Just replaced my HDD with SSD. Wow, I should have done that a long time ago.

[heberman]

I have a mid-2012 Macbook Pro (non-retina). I previously upgraded my RAM from 4 to 8GB.

I've never been happy with the speed of my machine. I didn't know whether to attribute the legginess to my i5 processor, needing more RAM, the hard drive, or some software problem. I even did a clean reinstall about 8 months ago to try and speed up my system.

Today I replaced my 500GB hard drive to a 256 SSD. Total cost was about $118, which included an enclosure for my old hard drive to be used as a USB external drive.

My initial impressions: WOW! It feels like I have a whole new machine and I love it. No lag, everything is very quick. I wish I would have done this a year ago.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Congratulations on getting your new speedy SSD........and I'm glad you're impressed with it thus far. Enjoy.

 

[pr1nce]

Congrats on your upgrade. Enjoy it!

 

[Massie]

I have a mid-2012 Macbook Pro (non-retina). I previously upgraded my RAM from 4 to 8GB.

I've never been happy with the speed of my machine. I didn't know whether to attribute the legginess to my i5 processor, needing more RAM, the hard drive, or some software problem. I even did a clean reinstall about 8 months ago to try and speed up my system.

Today I replaced my 500GB hard drive to a 256 SSD. Total cost was about $118, which included an enclosure for my old hard drive to be used as a USB external drive.

My initial impressions: WOW! It feels like I have a whole new machine and I love it. No lag, everything is very quick. I wish I would have done this a year ago.

Did that total include labor, or did you do it yourself? And what SSD did you go with?
Thinking about doing this myself!

 

[nikkisharif]

That's awesome...Congrats!!!

 

[mattjohnson78]

I will be installing a 256gb SSD in my 2011 MacBook Pro this weekend. It's nice that Apple includes the software into the OS to make a bootable copy of the HD so that I don't have to go threw all the work of redoing my MacBook Pro.


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[Flow39]

Awesome! SSDs are way expensive, but they are worth it

 

[heberman]

I did it myself. Here's what I got:

SSD Drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUimUvbUpU2296792

USB Hard Drive enclosure: Amazon.com: Sabrent USB 3.0 To 2.5-Inch Sata Aluminum Screwless Hard Drive Enclosure Black (EC-RD25): Computers & Accessories

You also need the proper size phillips screw driver and proper size torx screw driver. There are lots of instructions on the internet showing how to do it. My basic steps were this:

1. I put the new SSD into the external hard drive enclosure. It didn't quite fit and I didn't jam it in so it hung half-way out, but it was in enough for the connectors to fit.

2. I plugged in my new SSD (in the enclosure) into my Macbook Pro via the included USB cable.

3. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my hard drive to my temporary-external SSD drive. Carbon Copy Cloner also asked if I wanted to make the backup/archive partition (whatever it's called) and I said yes.

4. At that point, my SSD had a mirror image of my hard drive and I removed the SSD from the enclosure. I followed some internet instructions on how to open up my Macbook, swap out the hard drive with the SSD drive. I included the spacer that came with the drive to make it fit properly.

5. That's it. I put it back together and booted it up and everything was fine. The only hiccup was that I needed to fix my Google Drive storage because it detected the new drive was different.

6. Since I had the now empty enclosure, I put my old hard drive into it. It is now my spare USB external drive.

I love the SSD drive. LOVE it.

 

[ajl]

I'd like to do the same soon as well. Glad to hear it went well for you!


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[rayz336]

Congrats on the upgrade

 

[kb1234]

Congrats, it must feel nice ! Can't wait to get my new MacBook and start fresh


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[robertk328]

Looking to so the same with my 2011 Mini... But waiting to see what happens in the next month or so first.

 

[bgriff25]

I did it myself. Here's what I got:

SSD Drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUimUvbUpU2305701

USB Hard Drive enclosure: Amazon.com: Sabrent USB 3.0 To 2.5-Inch Sata Aluminum Screwless Hard Drive Enclosure Black (EC-RD25): Computers & Accessories

You also need the proper size phillips screw driver and proper size torx screw driver. There are lots of instructions on the internet showing how to do it. My basic steps were this:

1. I put the new SSD into the external hard drive enclosure. It didn't quite fit and I didn't jam it in so it hung half-way out, but it was in enough for the connectors to fit.

2. I plugged in my new SSD (in the enclosure) into my Macbook Pro via the included USB cable.

3. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my hard drive to my temporary-external SSD drive. Carbon Copy Cloner also asked if I wanted to make the backup/archive partition (whatever it's called) and I said yes.

4. At that point, my SSD had a mirror image of my hard drive and I removed the SSD from the enclosure. I followed some internet instructions on how to open up my Macbook, swap out the hard drive with the SSD drive. I included the spacer that came with the drive to make it fit properly.

5. That's it. I put it back together and booted it up and everything was fine. The only hiccup was that I needed to fix my Google Drive storage because it detected the new drive was different.

6. Since I had the now empty enclosure, I put my old hard drive into it. It is now my spare USB external drive.

I love the SSD drive. LOVE it.

Thanks for sharing this. I plan on doing this in the near future.

 

[jasonprice]

The HDD is the single slowest part of most any computer that is not using a SSD. Anyone that is thinking about replacing a working computer due to speed should look into getting a SSD to swap in. It makes it a completely different experience.

 

[Grabber5.0]

The HDD is the single slowest part of most any computer that is not using a SSD. Anyone that is thinking about replacing a working computer due to speed should look into getting a SSD to swap in. It makes it a completely different experience.

Absolutely. My previous work laptop was a quad core HP EliteBook that was very fast when I got it, but over time, the windows update checker and other processes accessing the hard drive made it unbearably slow. I started watching the resource monitor to see what the problem was - I already knew it wasn't CPU - and any time the length of the disk access queue got over 1 (obviously, the higher the number, the slower everything gets) anything I did would take forever. I cloned the hard drive to an SSD and swapped it in, and it was like a brand new machine - opening apps and files, switching tasks, etc was much faster. Totally different experience.