Swapping HDD for SSD

I'm thinking about buying a 17" MacBook Pro and am having difficulty deciding between a 320GB 7,200 RPM drive or the 128 GB SSD. I don't really know if the 128 GB SSD will make huge amounts of difference for the cost, so I'm wondering if it's possible to buy the 320 GB for now and then upgrade later. Would this be easy to do or would there be different connectors involved?
Apologies if this has been asked before -- I couldn't find an answer.

Hi.
It appears that Apple authorizes memory and hard drive swap on unibody MacBook Pros and the procedure seems very easy (it was not so for previous MacBook Pro, or iBooks).
You can find it on the MacBook Pro support page.
Physically, SSDs are the same as standard hard disks. So as long as you choose a 2.5" SATA SSD (with the correct height, but I believe that they all are 9.5mm high, which is the standard for notebook HDDs), you will be OK.
So go ahead with the standard HDD and upgrade to a SSD when you want.
At this time, you will be able to copy the content of your old drive to the new one (as long as it fits ...) by placing it in a USB enclosure, using a free program called Carbon Copy Cloner. You will need another drive (or another Mac) as startup disk.
H
Hops this helps,
Jérôme.

Similar Messages

Satellite S50T-B - Adding RAM and swapping HDD for SSD

HI there,
I have recently purchased the Satelitte S50t-B laptop and have a few question about upgrading:
1. What is the recommended RAM to add (8GB)
2. What is the recommended SSD to add?
3. Are there any instructions to add RAM and an SSD to my laptop?
4. Will I void my warranty by installing more RAM and swapping the current hard drive for an SSD?
Thank you for your help

This notebook is listed on Toshiba page:
http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/products/computers/satellite/s50/pspq8a-008008/specifications
- What is the recommended RAM to add (8GB)
The unit supports 16GB RAM, so you can add an second PC3-12800 8GB DDR3L (1600Mhz) SO-DIMM module (i.e PA5104U-1M8G)
- 2. What is the recommended SSD to add?
Its up to you there are different SSD drive on the market and most of the 2.5 SATA SSD drives should be compatible.
- 3. Are there any instructions to add RAM and an SSD to my laptop?
It looks like both parts (RAM as well as SSD/HDD) are not user upgradable since there is no separate access to the memory or HDD bay. This means that whole plastic cover at the bottom of the unit needs to be remove in order to get access to these part.
But as far as I know this would cancel the device warranty!!!
- 4. Will I void my warranty by installing more RAM and swapping the current hard drive for an SSD?
If you want to keep the warranty valid, such upgrade should be performed by authorized engineer.

Purchased Y510P - Need to swap HDD for SSD, Windows 8 Install

Hi everyone,
I've just ordered a Y510P which is on its way to me. I love the specs, except I want a decent sized SSD in it instead of the 1tb HDD.
I'd like to know how I can perform a clean install of Windows 8 on the SSD, and utilize the product key assigned to the system. The large majority of win8 laptops I've worked with do not include a product key sticker anymore, and I do not want to utilize whatever recovery tool lenovo has, as the recovery tools tend to include additional software I'm not interested in having on the laptop.
Can someone point me in the direction of the best way to accomplish a clean install on a replacement drive and still be able to utilize the windows 8 key assigned to the PC?
Thanks in advance.

xlim3y:
You could first extract your OEM product key (search Belarc Advisor) and then follow the instructions at the link below to download the .iso (Windows 8 or 8.1). Read the comments following the article as you may need to use a temporary placeholder key to commplete the install and would then activate Windows with your extracted product key. (http://www.neowin.net/news/here-is-how-to-get-the-windows-81-iso-and-create-a-usb-install-stick)
-PFM

Changing HDD for SSD QUESTION (U410)

Is any data held on the 500GB drive at time of reset?
Basically my question is, can I simply swap the 500gb HDD for a 250gb SSD without problems of so when I reset the Windows8 install etc will work as usual?
I will use the one click recovery button, and reset everything, except this time on the 250gb SSD.
HELP?

