Macbook pro high sierra

[stevo762010]

Hi all, 1st off please forgive me if im sounding a bit daft in regards to my post, I'm a bit of a knuckle dragger when it comes to these kind of things so please bear with me...im using an old 2010 MacBook pro on el capitan software, all was well and good but was having problems with iTunes, long story short I've been onto Apple support who guided and helped me through installing the highest software I can go on this particular unit which is high Sierra. All was going well with the download until it came to installing on the Mac HD and it flagged up a s.m.a.r.t error, looked it all up both online and back with Apple support diagnosing, first aiding and erasing said disk to try and repair it, all to no avail, i understand i need to replace and upgrade the HD with new which I think I can do without paying extortionate prices with 'service guru/engineer' my question is what is best HD to buy and install for my model? I've been looking up ssd drives which I like the sound of but are these compatible with my unit? Can i still have high sierra software on a 'non' Apple hard drive? This is were I get confused as I'm not clued up on these things? All information and advice greatly appreciated
Thanks
Steve

 

[mikzn]

Hi Stevo - here is my 2 cents - and FWIW

All was going well with the download until it came to installing on the Mac HD and it flagged up a s.m.a.r.t error,

this is not a good sign - hope you have a back up? if not suggest you make one soon with something like CCC - Carbon Copy Cloner

i understand i need to replace and upgrade the HD with new which I think I can do without paying extortionate prices with 'service guru/engineer' my question is what is best HD to buy and install for my model?

I would not replace with an HDD - get a SSD like Samsung evo 860 or similar etc - will fit in the same space and be "much much faster" - my recommendation is - get at least 500g - keep in mind this is not a waste of money because you can take it out later and put in into an enclosure and use it as external drive - in fact I always buy the enclosure with the SSD so you can install the system on the enclosure, then migrate from the internal or clone the drive and swap the drive later with the external.

Can i still have high sierra software on a 'non' Apple hard drive? This is were I get confused as I'm not clued up on these things? All information and advice greatly appreciated

Yes you can move up to "High Sierra" - but if it was me I would stop at "Sierra" and avoid the APFS files system upgrade / change. Not much difference and my feeling is Sierra will be more compatable with any other drives and legacy apps you might have that may cost $$ to upgrade

Perhaps someone else will chime in and point out a good reason to go to "High Sierra" - but I sure can't think of any.

If you put a new SSD in your MBP, and, if it has more space than you need (ie 500g or more) - it will "feel like a new machine" = much faster 😃

 

[stevo762010]

Hi Stevo - here is my 2 cents - and FWIW


this is not a good sign - hope you have a back up? if not suggest you make one soon with something like CCC - Carbon Copy Cloner



I would not replace with an HDD - get a SSD like Samsung evo 860 or similar etc - will fit in the same space and be "much much faster" - my recommendation is - get at least 500g - keep in mind this is not a waste of money because you can take it out later and put in into an enclosure and use it as external drive - in fact I always buy the enclosure with the SSD so you can install the system on the enclosure, then migrate from the internal or clone the drive and swap the drive later with the external.



Yes you can move up to "High Sierra" - but if it was me I would stop at "Sierra" and avoid the APFS files system upgrade / change. Not much difference and my feeling is Sierra will be more compatable with any other drives and legacy apps you might have that may cost $$ to upgrade

Perhaps someone else will chime in and point out a good reason to go to "High Sierra" - but I sure can't think of any.

If you put a new SSD in your MBP, and, if it has more space than you need (ie 500g or more) - it will "feel like a new machine" = much faster 😃

Thanks for the reply, I'm defo going with the ssd as you say from what I can tell they are a lot faster, i think I've got me head around most of what I was worried about, thanks again for the prompt reply