How do you upgrade the hard drive in the White "Unibody" MacBook?

Upgrading or replacing the hard drive in the White "Unibody" MacBook models -- the MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.26 13" (White Polycarbonate Unibody/Late 2009) and MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (Mid-2010) -- is not as simple as it is for the earlier "pre-Unibody" White or Black MacBook models, but it is still easy.

In fact, just about everything you need to know to replace the hard drive is covered on pages 37-45 in the User's Guides for the Late 2009 and Mid-2010 models (the text in this portion is identical for both).

The User's Guide starts by noting:

You can upgrade the hard disk drive in your MacBook. When you open the back of your MacBook, the hard disk drive is located next to the built-in battery. The replacement drive must be a 2.5-inch drive with a Serial ATA (SATA) connector.

It continues with detailed instructions, complete with drawings, which absolutely should be read in their entirety before one replaces the hard drive. Although Apple does not mention it in the User's Guide, for those interested in swapping the hard drive for an SSD, note that these models have a 3 Gb/s SATA interface.

The Apple-provided drawings are helpful, but perhaps even better, site sponsor Other World Computing provides a convenient step-by-step video of the process:

In addition to instructional videos, as you would expect, Other World Computing offers memory and hard drive upgrades for the White "Unibody" MacBook (and all other Macs as well). If you would rather hire a professional to upgrade the hard drive in your White "Unibody" MacBook than do it yourself (or don't have time to do the upgrade yourself), Mission Repair offers a 24 hour by mail hard drive upgrade and data transfer service for this model using Macintosh Certified Technicians.