Macbook Pro 2011 upgrade plan, advice appreciated
Hello!
So to cut the short backstory shorter I just thought I might as well upgrade my macbook (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i7-2.7- 13-early-2011-unibody-thunderbolt-specs.html) a bit more so I don't have to shell out on a new one in the near future. I would really appreciate a bit of guidance as I don't have loads of experience with this.
So currently I have 16GB of RAM but I'm now looking at upgrading to an SSD (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-500GB-2-5-inch-Basic-Solid/dp/B00E3W19MO/). Having done some research this seems the best value for its performance levels.
I'd install this in place of my current 500GB standard issue HDD currently in my Macbook and install this HDD in place of my Optical Disk Drive an adapter caddy thing (http://www.amazon.co.uk/caddy-MacBook-replaces-SuperDrive-enclosure/dp/B00A2VNUK 4/).
Then, to continue the game of musical drives, place the optical drive (or potentially a blue ray drive I purchase if I'm feeling lavish) in the external enclosure (above).
Right, so onto the bit I'm less sure about... After that's done I'd then use migration assistant/time machine (from external HHD - anyone have a rough idea how long a 200GB migration over USB 2.0 might take!?!) to put my OSX on the SSD using a Mavericks bootable USB. I would expand my 80GB Windows 7 partition on my HHD in the optical drive bay and be able to boot from that if I wished.
Does this all check out?
EdFr,
you won’t be able to boot from a Boot Camp partition from a disk in the optical bay; you can only boot from a Boot Camp partition on the disk in the disk bay.
Since you have an Early 2011 model, either a Thunderbolt connection or a FireWire 800 connection would give you faster transfer speeds than a USB 2.0 connection, if either of those ports are on your external disk enclosure. (A Thunderbolt connection would be fastest.)
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Macbook Pro 2011 running very slowly after upgrading to Mavericks
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Shortly after Mavericks became available I upgraded my wife's Macbook Pro 2011 to use the new OS version. Ever since then, the Macbook has been running noticeably slowly. In particular, Mail is almost unusuable taking minutes to open and showing long delays while moving around messages, folders, etc. Excel and Word are also much slower, Safari is slow, in fact just about everything is grinding.
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I have attached the Etrecheck output FYI
Thanks
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Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
4 GB RAM
Video Information:
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
System Software:
OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 0:5:25
Disk Information:
Hitachi HTS545050B9A302 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (361.28 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8
USB Information:
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Kernel Extensions:
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
Launch Agents:
User Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
Dropbox
Internet Plug-ins:
LogMeInSafari64: Version: 1.0.730 3rd-Party support link
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 6.0 3rd-Party support link
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 3rd-Party support link
Silverlight: Version: 4.0.50401.0 3rd-Party support link
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
LogMeIn: Version: 1.0.730 3rd-Party support link
Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
LogMeInSafari32: Version: 1.0.730 3rd-Party support link
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.8.0 - SDK 10.9 Outdated! Update
Audio Plug-ins:
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
Flash Player 3rd-Party support link
Bad Fonts:
None
Old Applications:
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0
Microsoft Error Reporting: Version: 2.2.9 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft Ship Asserts: Version: 1.1.4 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
SuperDuper!: Version: 2.7.1 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
Microsoft AutoUpdate: Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app
Time Machine:
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
7% Safari
6% Dropbox
5% WindowServer
3% hidd
2% com.apple.WebKit.Networking
Top Processes by Memory:
119 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent
106 MB Safari
94 MB Finder
94 MB Dropbox
94 MB Mail
Virtual Memory Information:
1.26 GB Free RAM
1.44 GB Active RAM
311 MB Inactive RAM
1014 MB Wired RAM
251 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outsLaunch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. -
Ram upgrade for macbook pro 2011
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I'm happy to be corrected on this by someone who's more au fait with the legalese, but an upgraded OS is tied to an AppleID whereas the original OS is tied to the computer, not an AppleID.
My guess is, that if you launched the Recovery HD, erased the drive using Disk Utility and re-installed the OS, Lion would be installed.
Be interesting to see what others say. -
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Hi,
I have the old MacBook Pro. Upgraded to Mountain Lion which completely wrecked the system. So downgraded to Snow Leopard.
Then updated the combo update. Now stuck on blue screen at start-up.
Need help. Greatly appreciated. Thank you.Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer
loads select your language and click on the Continue
button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the
Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then
the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART
info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on
the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files. -
Hello
I have a macbook pro 2011 13" that came with OS Lion (integrated not on a disk). I recently bought OS Mountain Lion of the app store and it is working fine. However I was a bit dissapointed in the battery so I decided to try and downgrade and completely failed, I froze the computer and when I restarted it it did not work. I went into recovery system and erased my disk and all that and went to re-download my OS. I was expecting to get the option to re-download Lion but instead I could only re-download Mountain Lion.
My question is since my computer originally came with Lion can I reset my computer so I get OS Lion back instead of OS Mountain Lion?
Thanks for any help. Any answer will be appreciated even if it is saying it is not possible.Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Kappy, a pretty wonderful and very knowledgeable man, has tip for that which I have copied and pasted above -
Macbook Pro 2011 won't turn on (RAM issue?)
(Macbook pro 2011) I had water damage so I sent in to apple for a complete makeover and they pretty much replaced everything. The laptop seemed to be working fine but the issue is that when I put my laptop to sleep / turn off it won't turn back on. I haven't had the time to take my laptop back to the apple store due to projects / travelling. I've found that there is one quick fix, manually resetting the ram by taking the RAM chips out for a second then re-inserting them. The other way is to hold Command+Option+P+R 3 times before reboot and that'll work temporarily for a day maybe. I plan on taking it to the apple store in a day or so if the problem doesn't resolve itself. Do you guys have any suggestions?
