How I changed the SSD in a MacBook Pro to an inexpensive, but capacious and fast one. Replacing HDD with fast SSD in Apple MacBook Pro

It won't be superfluous disk space. There will always be something to fill it with.

Apple offers custom configuration options for its laptops and desktops with increased RAM/HDD/SSD capacity, but charges twice as much for the components as they cost if you buy them yourself. In addition, in Russian and Ukrainian realities, ordering a custom configuration costs a pretty penny, in addition to the increased cost of “branded” hardware. Although, it is the same branded one as bought in any famous company, trading computer components. Is it better tested and contains latest version Firmare, which is important in the case of an SSD, but more on that later.

In any case, if in the USA a HDD upgrade costs $100, then in Russia or Ukraine it will cost all of $150, or even $200, as part of ordering an individual PC configuration. The conclusion is simple - in the case of a MacBook or MacBook Pro It is much cheaper to change the equipment yourself. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the MacBook Air. It has RAM soldered into motherboard, and an SSD of this format is difficult to find on sale for reasonable money, plus a special and rare screwdriver is required for disassembly - Pentalobe (5-petal flower). Today I would like to talk about replacing the drive in a MacBook Pro, I’ll go a little through upgrading RAM and methods quick transfer personal data from the old HDD/SSD to the new one.

A clone is better than a backup

The test subject is a 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2011. “Lion”, aka OS X, has already settled on it, but I have not yet switched to using it, Snow Leopard is enough, plus this is a temporary laptop for me, provided by a good friend until the ordered one arrives latest generation. That is, it is not advisable to somehow change the composition of the software on its HDD, so that if necessary, everything can be quickly returned to its original form. Thus, we will start upgrading the drive, one might say, from the end - with the transfer of personal data. This will save significant time.

On Windows platform For full cloning system and other partitions exist third party utilities, although in Windows 7 such a function was already built into the system. In Mac OS X, the standard Disk Utility was able to do this from the very first releases. Moreover, everything is implemented very simply, even a beginner will understand. The only problem may arise when connecting a built-in 2.5-inch drive to the laptop via USB. There are several options for solving it. I used the external HDD pocket shown in the photo above, and a proprietary hard drive inherited from the old MacBok Pro, and decided to work with it instead of the temporary laptop drive. An external pocket is a relatively inexpensive thing and useful for storing media content on capacious hard drives, instead of optical disks. In terms of price per gigabyte, HDDs are already approaching DVDs. You can also unscrew old usb drive and use its filling. On the other hand, some devices of this kind can be easily disassembled, and you won’t have to break anything. Last method not very convenient, but possible and, in principle, it will still be simpler than standard procedure data transfer when changing internal storage which we will talk about later.

Use standard external USB drive sufficient capacity - a clone is made of it system partition, then the HDD in the laptop is changed, the device is assembled and turned on with the Alt (Option) button held down, after which the choice of volume to boot will appear. Naturally, it is indicated external storage. After the system boots from it, using “Disk Utility” you can reverse operation cloning. In addition, all this can be done if you have a Mac OS X boot disk. If you boot from it, you will also be able to run “ Disk Utility» (located in the utilities section, in top menu) and carry out all the same operations as in the OS X environment.

Pay attention to the screenshot above. It clearly shows what needs to be done to completely clone the system partition. In particular, you should launch “Disk Utility”, select any drive and go to the “Recover” section. In the “Source” field, using the Drag-and-drop method, the current system partition is dragged - a clone will be made from it; in the “Destination” field, a new drive is dragged if it was connected via USB, or any external HDD, but remember that all data on it will be deleted. That is, it is worth taking care of their preservation in advance. It is imperative to check the “Clear destination” item, which involves not simply deleting data (if any), but also formatting the partition in in the required format(Mac OS Extended (Journaled)). After everything is selected, click the “Restore” button. In my case, about 100 GB of data was overwritten a little more than an hour, although the system initially indicated that it would take all of three hours.