hi shoutingdog,
Welcome to Lenovo Community Forums!
First Before you change any setting or setup,
Create a backupdrive first of your WIndows 8 using this Method and let's Name that as your Repair Image.
Download and install belarc advisor to get the product key.
The HDD will have everything, your Windows 8 Os and even the Onekey Recovery Partition, so removing your HDD will render the One click recovery button Not working.
Two ways to install windows 8 back to the blank SSD.
1 You will need an external mount for your SSD or HDD where the scenario should be both SSD and HDD are connected to the computer so you can clone the HDD to your SSD.
(If the clone failed then you can use the Repair Image)
2 You can use a retail copy or any installer copy of Windows 8 and install that to your SSD, if asked for a product key, use the Key extracted using the Belarc advisor.
Any driver needs you can download from Support.lenovo.com
Again The Preloaded HDD Contains the Recovery partition, and the One click feature will look for the HDD where it is saved.
Best Regards
Solid Cruver
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Swapping HDD with SSD (+Software Cloning)

Hi all,
I've been wanting to swap the 2011 MacMini's HDD with an SSD drive. I am currently running Windows 7 on the mini. What would be the best way to clone everything from the current MacMini internal HDD to the new SSD before the swap? Also, are any additional parts (cables etc.) needed to install the SSD or is everything inside reusable?
Thanks.

Please note that changing the hard drive is not considered
a user servicable function, only changing RAM is and therfore
will void your warranty (clearly stated in the user manual).
Just needed to put in that disclaimer so that you were aware.
You haven't stated, but I am assuming you are using Win7
in a Bootcamp partition, which will complicate things.
There are many SATA to USB adapters out there, so you will
want to get one of them. You will eventually neeed Winclone
(free) to put the Win7 volume on the new drive. Also, to be safe,
get a USB stick.
Cloning the OSX stuff will be simple.
1. Create a Recovery volume on the USB stick by first
      downloading Lion Recovery Assistant. Should do this
      any way whenther changing hard drives or not.
2. Connect the SSD with the SATA adapter while booted
      into the current system and Partition with GUID scheme
      and format with Mac OSX journalled.
3. With your Recovery USB stick plugged in, reboot holding
      down Option key.
4. When presented with the boot selection, select the USB recovery
      stick.
5. Once things load up select Disk Utility and do a Restore
      from the internal volume to the external. This will clone
      the Recovery HD as well as the OSX install.
6. Have lunch, do laundry or whatever as this will take awhile.
7. When the Restore is complete, as a quick check, reboot
      holding the Option key and select the newly cloned volume
      to insure it is bootable. It will take time to boot since it is USB
      but a good check before putting it in the case.
8. If all is well, you can swap your drives.
9. Next, boot to the new internal an run Bootcamp and create your
      Windows partion, follow through to the Win7 install and from
      the windows installer format the partition to NTFS but then
      quit the installer after this is complete.
10. Next, plug your old drive into the SATA adapter and run Winclone.
       You should be able to select the external WIndows partition
       as the source and the internal Windows patition as destination
       and just clone.
1 through 7 will definately get you OSX and Recovery HD on the new drive
and the rest "should" get you Windows.

Imac 21,5 2011 hdd for ssd replacement

Is it possible to replace hdd drive in mid 2011 Imac 21,5 for an ssd drive. i dont need dual kits etc, just need to take hdd and istall in the same place ssd for faster Mac.

As for the thermal sensor, just reattach it to the SSD so that your fans won't go into warp speed.
Impossible for 2011 iMacs:
note that the HD bay has a different power connection with seven total leads, two of which are used for thermal feedback. Normal SATA power connections, including those going to the SSD and optical bay in the 2011 iMacs, utilize five total leads
Further Explained: Apple’s iMac 2011 Model Hard Drive ‘Restrictions’

I want to change my HDD to SSD for macbook pro 15 2010 need some help

i want to change my HDD to SSD what will work with my macbook pro 2.66GHz (15-inch Unibody w/Intel Core i7) - April 2010 and do it will make my macbook pro low timp and do my macbook pro will be more faster ?