Thanks,Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Also see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless. -
Can I install windows 7 on a second internal drive on a macbook pro 2011?
Can I install windows 7 on a second internal drive on a macbook pro 2011? I have 2 500 gb. SSD drives in my 2011 MacBook Pro. My plan was to install windows 7 on the 2nd drive. I'm new at owning Macs so I have had Windows on main drive using bootcamp but I wanted to speed up my 17" Mac so I maxed out the memory and added the SSD drives. Thinking I could put the 2 operating systems on seperate drives I bought to 2 SSD's. Is there any way to do this. So far I have drawn a blank. Any ideas?
Yes. Just install Windows onto it without using the Boot Camp Assistant to partition it.
(124769) -
How to install operating system on new hard drive without installation disc on macbook pro 2011
My macbook pro 2011 does not come with a recovery disc or any disc at all, my hard drive recently failed and i have no backup. i have replaced the hard drive but don't know how to install the operating system on the new hard drive.
If it originally shipped with 10.7 or newer, connect the computer to the Internet and start it up with the Option, Command, and R keys held down. You'll be able to install an OS.
If it shipped with 10.6.8 or earlier and wasn't upgraded to use Apple's Internet Recovery system, phone AppleCare and order the disks.
(109822) -
Display issue - My macbook pro 2011 detects my display but does not display an image
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I have tried-
Installing the latest firmware and software updates
restarting both the computer and monitor
trying all of the possible display arrangements and settings for resolution and refresh rates
Also I am connected using a minidisplay to DVI adaptor in the thunderbolt port.
Any and all suggestions appreciated.
thanks.Hello Aminetti,
It sounds like your computer goes to sleep, and will not wake up, so you must manually restart your computer. I recommend the troubleshooting in the following article:
OS X: When your Mac doesn't sleep or wake
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5357
Reset SMC
Reset NVRAM/PRAM
Test with external devices disconnected
Try Safe Mode
Try another user account
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sterling -
How do I permanently erase my entire MacBook Pro 2011?
I am giving my Mac to somebody and don't want any recoverable traces of me to be on my computer. It's a MacBook Pro 2011 13" but it has Yosemite 10.10.1
Before Selling or Giving Away Your Pre-Lion Mac
Deauthorize your computer from iTunes, if applicable.
Back up your data using Time Machine or other backup methods for OS X Mavericks or Mountain Lion.
If you use Find My Mac or other iCloud features on this Mac, complete these steps:
Back up your iCloud content.
Choose Apple Menu () > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
Deselect the Find My Mac checkbox.
Sign out of iCloud. When you sign out of iCloud, you're asked whether you want to remove iCloud data from your Mac. Removing iCloud data in this way makes sure that the data isn't also removed from any of your other devices that are using the same iCloud account.
If you're using OS X Mountain Lion v10.8 or later, sign out of iMessage:
In the Messages app, choose Preferences > Accounts
Select your iMessage account, then click Sign Out.
5. Follow these steps for installing the original version of OS that came with the computer.
1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After Disk Utility loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and
drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
(Journaled), then click on the Apply button.
3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
4. If you are planning to sell or give your computer away, then do the following:
After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a
Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave
the Mac in an out-of-box state, don't continue with the setup of your system. Instead,
press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac,
the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.
Note: Portions of the above have been copied from What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support. -
Is it ok to turn off my macbook pro 2011
I would like to know if its ok to turn off my macbook pro 2011 every time its not in use , and its not connect to a power source .
It's ok to turn off your macbook if you're not using it for a period of time. Just make sure the battery is not fully discharged when you do so.
I turn my off when i know i won't be using it for the day.
You can however, just close your lid if you plan on using your macbook a few hours later. -
My Macbook pro 2011 suddenly has a really slow bootup. What can I do?
My Macbook pro 2011 suddenly has a really slow bootup. What can I do? I did install a cannon printer upgrade and security upgrade. Not sure if it was something to do with that. Also I tried the disk utility repair and didn't improve anything. I also reset PRAM and SMC.
1. Try booting in e Verbose mode - press and hold [cmd] + [v] keys just right after the boot chord sounds till you get a black screen and white letters.
if there are some delays in the boot process - you should see where the system is stuck.
this mode is not permanent - the next [re-] boot will be normal.
2. repair permissions. disk utility does fine. Disk Warrior is better.
sometimes after half done updates (it may happen though should not) there are items that are "belonging to someone else"
3. try cache cleaner (or there are some other utilities as well - I just like SlCC more) http://www.northernsoftworks.com/snowleopardcachecleaner.html - it's shareware though the basic functionality is free for you to use.
Try caches -> deep cleaning (please read the developers site what it does) and select checkmark at all options - reply yes to the requests and after a reboot the next reboot should be as it is intended.
p.s be sure you do have backup -
Crysis 2 on MacBook Pro 2011 13,3" core i7?
Can i run Crysis 2 on my Macbook Pro in high definition? How many fps? I have a 2,7 ghz core i7 2011 Macbook Pro 2011.
Can I change the Intel 3000 HD? Can i Install the amd radeon hd 6000?
Thanks in advance!!No, sadly it is not practical or possible to install a replacment gpu in a macbook pro. If you really need to play games, than you should purchace an imac or a 15" macbook pro with the upgraded gpu.
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