Naturally, all these operations are carried out similarly with an SSD, if the user decides to install this type of drive instead of an HDD. By the way, the right decision - the increase in performance is huge and much more noticeable than increasing RAM from 4 to 8 GB. The only caveat is that you may have to update SSD firmware to implement support for the TRIM command. It was originally present in Windows 7, and appeared in Mac OS X starting with the release 10.6.8. Very useful for solid state drives a command that allows you to avoid a significant decrease in device performance when it is full and long-term use. In general, before installing an SSD, I would like to advise you to first read thematic forums and decide on the model. One of best options Intel offers it on the market.

RAM is easy to expand

Well, the drive is ready, it's time to disassemble the laptop. I recommend placing it upside down on something soft - a microfiber cloth or a neoprene case, as in my case. To remove the cover, you will need a Philips 0 screwdriver. The bolts take some effort to unscrew, as they contain a sealant (blue blots on the thread). As you remove them, it is advisable to arrange them on the table in the same pattern as they are located in the laptop, since there are several parts that differ in length.

The bottom cover may not give in the first time - it fits very tightly and accurately. Brute force There is no need to use it, just gently pull it up from the side of the display hinge. As a result, the following picture will appear:

In the 13-inch model everything is very similar, except that there is only one fan. There is access to the HDD and RAM too. Before getting into the inside of the computer, it is necessary to remove the static charge from the body so as not to damage the delicate electronic components. You can touch a metal part inside the laptop, such as the case optical drive, or touch the metal faucet in the bathroom or kitchen. If you want to change the memory, just move the antennae along the edges of the slot, the RAM strips will rise on their own and will be easy to remove. Install the new ones carefully and tightly: insert the bar at an angle into the connector (the angle is the same as when removing the part), slightly press forward so that it fits into it, then lower the RAM down until it clicks. Make sure that the latches end up directly opposite the corresponding cutouts in the memory strips. I personally came across a situation where a person simply did not insert the RAM into the slot, but was able to put it in horizontal position. Actually put the slats on top. The result was expected, the PC did not start without RAM. Although it was in Mac mini, but the design of connectors and fasteners for random access memory there is identical to that in the laptop.

I will add that Apple previously recommended disconnecting the battery when replacing components, although this was at a time when laptops were supplied removable battery(models produced up to and including 2008). You can disconnect the power connector now, as I did when I changed the HDD and RAM in 2009 in my new 13-inch Proshka at that time, but, as practice has shown, this is unnecessary. Yes and in official instructions There are no instructions on this matter. Good friend is a technical specialist at an official reseller Apple technology, and without disconnecting the battery, they replaced dozens of memory sticks and drives, no problems arose, the main thing is not to forget to completely turn off the laptop before doing this, and not put it into sleep mode, and also remove the static charge.

There is a little more hassle with the storage device

Now let's move on to the HDD. It is not screwed tightly to the laptop, but lies in a special seat. To remove the drive, unscrew the plastic strip at the edge of the drive (on the optical drive side). A Philips 0 screwdriver is also used.

After this, you need to pull the strap and carefully remove the drive, disconnect the connector - it can be easily removed.

There are four bolts with a Torx 6 head screwed into the sides of the HDD. You should take care in advance to look for such a screwdriver or attachment, since you won’t be able to pick them out with a small flat or Phillips head, the bolts are tightly seated. We unscrew them from the old drive, screw them to the new one, everything is simple.

The plastic strap can be re-glued onto new HDD or SSD - it will easily endure a dozen such operations without losing its adhesive properties.

After that, we connect the connector in place, place the HDD in its mounting bed and screw on the plastic strip. Well, here you go, everything is ready:

As the saying goes, better time to see it live is better than to read it 100 times, so I suggest watching a video of the entire process filmed by a foreign colleague with the nickname JaymarkTech:

Pay attention to the bottom cover; dust may collect on it and should be removed.

