Upgrading 2011 Macbook Pro HDD to SSD

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

so I am getting an old 2011 macbook pro from a friend, and I am going to use it for school. I currently have a 250gb 850 evo in my current laptop, but I am going to take it out and put it in the macbook. What do I have to do to erase my ssd completely before putting it into the mac? Also, how will I load software onto this ssd when it is in the macbook? Thanks!

 

[captaincharisma]

not sure if OSX does support SSD's yet. OSX can be very picky with hardware

 

[Kurz]

Update your macbook to the latest OS First, App Store El captain should be there.
http://diskmakerx.com/
Download that to your mac,
Hook up a 8 GB USB drive
Run DiskmakerX select the El Captain image, follow prompts.
Once that is done turn off the computer, swap out the harddrive for the SSD.
Then right after the Familiar Apple Bing hold down the Option Key
Select the USB drive (Should be Yellow)
It'll load up an install environment.
You'll see Install MacOS, DONT DO THIS YET
Go to Disk utility menu bar
Select the SSD and Select Delete partition.
Make sure you have Extended Journaled
Name the drive macOS
Complete that operation
Then go back to install prompt and install MacOS on the newly formated drive.
Enjoy the fast speed!

 

[Kurz]

Make sure you have a Hex Driver 5 or 6 I don't remember. So you can transfer the screws from the old drive to the ssd.

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

Update your macbook to the latest OS First, App Store El captain should be there.
http://diskmakerx.com/
Download that to your mac,
Hook up a 8 GB USB drive
Run DiskmakerX select the El Captain image, follow prompts.
Once that is done turn off the computer, swap out the harddrive for the SSD.
Then right after the Familiar Apple Bing hold down the Option Key
Select the USB drive (Should be Yellow)
It'll load up an install environment.
You'll see Install MacOS, DONT DO THIS YET
Go to Disk utility menu bar
Select the SSD and Select Delete partition.
Make sure you have Extended Journaled
Name the drive macOS
Complete that operation
Then go back to install prompt and install MacOS on the newly formated drive.
Enjoy the fast speed!

this helps so much!!!! I just have one question, what do you mean by "make sure you have extended journaled"... and so I dont have to delete anythign off of my ssd in my laptop right now? when i install it on the mac it will delete the data and format it into a mac one?

 

[BadAsAl]

Does the MacBook boot now and if so which version of OSX is on it?

Try booting while holding Command R or Option Command R after the chime, if it boots into recovery mode, this could be really simple. Let us know.

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

Does the MacBook boot now and if so which version of OSX is on it?

Try booting while holding Command R or Option Command R after the chime, if it boots into recovery mode, this could be really simple. Let us know.

I currently dont actually have the macbook, im getting it in a few days. I am just making sure of those few things before I get it so I know what to do

 

[Kurz]

What I mean by extended journaled is to select that when it asks you how you want to format the drive.

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

What I mean by extended journaled is to select that when it asks you how you want to format the drive.

ok sounds good. this seems alot simpler than I thought it would be! Thanks!

 

[Kurz]

What I mean by extended journaled is to select that when it asks you how you want to format the drive.

ok sounds good. this seems alot simpler than I thought it would be! Thanks!

DiskmakerX makes it a lot simpler thats for sure, doing it the long way is a pain in the ass.
If you like what they did donate.

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

What I mean by extended journaled is to select that when it asks you how you want to format the drive.

ok sounds good. this seems alot simpler than I thought it would be! Thanks!

DiskmakerX makes it a lot simpler thats for sure, doing it the long way is a pain in the ass.
If you like what they did donate.

sure thing! i'll post back here when I have the computer and am doing the process

 

[jsmithepa]

Don't MBs take a special kind of SSD?

 

[Kurz]

Don't MBs take a special kind of SSD?

When Macbook pros switch from 2.5inch drives to msata and m.2 solutions they did.
(You can't stick just any msata or m.2 SSD in them)

The 2011 uses the 2.5 inch drive, you can use any kind 2.5inch drive with them.
Highly recommend Intel, Samsung or Crucial though.

 

[BadAsAl]

In addition Apple used to not support 2.5" SSD's that were not "theirs", i.e. came from an Apple approved manufacturer. You used to have to mess around to get TRIM to work. Apple now supports TRIM on all SSD's in it's more recent OS's, you just have to run a command to enable it if it did not come from Apple.

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

Update your macbook to the latest OS First, App Store El captain should be there.
http://diskmakerx.com/
Download that to your mac,
Hook up a 8 GB USB drive
Run DiskmakerX select the El Captain image, follow prompts.
Once that is done turn off the computer, swap out the harddrive for the SSD.
Then right after the Familiar Apple Bing hold down the Option Key
Select the USB drive (Should be Yellow)
It'll load up an install environment.
You'll see Install MacOS, DONT DO THIS YET
Go to Disk utility menu bar
Select the SSD and Select Delete partition.
Make sure you have Extended Journaled
Name the drive macOS
Complete that operation
Then go back to install prompt and install MacOS on the newly formated drive.
Enjoy the fast speed!

turns out its actually a mid 2012 macbook pro (non retina) ... is it still the same process? Thanks!

 

[Kurz]

Update your macbook to the latest OS First, App Store El captain should be there.
http://diskmakerx.com/
Download that to your mac,
Hook up a 8 GB USB drive
Run DiskmakerX select the El Captain image, follow prompts.
Once that is done turn off the computer, swap out the harddrive for the SSD.
Then right after the Familiar Apple Bing hold down the Option Key
Select the USB drive (Should be Yellow)
It'll load up an install environment.
You'll see Install MacOS, DONT DO THIS YET
Go to Disk utility menu bar
Select the SSD and Select Delete partition.
Make sure you have Extended Journaled
Name the drive macOS
Complete that operation
Then go back to install prompt and install MacOS on the newly formated drive.
Enjoy the fast speed!

turns out its actually a mid 2012 macbook pro (non retina) ... is it still the same process? Thanks!

Yep still the same, it still has the 2.5 drive in there.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10378

OH I JUST LEARNED ABOUT THIS TODAY.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/06/latest-os-x-update-allows-you-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds/

HOW TO DO IT
http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/29/use-trimforce-trim-ssd-mac-os-x/

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

Update your macbook to the latest OS First, App Store El captain should be there.
http://diskmakerx.com/
Download that to your mac,
Hook up a 8 GB USB drive
Run DiskmakerX select the El Captain image, follow prompts.
Once that is done turn off the computer, swap out the harddrive for the SSD.
Then right after the Familiar Apple Bing hold down the Option Key
Select the USB drive (Should be Yellow)
It'll load up an install environment.
You'll see Install MacOS, DONT DO THIS YET
Go to Disk utility menu bar
Select the SSD and Select Delete partition.
Make sure you have Extended Journaled
Name the drive macOS
Complete that operation
Then go back to install prompt and install MacOS on the newly formated drive.
Enjoy the fast speed!

everything is sucessfull! only problem I had was when I was trying to use diskmaker and select the "application" I was selecting diskmaker itself, not the actual el capitan application. So I had to redownload el capitan, which took forever, then I did the process that you said, and it was done in under an hour

 

[deeznutsforpresident2016]

Don't MBs take a special kind of SSD?

nope. just put the 850 evo in and works like a charm

 

[Kurz]

Make sure to enable TRIM (Trim commands from the OS cleans up the SSD to preserve the speed of it)