Hard Drive Replacement Question

[Ginridge]

I have a 2009 Macbook Pro w/ a 500 GB Dual core HD (7200RPM) using Lion 10.7.5 as the OS running Pro Tools 10 with a Glyph GT050Q external hard drive. I use this computer for both recording and the rest of my life and up until recently, it has served me quite well.

I'm doing fairly simple recording of mostly acoustic instruments with vocal and back up instrumentation; a max of say 10-12 tracks and mixing with the Pro Tools 10 EQ and FX.

Recently the computer has been acting up, running slow and freezing. I've had permissions restored a few times and dumped caches but am concerned that this could be the beginning of a hard drive failure (there is the occasional hum coming from the area where the hard drive lives). Of course, I'm backing up like crazy. I have 100 GB of open space on the current HD but was considering replacing it with a new TB Drive.

My question is this, is the best drive for recording still a 7200 rpm drive? Back when I got this computer, solid state drives were frowned on for audio but that was 5 years ago. I've come across a couple TB dual disc drives that might work but they don't seem to be common at this point.

When I talked with Apple support, they were surprisingly ignorant on the subject (one tech said Apple couldn't even replace the drive) but I suspect I was just talking to the wrong person. I've frequently found it pays to check with more than one apple support tech!).

Your collective thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[zedhed]

SSD drives are currently the best option. Quite a number of us have switched and there have been no negative feedback in doing so, on the contrary the performance increase is substantial.

I'm not a Mac guy so I don't know what your options are as far as swapping drives is concerned though.

[albee1952]

SSD are fine if(great big IF) you get the correct drive(buy the wrong one and its a waste of money). A 7200 rpm spinner is a better value(more storage per dollar). Hopefully(if you can wait a bit) some folks will reply to this thread with exact brand/model for an SSD that is working well). If you are recording to the Glyph, then its less crucial

[Ginridge]

Thanks. Yes, I'm recording to the Glyph but I'd appreciate any specific info folks can share.

[JFreak]

These are great. Just remember to order the USB box to house your old hard drive, and a toolkit in case you don't have one already.