If the system partition was cloned to the new drive in advance, then you can turn on the laptop and enjoy the update. Otherwise you will have to use boot disk Mac OS X and a Time Machine backup (or the USB drive option described above). The procedure is simple, but takes longer than cloning a system partition through Disk Utility.

You should boot from the installation system disk, run Disk Utility, split the drive into partitions if you wish, or use one partition and format it in Mac format OS Extended (journaled). After this you can start Mac installation OS X. Then it is advisable to install everything system updates through the “Software Update” function and you can roll up a Time Machine backup. In the case of OS X Lion, loading (similarly, via holding down the Alt button) is performed from a pre-created one on any flash drive hidden section. For this there is a proprietary free program Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Next, the system is installed from Mac App Store, that is, you need an Internet connection to download about 3.5 GB of data. As a result, a planned restoration follows from backup copy, as described above. But it’s still easier to clone the disk first than to tinker with manual installation OS and data transfer from backup copies of Time Machine.

That's all, actually. There is nothing complicated about this - try it, and you, dear readers, will definitely succeed.

Hard drives in computers have long become the bottleneck that slows down the work of all other high-performance components. This is especially noticeable in laptops which, as a rule, are installed with the slowest hard disks with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm. The lifeline in solving this problem was the use of semiconductor drives operating on the principle of Flash memory - SSD drives. WITH mass availability similar devices users were immediately puzzled by the question of how to install an SSD drive in a laptop in general and in a MacBook Pro in particular?

First, a little about the discs themselves. SSD (in English Solid State Drive) translated means solid state storage. Compares favorably with all modern hard magnetic disks are first of all very high speed for reading and writing, which significantly increases the performance of the computer. And this is not their only advantage. To the advantages SSD drives The following can also be included:

no moving mechanical parts;
increased resistance to mechanical stress (shocks, shocks, vibrations);
absolute silence during operation;
wide operating temperature range;
high potential for read and write speeds, which is still limited by the capabilities of the interface used (SATA I - 1.5 Gb/s, SATA II - 3.0 Gb/s and SATA III - 6.0 Gb/s).

There were some shortcomings, some very significant ones at that. They are as follows:

The flash memory used in SSD drives has limited number cycles of rewriting information into memory cells, which forces users to configure computers in a special way to work with these disks in order to extend their life;
the operating speed of SSD disks is not constant and decreases significantly if the disk is filled with information to more than 70-80 percent of its total capacity;
disks of this type significantly more expensive than usual hard drives with a smaller volume;
SSD drives cannot yet approach the reliability of storage devices on magnetic disks, which necessitates mandatory Reserve copy information.

But, advantages are advantages, disadvantages are disadvantages, and when installing such disks, computers are truly transformed. The loading speed of the operating system increases, the speed of launching “heavy” programs decreases, and working on the computer becomes very pleasant. Therefore, everyone who has heard about the benefits of these disks is eager to purchase them and install them on their computers or laptops.

The process of installing an SSD drive in a MacBook Pro.
In order to replace a disk in a MacBook Pro, we will need the following tools:

Phillips screwdriver (size 0).
Phillips screwdriver (size 2).
Torx star screwdriver (T6).

If your built-in Time Machine information backup system does not work, from which, after replacing hard drive it is very convenient to restore all information, you first need to clone HDD. You can do this using an external USB drive pocket and the Carbon Copy Cloner program. After that, we proceed with the replacement itself.

Thus, replacement of hard disk in a MacBook Pro is not much more difficult than increasing the amount of RAM in it. To make the whole process clearer, we attach a video demonstrating all the steps described above.

Apple Favorite company provides a wide range of repair services for Apple equipment, including replacement SSD MacBook Air. We will help you implement prompt replacement V as soon as possible, thanks to special tools and highly qualified specialists. Service center engineers have the necessary skills to successfully replace the SSD on a MacBook Pro.

