moonman Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Hi all. Need some advice so that I don't buy an incompatible drive. Prices on the huge 240GB Toshiba MK2431GAH have really dropped and are now under 100 euro. Buyer beware, I guess. Anyway, I have read there are compatibility problems with PC notebooks and you can't install Windows due to the physical block size of the drive. These drives are made for iPods, videocameras and the Macbook Air. Sellers offer no compatibility guarantees with other devices. Does anyone know if these would work in a D430 with Snow Leopard, or would you be unable to boot? I had a problem like this in the past with a 120GB drive I had, but it was a little different. IIRC, I was able to install Windows XP and boot okay from it. I was able to install Snow Leopard but I couldn't boot from it. I could boot from a USB pen in order to install Snow Leopard. The drive worked okay in an external box. In the end I installed Windows 7 on it and sold the D430 locally, as the 120GB HD was huge at the time. Anyone know anything about these block size incompatibilities? Do they apply to the MacOS too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elim Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I have a 120Gb hard drive. It can boot to SL. I don't think a HDD that can install and boot with windows cannot boot to SL. But you have to format it with Guid in order to install SL. And the partition with SL must be active. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonman Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 No, maybe I explained it wrong. The problem with this drive is that I've read on PC forums that people couldn't run WINDOWS on it, and the answer they found was something to do with 4k block sizes or something like that.I've seen this drive listed as compatible with iPods Classics and early Macbook Airs. And I have read successful reports that it works in iPodsPersonally, I've tried another 120GB listed as compatible with iPods and Macbook Airs and it DIDN'T work with my D430 and 10.6.8. I could install Snow Leopard, but it wouldn't boot to the internal disk. I could boot from the USB install pen though.It worked perfectly with Windows though.So, while I'd like to "give it a try", I don't have the money to throw away at the moment. I'll let you know if I find out anything. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elim Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Anyone actually used MK2431GAH 240gb on D430? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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