Input on getting up and running an SSD Drive with a MacBook Pro 2006?

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about SSD drives and MacBook Pros. There seems to be a lot on the web regarding the two combined, but I am not finding the entire collective of information I need.

I have a 15" 2006 MacBook Pro (non-unibody/Late), 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. I did some research and ended up recently buying a Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT256M4SSD2. I installed the drive and my machine would not turn on whatsoever. This drive is either DOA, not compatible with my machine or I am doing something incorrectly. I unfortunately do not have the tools to test the drive externally to see if it runs for certain or not. I put my old drive back in and everything was fine.

Here are some questions I have:

1.) Should I just be able to put the drive in, turn on the machine and then work off a CD to install Snow Leopard or is there more to this? I want to start with a "fresh" drive and do not want to carry things over from my old HDD.

2.) Should Crucial branded drives be OK to use with my MacBook Pro? I see a lot of people discussing OWC and Intel drives, but not Crucial so much.

3.) Does anyone have input on Crucial who have actually used this drive in their non-unibody MacBook Pro?

Thanks in advance for any input! I have never installed a new drive on my MBP before..especially not an SSD. Sorry if anything sounds like a no-brainer question. =/

Cheers!
Nikki

I have been upgrading owc, samsung and intel ssd drives for the last 2 months.
first of all buy yourself an external enclosure where your ssd drive should be. Then format to 'journaled'
in app > utilities > disk utility.
your #1 list should be downloading carbon copy clone (ccc) , copy over your internal drive to external,
boot up from external drive, see it works or not. This can prove your ssd is not DOA if works.
1. To test is boot up your mac, when chime tone sounds press 'option' key.
if okay, then switch the drives over external to internal.
2. boot up your mac, then install OSX to your ssd drive by rebooting, same as 1. this will get your clean
OSX. As for crucial or not does not matter. Intel and samsung I did with ccc software, owc will have to install osx first, then migration assistant. since you have the crucial, the support says use super duper soft ware I do not think matters, ccc should work out. Once you get the hung of it, should be easy. SInce you took out the hard drive and install back, half the battle is won.

OWC Technicians strongly recommend SSD do not be cloned from platter hard disk drives. Do a clean install of the operating system and transfer everything over using Migration Assistant. Some larger applications such as Office and ASdobe suites may require re-activation.

Thank you much for the input! Picked up an external enclosure and the drive seems to be well and alive. Going to get onto doing the rest at this point.

Cheers!
Nikki