Professional and high quality SSD repair MacBook in Moscow is only possible with us. We will carry out a thorough diagnostics of the equipment, which will help identify the real reason malfunctions.

Modern equipment and professional tools will allow you to do this as quickly as possible. After diagnosis, a plan is drawn up repair work, and accordingly their terms and cost of replacement are indicated. We can assure you that SSD replacement MacBook drive will be inexpensive, you can verify this by reading the price list of the service. We are trying to reduce prices thanks to constant search new suppliers with quality spare parts.

Replacing SSD MacBook Air | about | a retina may be needed if the device falls or short circuit. This can be understood by the following signs:

● If operating system ;
● It doesn't turn on at all;
● In case you cannot open the file; it constantly throws an error;

Repairing a broken SSD in a MacBook on Kurskaya

Replacement ssd disk on a MacBook Pro is done efficiently and professionally by service specialists. We can brag modern equipment and a good supply of all spare parts and components, so there is no need to order in advance and wait a long time. At first glance it seems that replacing the SSD MacBook Air in Moscow this is a simple procedure.

But if you have never disassembled this device, then it is better to entrust the replacement to professionals, since this technique has some features. Now many people prefer to contact us, because we carry out repairs and replacements in the shortest possible time. We have a convenient work schedule and a full warehouse of spare parts; we carry out work with the motto “promptly and efficiently.” Also service center provides each client with a guarantee for work and spare parts, qualified repairs and quality services.

Work process Apple Favorite is simple: first you need to leave a request to call a courier or bring the equipment to the center yourself, then we carry out diagnostics that will show the final cost and timing of the work.

After your approval, we begin repairs and issue a guarantee for all work performed.

It’s hardly worth talking about the advantages of SSDs over conventional hard drives. HDD drives. MacBook users Those who installed SSD drives appreciated the performance of these devices. But, as it turned out, even with such a simple intervention in MacBook device When replacing a hard drive, you may encounter a serious problem that requires qualified intervention. Mac OS, unlike Windows, does not automatically enable the TRIM command for installed SSDs disks. TRIM works by default only if the laptop came with an SSD.

TRIM - what is it?

TRIM is an important command sent by drivers responsible for operating file system, own controller SSD drive when deleting a file. Upon receiving TRIM, the controller determines information that the user no longer needs and frees memory blocks from it, thereby clearing space for new files. Memory blocks of a solid-state drive are rewritten as quickly as those of an HDD, which uses a slightly different rewriting principle - data is written over old information. Unfortunately, not every operating system supports the TRIM command without the appropriate settings - usually the user realizes that something went wrong after installing the SSD, when trying to work with the new drive.

How to tell if the TRIM command is working

When replacing an HDD with an SSD, it doesn't hurt to know in advance whether the TRIM command is supported by default or needs to be enabled separately. It is defined like this:

Click apple icon on the screen at the top left and in the menu that appears, select "About This Mac"
Choose "System Report";
IN open window on the left we find the position "Hardware" and further " SATA/SATA Express";
We use scrolling on the right until we see the item “ TRIM support";
If we see “Yes” opposite this point, then everything is in order, and if “No”, then TRIM function needs to be launched.

Launch TRIM on MacBook

To enable TRIM on a MacBook, you first need to make sure that you are logged in with device administrator privileges.

Open the application " Terminal«;
Enter in command line sudo trimforce enable,Enter;
We use the current password used in this moment account and Enter again;
When prompted by the system, confirm your choice by entering “y” and pressing Enter;
We give the go-ahead to restart the laptop by selecting “y” again and confirming Enter.

After all the above steps, the device will reboot and the work of connecting TRIM in your MacBook can be considered completed. Just in case, look again at " System report" and make sure that opposite " TRIM support" Now the confirmation is “Yes”. Now you can safely replace HDD with SSD in MacBook, without fear that the drive will not work correctly.

So there will be no excess disk space. There will always be something to fill it with.