Personally I am not a fan of SSDs because they are not cost effective for my personal requirements. However I do recognize that the days of the disk are numbered, but I suspect that day is still a few years off.
Crucial is a fine company and is one of the two I personally recommend for RAM (OWC being the other) so I suspect that would be a good choice to make. They are a consumer responsive company. Indeed the Amazon price is attractive but before you commit yourself, see if you can find test information and reviews on this product.
I personally cannot give you first hand information on SSDs because I have none of my own. But perhaps some one will read this post and chime in.
Ciao.

Best Portable USM HDD for K450 hot-swap bay

I have read suggestions for the best portable USM HDD for K430 hot-swap bay, but I'm not sure if the K450 has the exact same hot-swap bay as the K430. Are the drives suggested for the K430 the same ones that would be best for the K450? I haven't even received my Lenovo K450 yet. I ordered it on Thursday and it will arrive on Monday Oct. 14, 2013. I just want to understand the hot-swap bay because I thought there was a way I could use a hard drive out of my old computer and put it in an external drive case and plug it right in. After reading the literature here in the community posts, that doesn't appear to be the purpose of the bay. I wish it would work that way because I wanted to easily offload some documents that are saved on my 500 GB Western Digital 3.5" hard drive that I would have liked to move to my new computer easily. My old computer is not working at all anymore, so I can't just drag and drop them from my extra 500 GB drive from that computer onto the new one.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I purchased this same drive and it works great!! It is too bad that Lenovo didn't tell me this when I contacted their support team. It would have saved me a lot of time!!

I have a hdd from late 2009 that I upgraded from leopard to snow leopard to lion to mountain lion. I want to upgrade the hdd to ssd. Do I need to buy a new copy of mountain lion to install on the ssd? If not, then what is the procedure to transfer?

I have a hdd from a late 2009 mbp. I upgraded from leopard to snow leopard to lion to mountain lion. Now I want to upgrade to a ssd. Do I need to purchase a new copy of mountain lion to go on my new ssd? If I don't, then what is the procedure to transfer mountain lion with my 4 user accounts onto the new ssd from the hdd?
I'm confused on if I can use the recovery hd on a thumb drive to install mountain lion on my ssd. Will it be pheasible with so many OS X upgrades? And then how do I get my user accounts onto the ssd from the hdd. Do I use migration assistant? Do I need to make a time machine backup first? Should I use something called Carbon Clone or something like that?
Thanks for reading

If you have a cable that connects and external HDD to the MBP, it will do. If it is something like this, an enclosure will not be needed for the swap:
An enclosure allows you to use your old HDD for storage or backup purposes. The cable will not.
Here are instructions as to how the swap can be performed using DISK UTITY. Substitute You cable for the enclosure in same:
INSTALLING A NEW HDD IN A MBP
1. Make certain that you have backed up all of your important data.
2. You will need a HDD enclosure. One with a USB connection will do. A 9 pin Firewire is better.
3. Install your new drive in the enclosure and connect it to your MBP.
4. Open DISK UTILITY>ERASE. From the left hand column drag the new drive into the 'Name' field. Make sure that the format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Click on the 'Erase' button.
5. Click on the 'Restore' button (on top). Drag the old drive into the 'Source' field and the new drive into the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' button on the bottom right hand corner.
Depending upon the amount of data you are transferring, this may take a couple hours or more. A Firewire will speed up the transfer. This will result in both drives having identical information on them.
6. After the data transfer has completed, you may swap the drives. Start the MBP and you have finished the installation. The initial boot may take a bit longer than you are accustomed to, but that is normal.
7. When you are satisfied that the new hard drive if functioning properly, you can erase the old drive and use it for any needs that you may have.
If there is any confusion on your part, post back.
Ciao.

