Help with used MacBook Pro

[Prokchopexpress21]

Hello,
I recently acquired a used MacBook Pro from a charity raffle at work ( I'm a private school teacher), it is a model A1286 type. When I turned it on to set it up, there were two accounts already on it. I was wondering how would I go about installing a fresh hd in it? Right now it looks like there is a 320 Gb he in it, my friends said I should put in a 1tb sshd in it for high storage and they are quick. I do know my way around a computer and motherboard, I have built desktops, but never owned a Mac product before, any help with this is greatly appreciated!

-Chris

 

[jermy4]

As far as recommendations for a replacement drive there is a wiki thread to help with that: SSD Buying Guide [2015]

Samsung and crucial seem to be very popular replacement drives and you can check ifixit.com for guides on how to replace the existing drive

 

[chipchen]

ifixit.com for guides on how to replace the actual hard drive. Please don't bother with a hybrid drive... they are trash. Just get an SSD. Upgrade the RAM. You can google how to create a USB flash drive installer of the latest OS X operating system.

 

[simonsi]

Yep, Crucial SSD, 512GB or 1TB as you choose, RAM if you want it, both are a 10min changeout inc removing the machine base cover.

Many threads on here detailing the procedure but best advice is to either:

Make a bootable 8GB installer USB key using DiskmakerX and do a fresh install in the SSD once installed in the MBP

or

Get an external caddy, put the SSD in it temporarily, connect as an external drive while you clone your internal drive to it (I'd recommend Carbon Copy Cloner because it will also clone the Recovery Partition which rivals don't), then swap them over once you are happy (you can boot from the SSD externally to test it before you swap the drives).

I've used both techniques without any problems.

 

[Weaselboy]

Hello,
I recently acquired a used MacBook Pro from a charity raffle at work ( I'm a private school teacher), it is a model A1286 type. When I turned it on to set it up, there were two accounts already on it. I was wondering how would I go about installing a fresh hd in it? Right now it looks like there is a 320 Gb he in it, my friends said I should put in a 1tb sshd in it for high storage and they are quick. I do know my way around a computer and motherboard, I have built desktops, but never owned a Mac product before, any help with this is greatly appreciated!

-Chris

Assuming SSHD was not a typo.... you want a hybrid drive then yes? The Seagate Momentus here will work for you.

 

[simonsi]

Assuming SSHD was not a typo....

I'm hoping it was ;-)

 

[Max(IT)]

Hello,
I recently acquired a used MacBook Pro from a charity raffle at work ( I'm a private school teacher), it is a model A1286 type. When I turned it on to set it up, there were two accounts already on it. I was wondering how would I go about installing a fresh hd in it? Right now it looks like there is a 320 Gb he in it, my friends said I should put in a 1tb sshd in it for high storage and they are quick. I do know my way around a computer and motherboard, I have built desktops, but never owned a Mac product before, any help with this is greatly appreciated!

-Chris

what model is it ? A1286 is a little generic ... it could be an old Core2Duo model or a more recent 2011/2012 model ....
If it is a 2011 model I would prefer a 512 Gb SSD over an hybrid drive.