Apple offers custom configuration options for its laptops and desktops with increased RAM/HDD/SSD capacity, but charges twice as much for the components as they cost if you buy them yourself. In addition, in Russian and Ukrainian realities, ordering a custom configuration costs a pretty penny, in addition to the increased cost of “branded” hardware. Although, it is the same branded one as purchased from any well-known company that sells computer components. Is it better tested and contains the latest version of Firmare, which is important in the case of an SSD, but more on that later.

In any case, if in the USA a HDD upgrade costs $100, then in Russia or Ukraine it will cost all of $150, or even $200, as part of ordering an individual PC configuration. The conclusion is simple - in the case of a MacBook or MacBook Pro, it is much cheaper to change the equipment yourself. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the MacBook Air. In it, the RAM is soldered into the motherboard, and an SSD of this format is difficult to find on sale for reasonable money, plus a special and rare screwdriver is required for disassembly - Pentalobe (5-petal flower). Today I would like to talk about replacing the drive in a MacBook Pro, I’ll talk a little about upgrading RAM and ways to quickly transfer personal data from an old HDD/SSD to a new one.

A clone is better than a backup

The test subject is a 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2011. “Lion”, aka OS X, has already settled on it, but I have not yet switched to using it, Snow Leopard is enough, plus this is a temporary laptop for me, provided by a good friend until the latest generation one I ordered arrives. That is, it is not advisable to somehow change the composition of the software on its HDD, so that if necessary, everything can be quickly returned to its original form. Thus, we will start upgrading the drive, one might say, from the end - with the transfer of personal data. This will save significant time.

On the Windows platform, there are third-party utilities for complete cloning of the system and other partitions, although in Windows 7 such a function was already built into the system. In Mac OS X, the standard Disk Utility was able to do this from the very first releases. Moreover, everything is implemented very simply, even a beginner will understand. The only problem may arise when connecting a built-in 2.5-inch drive to the laptop via USB. There are several options for solving it. I used the external HDD pocket shown in the photo above, and a proprietary hard drive inherited from the old MacBok Pro, and decided to work with it instead of the temporary laptop drive. An external pocket is a relatively inexpensive thing and is useful in households for storing media content on capacious hard drives, instead of optical disks. In terms of price per gigabyte, HDDs are already approaching DVDs. You can also tear up an old USB drive and use its contents. On the other hand, some devices of this kind can be easily disassembled, and you won’t have to break anything. The last method is not very convenient, but it is possible and, in principle, it will still be simpler than the standard procedure for transferring data when changing the internal drive, which we will talk about later.

A standard external USB drive of sufficient capacity is used - a clone of the system partition is made on it, then the HDD in the laptop is changed, the device is assembled and turned on with the Alt (Option) button held down, after which the choice of volume to boot will appear. Naturally, an external drive is indicated. After the system boots from it, the reverse cloning operation is performed using Disk Utility. In addition, all this can be done if you have a Mac OS X boot disk. If you boot from it, you will also be able to launch “Disk Utility” (located in the utilities section, in the top menu) and carry out all the same operations as in the environment OS X

Pay attention to the screenshot above. It clearly shows what needs to be done to completely clone the system partition. In particular, you should launch “Disk Utility”, select any drive and go to the “Recover” section. In the “Source” field, using the Drag-and-drop method, the current system partition is dragged - a clone will be made from it; in the “Destination” field, a new drive is dragged if it was connected via USB, or any external HDD, but it should be remembered that all data on it will be deleted. That is, it is worth taking care of their preservation in advance. It is imperative to check the “Clear destination” option, which involves not simply deleting data (if any), but also formatting the partition in the desired format (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)). After everything is selected, click the “Restore” button. In my case, about 100 GB of data was copied in just over an hour, although the system initially indicated that it would take all of three hours.

