Can I use the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hybrid HDD?

I can't speak for the late 2010 MBP 15" specifically, since I don't own one. However, I am using this exact product in my MacBook Pro Santa Rosa, and I have a co-worker that's using it on his 13" MBP Unibody.

So far, both of us have been using our drives for approximately a month. There have been no serious problems, and my co-worker swears by it -- he's a programmer, and everything that he uses the drive for is super-fast. My own experience is almost as good, given how fast the system / Safari / Mail / and other frequently-used applications boot up. However, I was hopeful that Photoshop wouldn't take forever and a half* to boot up, like it did with my previous drive. Even though I use PS frequently, the drive hasn't put the software on the SSD portion of the drive -- yet. Apparently, this thing learns from users and puts the often-run programs on the SSD, so I'm still hoping that it might switch over PS one fine day.

I have encountered a rogue spinning beach ball of death a couple of times. But I don't know if that was due to the drive, or if that would have happened regardless of what HD was inside the computer. Nothing too serious though.

I also haven't broken it yet. I take my machine pretty much everywhere I go, even to some not-so-friendly places. The Momentus XT keeps on tickin'.

* I've come to realize that "forever and a half" is relative. Last night I rebooted my wife's XP machine and I nearly started banging my head against the wall -- it was that slow. Eventually I just let it run its course while I did stuff on my machine. Photoshop probably takes all of 20 seconds to boot up, but it would be nice if that number was less than 5.

Did you buy it? Does it work as expected?

I'd recommend first checking the spin down problems with this drive:

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentus-XT...

I read some reviews saying that they were having beach balls or some problems using that drive and the MBP

Yea, tested it for a couple of weeks in my mid 2010 mbp. I had massiv beachball problems all the time. i recome to not buy this hd if u are going to use it in a mac.

@Andreas Schnetzer

How do you make sure the beachball is hard disk issues?

For me the only issue I had is that the drive was unable to boot with the latest EFI firmware for my MacBook Pro (Mid-2009). Once I downgraded it to the previous version (1.6) it started to work perfectly (that was months ago, so it's a long experiment). Maybe you're using Snow Leopard? because I remember I read some threads in Seagate/Apple forums about the HD not working properly with Snow Leopard.

Well, i switched back to a normal 7200rpm 2,5 Harddisk last weekend and since then the Beachball Issue is gone, so i asume the Momentus XT was the Problem :)

Maybe i update to the new firmware and give it another try in the Holidays.

cheers

Right. SD24 was released recently. There are many positive feedbacks from a lot of Mac users in Seagate forums.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentus-XT...

I just installed this drive on my Mid 2009 MBP [core 2 duo] with no issues. I simply followed this guide and viola.

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2009 Hard Drive Replacement

1 Note: The battery does not need to be removed during installation, so you can skip that part.

- Also, I haven't updated to the newest firmware, so I'm not sure if that will help. I'll let you know if I have any issues.

Cheers

Here is the official Seagate Momentus XT SD26 firmware update. It helps with compatibility on Macintosh computers. SD26 is the latest version of the drive's firmware as of the end of August, 2011.

Windows version (easiest):

http://www.sendspace.com/file/mhlkbf

Bootable iso version:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rifiz5