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    Getting a New SSD for MacBookPro Early 2011 - Got questions

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by torrenttaker, Aug 20, 2012.

  1. torrenttaker

    torrenttaker Notebook Enthusiast

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    1. Will anything go wrong with installation? Anything i need to do or any prerequisite software before adding a new SSD?

    2. What happens to my replaced HDD? Can i still use it as storage and how?

    3. Will all my original HDD software be deleted when going to replace SSD?

    Thanks all
     
    torrenttaker, Aug 20, 2012
    #1
  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    1) Which SSD model are you considering?

    2) You can buy a 2.5" USB hard drive enclosure and access the data on it by plugging it in via USB.

    3) It won't be deleted. It will remain on the HDD. You need to copy the data from the HDD to SSD or otherwise reinstall OS X on the SSD. I can't go into specifics as I'm not familiar with OS X.
     
    namaiki, Aug 20, 2012
    #2
  3. Karamazovmm

    Karamazovmm Overthinking? Always!

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    3) all your original files will stay on the HDD, you can transfer the software by time machine back ups, or cloning the HDD, I dislike both and install things the old way, i.e. downloading/using cd/dvds.

    To install OSX depends if you are using snow leopard or lion, for the former you have already the dvds that came with your notebook, for the latter you can simply download lion, when the grey screen appears press alt/option and enter the internet recovery mode, i.e. click on the globe it will download and install OSX. You can also go to your appstore account and download lion there and put into a usb thumb drive, there are instruction around the web on how to
     
    Karamazovmm, Aug 20, 2012
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  4. torrenttaker

    torrenttaker Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello, thanks for the quick reply. Will a SATA to USB be useful as a storage drive? I'm scared to try the optical disk bay stuff as hard drive.
     
    torrenttaker, Aug 21, 2012
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  5. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    It can so long as the hard drive has a proper enclosure. You don't want your HDD sitting out in the open. Just make sure that you have a nice backup of your system with the original HDD in it. Back when I installed an SSD in my MBP, I used Time Machine to perform the task. It was painless, really easy, and everything was transferred over without issues. I booted into Lion from the internet and instructed it to restore everything from a previously made Time Machine backup. It found the external hard drive I use for this, let me select the date (since there were many Time Machine backups on there), and started restoring everything automatically. The old fashioned method of manually installing the OS and all original programs is... Well, it is old fashioned. To me, that takes way too much effort especially when there is a nice program built into OS X that can handle that (and more).
     
    kornchild2002, Aug 21, 2012
    #5