. I am a student so cash is a bit short right now (ie I'd rather spend less than $100), and it has to bought from a store in Toronto (and not online, thanks to paranoid parents).

The one that caught my eye was:
Canada Computers - Hard Drives > Notebook Drives > 2.5" SATA Drives : Hitachi Travelstar 250GB 2.5" SATA 5400rpm 8MB (0A53329). (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=018731&cid=HD.517.47)
Although I've heard some mixed riviews about the Travelstars.

I also saw this, although it has noticeable less capacity.
Canada Computers - Hard Drives > Notebook Drives > 2.5" SATA Drives : Western Digital Scorpio (WD1600BEVS) 160GB SATA 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" Laptop Hard Disk (OEM). (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013127&cid=HD.517.47)

Thanks!

Having 13GB free is good enough. Your underperforming MacBook is being caused by another factor.

Having 13GB free is good enough. Your underperforming MacBook is being caused by another factor.

I'm with Lars on this. I'd recommend doing a time machine backup and restore - it's a great way to speed things up.

A less drastic option would be to limit dashboard usage, run a disk verify / repair. You can also add more RAM.

Thanks for the help guys.

I have 2GBs of RAM, I've already verified and repaired permissions, and don't use dashboard at all.

I guess my next choice is to backup, find my Leopard and original DVDs and reinstall...

Before doing that I would use Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the HD to an external. Confirm that it boots OK then Clone back. This will clean up any fragmentation of larger files.

Even less ambitious would be using the donation ware utility Onyx to delete your spotlight index. After doing that, walk away for a couple of hours while spotlight rebuilds its index. Be sure you are on AC when doing this. Corrupt spotlight indexes can really slow things down.

NOTE: the clone bit will also force a spotlight rebuild.

The one that caught my eye was:
Canada Computers - Hard Drives > Notebook Drives > 2.5" SATA Drives : Hitachi Travelstar 250GB 2.5" SATA 5400rpm 8MB (0A53329). (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=018731&cid=HD.517.47)
Thanks!

FWIW, this is the same drive that came in my MacBook from the factory.

Before doing that I would use Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the HD to an external. Confirm that it boots OK then Clone back. This will clean up any fragmentation of larger files.

Even less ambitious would be using the donation ware utility Onyx to delete your spotlight index. After doing that, walk away for a couple of hours while spotlight rebuilds its index. Be sure you are on AC when doing this. Corrupt spotlight indexes can really slow things down.

NOTE: the clone bit will also force a spotlight rebuild.
Thanks. I did the spotlight index so far, took about two hours. No noticeable changes so far.

ok, so if I wanted to just start anew, how would I go about doing it?

I have an external hard drive. So I would:
1. Copy the contents to the external drive
2. Install my Mac OS 10.4 Macbook DVD, make it startup disc
3. Erase my Macbook's hard drive
4. Reinstall Mac OS 10.4
5. Put in OS 10.5 CD
6. Install All Updates

And then if I needed something from my old setup, I'd just copy it off of the hard drive.

Is that correct? And for when its erased and reformatted, is there anything I should notice of?

If you want to go with the HD upgrade I wouldn't go with Canada Computers. I find that Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC (http://www.otherworldcomputing.com) has awesome prices & their hardware has nice warranties! I have up till now purchased at least 20 components from them & not one has failed me! My current 250GB HD is from them & it's still quiet & fast! I got it maybe a year or so ago.

I agree with some others here... restoring from either Time Machine or CCC will SIGNIFICANTLY increase your Macbooks speed!

ok, so if I wanted to just start anew, how would I go about doing it?

I have an external hard drive. So I would:
1. Copy the contents to the external drive
2. Install my Mac OS 10.4 Macbook DVD, make it startup disc
3. Erase my Macbook's hard drive
4. Reinstall Mac OS 10.4
5. Put in OS 10.5 CD
6. Install All Updates

And then if I needed something from my old setup, I'd just copy it off of the hard drive.

Is that correct? And for when its erased and reformatted, is there anything I should notice of?
Edited format error "HFS" corrected to "HFS+" (Sept 8)
As stated before use CCC which is free from Bombich.com: Mac OS X Deployment and Management Solutions (http://www.bombich.com/) to create a bootable clone of your HD on the external. Note this will erase the external or the partition you are cloning to. Also note that the external (partition) needs to be formatted correctly, GUID for your Macbook (older PPC Macs use HFS+). This is done from DiskUtility.

Cloning itself is very easy. Once it is done; boot from the cloned drive and check to be sure everything is working correctly. If so and it seems a lot faster just clone back.

If you see no big speed improvements then go ahead and install from scratch knowing that every thing is on your external and recoverable either through migration assistant via a simple drag & drop.