Install new Samsung 850 SSD EVO in Classic Macbook pro mid 2012

[9512tacoma]

I have seen a few threads about possibly some issues once a samsung 850 evo is installed you can't upgrade the firmware in a macbook. Do I need to even worry about this? I also want to do a fresh install of El Capitan and then transfer back my documents/ file, pictures, e-mails from my time machine backup.
Is this pretty easy to do? If I did a fresh install of El Capitan do I have to enable trim or does it do it automatically with the install? First time I have tried anything like this with my mac. Trying to make sure i do it right so I don't have any issues.
I have a 2012 Classic Macbook pro mid 2012 with I7 AND 8GB's of ram. 750 hard drive.
The Samsung is a 1tb.

 

[treekram]

Currently, in order to do a firmware update for the Evo 850, you'd have to download the ISO file, "burn" it to a flash drive or optical disk and boot from that drive/disk. Nobody can tell you what the experience is like with the Evo 850 because they haven't had a firmware update yet. Worry if any future firmware update is critical and you, for whatever reason, can't burn the ISO file and boot from it. Otherwise, no need to worry at this point in time. (BTW, I also have a mid-2012 MBP non-Retina with 2 Evo 850 250GB in it.)

I also have a OCZ SSD and for that, there's a Linux boot flash drive I need to use to work with the SSD. I'm not familiar with other SSD manufacturers.

You're going to have to enable TRIM.

I haven't done a fresh install of an OSX and then restored just my data from TM so I can't speak on that topic.

 

[KimUsername]

I have seen a few threads about possibly some issues once a samsung 850 evo is installed you can't upgrade the firmware in a macbook. Do I need to even worry about this? I also want to do a fresh install of El Capitan and then transfer back my documents/ file, pictures, e-mails from my time machine backup.
Is this pretty easy to do? If I did a fresh install of El Capitan do I have to enable trim or does it do it automatically with the install? First time I have tried anything like this with my mac. Trying to make sure i do it right so I don't have any issues.
I have a 2012 Classic Macbook pro mid 2012 with I7 AND 8GB's of ram. 750 hard drive.
The Samsung is a 1tb.

I recently installed a Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB. It is fairly easy to do and there are plenty of videos of how to do it on Youtube and also OWC "http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbookpro_13_unibody_mid12/"
The Samsung 850 EVO is a popular drive for installing in the mac. Also OWC offers some SSD's which are quite popular.

You did not say what OS you are currently using. If you are upgrading to El Capitan, you can upgrade before or after.
I used Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich to clone my existing hard drive. Approx. $40. (You can use it free for a period of time, but I think it is well worth the $40.
To connect SSD to computer, I used an Anker USB 3.0 to SATA adapter (approx. $26 on Amazon.ca), but you can also use an external drive case from OWC.
Using Carbon Copy Cloner, it will make an exact copy of your existing hard drive and it will be bootable. It also adds the recovery partition.
Once done you can boot from the SSD via the cable and test it out. Once you are happy, you can install it in place of your existing hard drive. Most users will install the old hard drive in place of the existing optical drive or in an external case.
On the OWC website this is called a Data Doubler.

My Samsung drive is working great, but after installing it I was also concerned if I should turn on Trim or not.
I did some searching on the web and found that Samsung has a bug in it firmware when using Trim. So I chose not to turn on trim.

Kim

 

[treekram]

My Samsung drive is working great, but after installing it I was also concerned if I should turn on Trim or not.
I did some searching on the web and found that Samsung has a bug in it firmware when using Trim. So I chose not to turn on trim.

Kim

There was a problem reported with certain Samsung SSD's (not including the Evo 850) using Trim. The problem was real but it occurred in Linux computers and it turned out to be a bug in the Linux kernel. Somehow, guilt by association meant that all Samsung SSD's on any operating system had a problem with Trim. I have Trim on for my Evo's in my MBP and the Thunderbolt SSD on my 2014 Mini. I don't have it on for my OCZ in my 2012 Mini. If there are specific reports with the 850 Evo having Trim problems in OSX with the Apple Trim, I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in that. But if guilt by association is enough for you to avoid using Trim with the Evo 850, I don't know that you'll notice a big difference without it.

 

[KimUsername]

There was a problem reported with certain Samsung SSD's (not including the Evo 850) using Trim. The problem was real but it occurred in Linux computers and it turned out to be a bug in the Linux kernel. Somehow, guilt by association meant that all Samsung SSD's on any operating system had a problem with Trim. I have Trim on for my Evo's in my MBP and the Thunderbolt SSD on my 2014 Mini. I don't have it on for my OCZ in my 2012 Mini. If there are specific reports with the 850 Evo having Trim problems in OSX with the Apple Trim, I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in that. But if guilt by association is enough for you to avoid using Trim with the Evo 850, I don't know that you'll notice a big difference without it.

I did some more searching and came across this which agrees with what you are saying. https://blog.algolia.com/when-solid-state-drives-are-not-that-solid/

I am in the process of backing up my computer now, and I will then enable TRIM.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[chloepaige009]

You don't need to worry about the firmware right now. Even if there is a need to upgrade it, just make a bootable drive

 

[phmoraes]

You don't need to worry about the firmware right now. Even if there is a need to upgrade it, just make a bootable drive

Isn't it interesting to upgrade firmware in order to use the 'Enable trim code' instead of trim softwares?