G580 swap hdd to sdd SOLVED!!!!!

Hello,
I just purchased a Lenovo g580 with win preinstalled.
the computer seems extremely slow, and was being choked by the SLOW hard drive, So I purchased an ocz vertex 3 SDD to replace the hard drive
I ran into problems, I figured I could just install the SSD and reload win8 and use a coa key on bottom of computer...
after turning over the notebook, I see there is no coa for win8 preinstalled systems, well, ok   I know how to get the code from the system, I got the coa and entered it into the retail win8 install program, and no go, was not a coa for retail install
I tried all the forums to see if I could just simply copy the drive... after trying dozens of free copy drive programs, and MANY reloads, I found a way to do this and was so easy.. and I wasted so much time.... on the info boards.. no body knew how to do this unless you order the recovery cd's from Lenovo for 89 bucks
Here is how, purchase Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 3.0.. It's only $19.99 and it works!!
http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/
simple, install, run the program with SSD plugged in via usb adapter/ I had my ssd plugged into usb port using an SATAIII adapter I purchased at tiger direct, compusa..
program asks for where you would like to copy HDD to?   select SSD and go!
5 minutes later, it was done, power down, replace HDD with SSD, restart into bios, select boot to your new SSD, save changes, and BAMM!   it works !
Hope this helps everyone

This is how I did (thanks to the information I found here: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Y-U-V-Z-and-P-series/Backing-up-Z500-Touch-Hdd/td-p/1118253).
To follow this procedure, you will need an empty minimum 16 GB usb-stick and preferably a 2nd PC besides your G580 (to avoid swapping harddisks several times), and a thingy to connect internal hard disk drives to an usb-port.
1. Create a recovery drive on your stick using the recovery utility of Windows8:
Sidepanel -> search "recovery" -> klick on Settings -> klick on "create a recovery drive".
2. Take out old harddisk, put in SSD.
3. Boot pc from stick and reinstall system with OneKeyRecovery. The reinstall will stop and abort, if the SSD is smaller than the original HDD, but this step will give you information that you need to change the formatting parameters in the recovery program.
4. Take out the SSD and connect it to another PC (or swap back to the old HDD in the G580) and read out the number and size of partitions on the disk using File manager or some disk utility. There will be some small partitions, and there will be a large unformattet section. Note the size of the unformatted section. In my case, 234 GB. (240 GB SSD): If you lack the hardware to connect the SSD externally to a PC, you can of course calculate the result on the base of the formatting information of the old HDD.
5. On the Recovery stick, search up the file called
ReCreatePartitions. Open it in Notepad or another text editor. Save a copy of the unchanged file as ReCreatePartitionsOld.
Find the following two lines:
"create partition primary size= NN" (in my case: 428032)
"format quick fs=ntfs label= Windows8_OS"
Change the value of NN to (size of unformatted section on your SSD - 30 GB). I set NN to 202000, to be a little on the safe side. The 30 GB allow for the recovery section on the SSD.
Save ReCreatePartition.
6. Put the SSD and the Recovery stick in your Lenovo and start it with OneKeyRecovery. Follow the instructions for reinstalling the system. Marvel at the speed of the reinstall and rejoice about the $20 you avoided spending! :-)
In my case, I ended up with a new install with the same structure of partitions as the old one. However, the recovery partition (D:, appr. 30 GB) is empty. So I better hold on to the USB-stick.

