Upgrading Macbook Pro 15" (late 2011)

[Emmakparky]

My mac is starting to fail on me and I'm thinking of replacing the standard 750GB hard drive with a around 200GB SSD drive. I am also thinking of upgrading my 4GB of ram to 8GB. I am an animator and use my laptop for Web browsing and large applications such as Photoshop, After Effects and Maya. My questions are,
1) what brands of hard drive and ram should I use that will be compatible with my mac? Also to install these would I need any extras?
2) if I was to buy a empty external hard drive case and put my old hard drive in there could it work to restore the new hard drive with my old information (my laptop is acting up otherwise I would back up prior to.upgrade but atm that's not gona happen)
If anyone has any other experience with upgrading macs then I'd love yo hear! Thanks

 

[pigoo3]

1) what brands of hard drive and ram should I use that will be compatible with my mac?

Just head to OWC (macsales.com)…and purchase everything there. No real worries regarding brands.

Also to install these would I need any extras?

I'm not really sure what you mean by "extras". The ram install is easy…and the new storage device is not that much harder either. Both require the bottom panel to be removed. So minimally you need a micro-screw driver set…and instructions found at ifixit.com.

2) if I was to buy a empty external hard drive case and put my old hard drive in there could it work to restore the new hard drive with my old information (my laptop is acting up otherwise I would back up prior to.upgrade but atm that's not gona happen).

Not sure what you mean by "acting up"…and why doing a backup prior to upgrading is "not gonna happen". Especially since everyone should maintain a backup all the time just in case of a storage failure (which many times happens without warning). Great ways to do this is via Apple's Time Machine backup utility…or "cloning" the hard drive with a program like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.

If anyone has any other experience with upgrading macs then I'd love yo hear! Thanks

This is Mac-Forums…an Apple/Macintosh enthusiast internet forum. Of course we have folks who are familiar with upgrading Apple products.

- Nick

 

[W9awx]

Took me about 10 minutes for me to install some extra Ram in my late 2011 MacBook. Easy to do. Nick led me in the right direction for that.