Won't speed things up per se but might mean you can get away with just a 256 or even 128GB SSD - most of the speed-up comes from having the system and apps on the SSD. The other thing to consider - if you don't use the optical drive much - is a Data Doubler (or similar) that will let you install a SSD and keep the old HD (for bulky/rarely used/non speed-critical files). With RAM, its worth checking if you need it - MacOS will always grab 3/4 of your free RAM for caching, so you need to look at 'memory pressure' and 'swap used' in Activity Monitor to see if low memory really is a problem. I've used both a Crucial MX100 and Sandisk Ultra II in my 'backup' Mid 2010 13' MBP (Whenever I need the 'backup' Mac, I panic-buy a SSD to make it usable - then after a few months I steal the SSD for another project and put the old HD back in.)įitting is an absolute doddle, but I second the motion to make sure you have the right screwdrivers. As others have said, though, its not worth paying a fortune for a super-fast model for an old machine (although you don't need to hunt down an old SATA-2 drive). In addition, you need a SATA to USB drive adapter in order to transfer the data from your present HDD to the new SSD.SSD is still the best bet for giving your machine a new lease of life.

We recommend you use antistatic tools for installing the SSD wearing an antistatic wrist strap will enhance safety. The preparations and tools required for replacing a MacBook (Pro) drive are identical to those necessary for any other system (see our general upgrading tutorial for notebooks): you need to work on a clean, electrostatic-free surface. Mac users will need to download similar cloning software – we chose the shareware tool SuperDuper! and describe the cloning process in more detail using this tool. The main difference to upgrading a Windows system is that the Samsung 850 PRO SSD (256GB) we chose comes with Windows migration software that guides the user through the cloning process (copying the Windows system plus the data to the new SSD).

Upgrade macbook pro hard drive 2010