Advice needed - optical bay caddy and HDD for T530

Since I rarely use my optical drive and frequently back up files to an external hard drive, I'd like to put a HDD in the optical bay and just swap it out for the DVD player whenever that is needed.
My T530 (i5-3210M Win7HP) has a 256GB Crucial mSSD for the boot drive and programs; the original 500GB/7200 rpm in the drive bay has data files, Outlook and Quicken files, music, photos and documents.
For the optical bay HDD 500 GB would be plenty, but the 750 GB is only about $10 more, so why not? (I'd probably put the 750 in the drive bay and make it the data drive, with the 500 in the optical bay for a back up drive... and this is about convenience more than need.)
Best I can tell the optical drive supports SATA 6GB/sec but most of the 2.5" 750GBx7200 rpm drives are SATA 3GB/sec. (On the other hand, the Hitachi MK5061GSY 500GBx7200 that came in my T530 appears to be 'only' SATA II, and most forum posters suggest there's not a noticable difference.)
Of the 750 GB drives it seems the Seagate Momentus ($82) and Western Digital Scorpio Black ($78) would be the top two choices. I think they're both 9.5mm and would fit. Some reviews indicate the Western Digital is quieter.
The caddy is more problematic, as there are so many choices, and many appear to be poorly-fitting Chinese knockoffs. I'm not inclined to pay $70 for the Lenovo, when the others are in the $10-15 range, but I do want one that fits well and works well and lasts. (And is at least SATA 3GB/sec.) I can't tell much from the prices or pictures, and there's contradicting information in the 'product reviews.'
So I need a 12.7mm optical bay (Ultrabay) caddy for a 9.5mm HDD that fits well without gaps, matches the T530 case, and supports at least SATA 3GB/sec.
Will I need the rubber 'bumpers' or is that just for SSD drives? If I need them, do they come with the caddy or drive? If not, what do I get and where?
Does either the Seagate or Western Digital offer an advantage in function or reliability?
Please correct anything that I've mistated or misunderstood. Thank you for your advice and recommendations.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

How the four screws work.
HD's and SSD's usually have four threaded holes on the bottom and also two threaded holes on each long side. The video you may have seen with the screws going through holes in the bottom of the caddy into the threaded bottom holes of the HD is a video of the $45 Newmodus caddy. That's how they affix the drive to the caddy.
The Chinese caddy I linked uses the screws in a different way, and it is actually pictured in the top right illustration on the caddy.
While the drive is out of the caddy, you just thread the screws (through nothing) into the side holes on the drives. So, the drive now has two little protruding screw heads on each side. The only purpose is to create those four slight protrusions - two on each side.
Then you insert the drive into the caddy by sliding from one end. The thing on the bottom of the caddy picture is like a little door that folds up and down. You lift up the door and slide the drive into the other end. The protruding screw heads slide under little rail protuberances that are molded inside the sides of the caddy. When you have slid the drive all the way forward into the electrical connectors, you then snap down the door behind it. The door prevents the drive from moving forward or back. The screw heads wedged under the rails prevent the drive from moving up or down. You can do the entire operation in 5 seconds.
Ny-compu-tek seems to have the same caddy listed under various titles and prices, including one that specifically says T530. I think that's just a marketing gimmick, as the T530 takes the same caddy as the T520. Anyway the one I linked is the least expensive from that source and fits perfectly.
It was also shipped out in one day with a tracking number.

Changing HDD to SSD, what are the options?

hi, guys, new to the forum, I just bought a thinkpad x130e during an on sale event at one of the local retailer, pretty excited, since i like the rugged design.
I am looking at an upgrade from 320G HDD to a 128G SSD... but i don't have any windows 7 installation disc handy, so what are the options for me to install the operating system (windows 7).
I don't know if there is a way to transfer the whole system from HDD to SSD? will there be any trick to perform? or simply i just have to purchase new copy of windows?
cos i noticed i do have a windows7 pro product key at the bottom of my thinkpad, i kinda don't want to waste the money.
please help..
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You don't need to purchase another copy of Win7. You will need
1. SSD. This must be 7mm thick, not the more common 9.5mm thick.
2. USB enclosure for your HDD,
3. Software to "clone" the contents of your HDD to your SSD. Acronis True Image is a well-regarded package that does this. There are also some free utilities that can do this, however, I'm not familiar with them.
Procedure:
1. Move the HDD to the external enclosure.
2. Put the SSD in the X130e.
3. Reboot from the HDD. (You'll need to interrupt boot with Blue ThinkVantage button to specify.)
4. Install Acronis (or equivalent.)
5. Perform disk clone operation. You will need to tell the software how you want to resize partitions since you're going to a smaller disk.
6. Reboot from SSD.
Cheers... Dorian Hausman
X1C2, TPT2, T430s, SL500, X61s, T60p, A21p, 770, 760ED... 5160, 5150... S360/30