Naturally, all these operations are carried out similarly with an SSD, if the user decides to install this type of drive instead of an HDD. By the way, the right decision - the increase in performance is huge and much more noticeable than increasing RAM from 4 to 8 GB. The only caveat is that you may have to update the SSD firmware to implement support for the TRIM command. It was originally present in Windows 7, and appeared in Mac OS X starting with the release 10.6.8. A very useful command for solid-state drives, which allows you to avoid a significant decrease in device performance when it is full and used for a long time. In general, before installing an SSD, I would like to advise you to first read thematic forums and decide on the model. Intel offers some of the best options on the market.

RAM is easy to expand

The bottom cover may not give in the first time - it fits very tightly and accurately. You should not use brute force; just gently pull it up from the side of the display hinge. As a result, the following picture will appear:

In the 13-inch model everything is very similar, except that there is only one fan. There is access to the HDD and RAM too. Before getting into the inside of a computer, it is necessary to remove static charge from the body so as not to damage delicate electronic components. You can touch a metal part inside the laptop, such as the optical drive housing, or touch a metal faucet in the bathroom or kitchen. If you want to change the memory, just move the antennae along the edges of the slot, the RAM strips will rise on their own and will be easy to remove. Install the new ones carefully and tightly: insert the bar at an angle into the connector (the angle is the same as when removing the part), slightly press forward so that it fits into it, then lower the RAM down until it clicks. Make sure that the latches end up directly opposite the corresponding cutouts in the memory strips. I personally came across a situation where a person simply did not insert the RAM into the slot, but was able to lower it to a horizontal position. Actually put the slats on top. The result was expected, the PC did not start without RAM. Although this was in the Mac mini, the design of the connectors and fasteners for RAM there is identical to that in a laptop.

I will add that Apple previously recommended disconnecting the battery when replacing components, although this was at a time when laptops were equipped with a removable battery (models produced before 2008 inclusive). You can disconnect the power connector now, as I did when I changed the HDD and RAM in 2009 in my new 13-inch Proshka at that time, but, as practice has shown, this is unnecessary. And there are no instructions in this regard in the official instructions. A good friend is a technician at an official reseller of Apple equipment, and without disconnecting the battery, he replaced dozens of memory sticks and drives, no problems arose, the main thing is to remember to completely turn off the laptop before doing this, and not put it into sleep mode, and also remove the static charge.

There is a little more hassle with the storage device

After this, you need to pull the strap and carefully remove the drive, disconnect the connector - it can be easily removed.

The plastic strap can be re-glued onto a new HDD or SSD - it can easily withstand a dozen such operations without losing its adhesive properties.

After that, we connect the connector in place, place the HDD in its mounting bed and screw on the plastic strip. Well, here you go, everything is ready:

As they say, it’s better to see it live once than to read it 100 times, so I suggest watching a video of the entire process filmed by a foreign colleague with the nickname JaymarkTech:

Pay attention to the bottom cover; dust may collect on it and should be removed.

If the system partition was cloned to the new drive in advance, then you can turn on the laptop and enjoy the update. Otherwise you will have to use bootloader Mac disk OS X and a Time Machine backup (or the USB drive option described above). The procedure is simple, but takes longer than cloning a system partition through Disk Utility.

You should boot from the installation system disk, run Disk Utility, split the drive into partitions if you wish, or use one partition and format it in Mac OS Extended (journaled) format. After this, you can begin installing Mac OS X. Then it is advisable to install all system updates through the “Software Update” function and you can roll up a Time Machine backup. In the case of OS X Lion, loading (similarly, via holding down the Alt button) is performed from a hidden partition previously created on any flash drive. For this purpose there is a proprietary free program Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Next, the system is installed from Mac App Store, that is, an Internet connection is required to download about 3.5 GB of data. As a result, a planned restoration from a backup follows, as described above. But, it’s still easier to clone the disk first than to mess around with manually installing the OS and transferring data from a Time Machine backup.

That's all, actually. There is nothing complicated about this - try it, and you, dear readers, will definitely succeed.