HD upgrade to SSD

[J.L.Photography]

Ive been lurking for months & am on the edge of my seat as others.... Ram upgrade is one thing, but as far as selecting your HD....

If the option stays the same (HDD) standard and upgrade to SSD, is it less expensive to buy your own and install? Then worry about installing everything....?

What's the best solution on upgrading the SSD without paying ridiculous apple money for one (lol)

 

[DrKockter]

buy it from newegg.com ?

 

[sweetbrat]

Look around at Newegg, Amazon, etc. You can get good prices on them now. It will be much cheaper than getting an SSD from Apple. Installing it is simple...do a Google search for it and you'll find a lot of how-to instructions. I'd never swapped a hard drive before, and it took me less than 20 minutes to install the SSD.

 

[TexasChemE]

SSD prices are quite good right now. Check Newegg, Amazon, Tigerdirect, etc. to find the best price on the size that you want. As for installing, it is quite easy. If you are going to do a dual HD setup (by removing the optical drive and installing a mount), it is quite easy to do. I'd do some reading up on Hellhammer's SSD Guide (great information within), as that is where I found most of my information on SSDs.

 

[J.L.Photography]

ive seen the install, easy just like the ram upgrade, but once installed, is it easy to get the OS on there? is it like a windows pc where u gotta one by one do all the drivers and such? or one disc installs it all?

 

[Weaselboy]

ive seen the install, easy just like the ram upgrade, but once installed, is it easy to get the OS on there? is it like a windows pc where u gotta one by one do all the drivers and such? or one disc installs it all?

No it is not like Windows at all. DL a free app called Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and get yourself a cheap drive enclosure for your old drive and CCC will clone the whole enchilada onto the new drive for you. Very easy.

Just post up if you have questions. Lots of users here have done this and would be glad to talk you through it.

 

[TexasChemE]

ive seen the install, easy just like the ram upgrade, but once installed, is it easy to get the OS on there? is it like a windows pc where u gotta one by one do all the drivers and such? or one disc installs it all?

Yeah, like Weaselboy said above, you can clone your current drive using the software he stated above. What I wound up doing was doing a fresh install by making a bootable Lion flashdrive (many tutorials available if you just search around), and then just copying my important documents over. But it's all a personal preference/what's easiest for your situation!

 

[J.L.Photography]

Well it would be a day1 new SSD install to the new MBP whenever they release...

Would i still fully clone to he new SSD or would the apple software included suffice?

Sorry, just looking for clarity and simplicity.

 

[TexasChemE]

Well it would be a day1 new SSD install to the new MBP whenever they release...

Would i still fully clone to he new SSD or would the apple software included suffice?

Sorry, just looking for clarity and simplicity.

I think in that case, you'd be better off doing a fresh OS install using a bootable Lion flash drive.

 

[J.L.Photography]

Can I assume I'd make that using an external HD?

 

[TexasChemE]

You can make it using anything, I just found that using a flash drive was easiest. Here is the guide I used.

 

[J.L.Photography]

Thx