SSD for MacBook Pro

I have a mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro and am proposing to replace the hard disk with Crucial SSD, both for increased speed and to mitigate against the possibility of unreliability of the HD. I am running Maverick 10.9.3

I would like to know if the OS is on the HD that I will remove, and if so, how do I get the OS back into the computer when I install the SSD?

Also, where will I find instructions on how to do the change over?

I have a 2012 MBPr with 256 SSD and am getting a 1TB SSD for it.

I am going to hook the new drive to the MBPr with USB.
Download Maverics from Apple store, it will request if I want to install.
Will tell it to install on the new disk.
Swap disk over, use old 256 as external disk for storage.

last year on another MBP I replaced the HD with a Seagate hybrid.
Seagate has software to mirror disks and grow to size.
Did basically the same hooked the new HD up through USB mirrored the disk with the software, set to fill new disk with partition, swapped disk.

Hope this helps.

jeremy14 said:

I have a mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro and am proposing to replace the hard disk with Crucial SSD, both for increased speed and to mitigate against the possibility of unreliability of the HD. I am running Maverick 10.9.3

I would like to know if the OS is on the HD that I will remove, and if so, how do I get the OS back into the computer when I install the SSD?

Also, where will I find instructions on how to do the change over?

Click to expand...

I have the same computer and did the change over a year ago. I actually removed my optical drive and placed my 500gb drive in that spot and then stuck a 60gig SSD in the hard drive spot and created my own fusion drive. It doesn't run as fast as my wife's macbook air but it is still very quick. It is actually very simple to do. I would recommend getting an OWC SSD over the Crucial. Also make sure you get one built for SATA 2 and not SATA 3 like the one here. That link also has a data doubler kit so you could replace the optical drive. They provide pretty through instructions on how to do it as well as all the necessary tools. Happy to help if you need any other clarification though. I'd also recommend downloading Mavericks from the app store but not installing and then using disk makerto create a recovery flash drive that you can then use to reinstall the OS on a blank drive.

jeremy14 said:

Also, where will I find instructions on how to do the change over?

Click to expand...

There are a number of great step-by-step how-tos, including on this forum; you can start here, by navigating to your MBP model: Crucial Mac SSD

A very, very brief guide:

• create an install USB stick with 10.9.3
• do a Time Machine backup of your system
• install the new SSD
• boot from Mavericks USB stick and do a fresh install (do not create a user account)
• restore your system from TM backup

Of course, you can also just clone the existing drive in CCC, not forgetting the Recovery partition, etc, but it would probably be safer to go the above route.

Thanks danipak. Unfortunately OWS are in the USA and I am in Britain and I would not want to take the risk of shipping and import tax and VAT.

Many thanks David. I will go down the Crucial route. I do hourly Time machine back ups. However, how do I create an install USB stick of the system? I have plenty USB sticks up to 32 gigs.

jeremy14 said:

However, how do I create an install USB stick of the system? I have plenty USB sticks up to 32 gigs.

Click to expand...

There are so many guides online, I am not even sure, which one to recommend, but this one seems to be pretty straightforward, with plenty of screenshots, and from a reputable source: Mavericks USB

MBP17•David said:

There are a number of great step-by-step how-tos, including on this forum; you can start here, by navigating to your MBP model: Crucial Mac SSD

A very, very brief guide:

• create an install USB stick with 10.9.3
• do a Time Machine backup of your system
• install the new SSD
• boot from Mavericks USB stick and do a fresh install (do not create a user account)
• restore your system from TM backup

Of course, you can also just clone the existing drive in CCC, not forgetting the Recovery partition, etc, but it would probably be safer to go the above route.

Click to expand...

I find the CCC method to be the best, fastest and most reliable method by cloning the existing volume to an external backup drive and then using CCC to clone it back to the new volume, and the recent CCC version has a default option to include the 'Recovery HD' partition.

Then boot from the new volume. Done, and all ready to go and up to date - as long as the clone was recent!! ;D

pm-r said:

I find the CCC method to be the best, fastest and most reliable method by cloning the existing volume

Click to expand...

Naturally, and it is my preferred option too, however due to root access, it has the ability to mess up an unsuspecting user's system completely, so I am rather reluctant to recommend it, certainly not without a caution ... ;D

Hmmm...??? I'm not quite sure what you mean by CCC " has the ability to mess up an unsuspecting user's system completely...", as I have never heard of any such problem, but I dare say it's a heck of a lot safer than using the USB stick and some Terminal commands that was suggested as a preferred method.

Just wanted to add about making the install disk. I'd avoid any command line, too easy to mess up. Follow the above guide about downloading Mavericks but stop there and use this program which will do everything else for you.

danipoak said:

I'd avoid any command line, too easy to mess up.

Click to expand...

I suppose you're right ... it is somewhat different for me, coming from Linux background, as I prefer the CLI - can see exactly what I'm doing, what is going to happen, and have full control over the process ...

I should remember that, when suggesting solutions to others