Going from hdd to ssd

I would like to change a hdd to ssd on macbook pro (mid 2010). If I use time machine backup from old system on new ssd will it be copied with the old disk faults ? I would like to install fresh OS X on ssd, but at the same time I wish to keep aperture librery with all my pictures and iweb where I created my website.
This are my priorities and the rest of data I can move to external hard drive and bring them one by one to new system on new ssd.
Could you please, tell me how to do it and what is best solution ?

A clone of a HDD will have loads of empty blocks, all those blocks would be written to the SSD...
Incorrect. Most backup programs don't do a block-for-block copy (though some have such an option on very restricted conditions). They copy the files (like cp -rp). So blank space on the source won't be the same blank space on the destination.
But serious question for a moment, do these Carbon Copy Clone drive 3rd party softwares have some kind of special function? Some people have crazy devotion to them and its peaked my interest as to why.
If you want to go through the "exercise" of creating lauchagents or cron tasks for constructing and easily changing scheduling backups, more power to you. I for one just want to schedule the stuff, possibly change the schedule if need be, and move on to more important things like doing the work that actually needs to be backed up! If you don't believe in scheduling periodic backups, well, that's another story.
Though, to be honest, I still question its usefulness when Disk utility does the same thing; select a hard disk ( "TOSHIBA MK2561GSYN Media" on my MacBook Pro), click "new image" and then click go. Then use restore in Disk Ulitity to restore the disk from the image - carbon copy goodness!
So do most other people that do backups, i.e., creating a .dmg (what you get from DU's New Image) is not the way to do backups. DU's Restore, maybe, but I've never used DU for backups.

Cloning Hdd to SSD boot drive and what happens with Music/Logic Plugins

Hi, my computer is a mid-2012 Mac Pro 12 Core
It's a great computer but I'm considering upgrading my main boot drive (WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD) to a 1tB Samsung EVO 840 SSD drive (I'm using a sonnet tempo PCI card to mount an SSD that holds audio at the moment and will add another SSD for the boot drive I'm referring to) so I just had a question - if I clone the HDD to the new SSD, what happens with things like licenses for my audio plugins, such as Native Instruments Komplete, programs by IKMultemedia. programs that use an ILOK such as Steven Slate Plugins and also, WAVES plugins? Will this info all carry across to the new SSD drive or do you think I'll need to reauthorise some things? I have all the serials etc so this shouldn't be an issue, but just wondered.
Any help would be appreciated as it feels like quite a big step in that it's my main system drive!
Thanks in advance
Sam

CCC is excellent. If it doesn't work then sure, just always have a safety net of your system that is untouched.
Also, after a clean install, CLONE it!
And then use Setup Assistant. Migration Assistant.
Clone of the system can go on sparse disk images too so you don't have to partition (should have at least one though) and you can have clone from different stages and versions: 10.9.4, without Setup Assistant, migrated, full loaded with all your apps. Multiple versions.
CCC is designed to make a working bootable copy of a system so you can move the system to another boot device like hdd and SSDs without the worry.
But I think we were talking about a system that did not see a clean install of Mountain Lion or Mavericks so it is over due for one!

Erase free space in Disk Utilities grayed out for SSD

Is it normal that this function (erase free space) does not work for a SSD? It is grayed out on my iMac for SSD not for the 1 TB HDD.
Now that I installed Lion and Trim is working (on original Apple SSD) in my iMac I would like to erase free space. I read somewhere that you should do this if you did not have the Trim option before and you do have it now. Or is this BS?
peterwillem

Take a look at this link, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3210131?start=0&tstart=0

Swapping HDD for SSD

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