Please Help: Seeking Intervention for my 2009 MacBook Pro

[ecschwarz]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to update you that I successfully upgraded my RAM and it really was quite easy and fast. My fear about what the process might be was much worse than the reality. I had to buy a special toolkit that had the right bits to open the back of the Mac but that, too, was quite easy.

Results: well, I do notice some improvement with speed (and fewer "beach balls") but not as much as I guess I was hoping for. Now I am trying to get up the courage to upgrade to a SSD. I'm not so concerned about replacing the hardware (after my success with the RAM); I'm more concerned about the transfer of data/programs from my old drive to the new one. I will have to watch some videos on this to increase my comfort level that I can do this.

Anyway, just wanted to update you on my RAM success and to say "thanks" for the previous posts with suggestions and encouragement.

Congratulations on the upgrade! I apologize in advance for being a broken record on these threads about 2009 MBPs and SSDs, but I've seen the end result of a RAM and SSD upgrade. RAM upgrades are certainly helpful, especially putting an end to the page-outs. Although that CPU is a little older, the big bottleneck, is still your hard drive. If you replace that, the extra speed from the SSD will make things seem much, much faster. Even if the computer has to write virtual memory to disk (aka your page-outs), it will be writing it to a much faster disk.

Anyway, the process is simple, but make sure you're careful with the SATA cable inside your Mac - a lot of people have been quick to rip out the old drive and end up tearing the cable. The steps are the same as replacing your RAM except that you'll need to undo two more screws to release the hard drive, remove it, and then remove the 4 Torx screw "nubs" that hold the drive in place.

For formatting, make sure you do all the proper steps since most will be formatted for PCs, complete with a Master Boot Record partition map (again, PC-oriented) - the steps here will help: http://www.macworld.com/article/2055589/how-to-format-a-startup-drive-for-a-mac.html

As for transferring data, you have two options - install the drive and then copy things to it, or copy things to the drive and then install it. For both methods, you can use a SATA-to-USB adapter. Functionality-wise, it makes your internal drive an external one. I'd put a fresh copy of OS X on the new drive and then use Migration Assistant to copy your data over. If you want to set it up exactly as it was before, you could use Disk Utility or Super Duper to clone the drive.

SATA-to-USB adapters are cheap (usually less than $30) and come in handy with a variety of things. The one I keep in my tech toolkit now is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Converter-Adapter-Cable-included/dp/B005B3VO24 Since it looks like it's on backorder, most others should work, although I'd get one that has the ability to use an external AC adapter. You won't need it with your MacBook Pro hard drive or SSD, but if you ever come across a 3.5" hard drive or optical drive that you want to use, the extra juice will make the adapter more useful.

The other option is to just get an external enclosure for your old hard drive. Amazon has some really cheap ones (about $10), although there is an Anker one (I like a lot of their stuff because it's a good mix of reasonably priced and a lot of things have an 18-month warranty): http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-eSATA-...id=1394904245&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+enclosure Before I saw these, I actually put the original drive from my MacBook Pro in one of these enclosures from OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MOTGS3U3/ The nice thing about both are that if the hard drive ever fails, you can buy an inexpensive internal laptop drive and replace it, or even put an SSD in there.

 

[MimiJoy]

Question: do I need something like this for the SSD installation:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J01I1G/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I'm reading that I need some type of USB cable/transferring device but there are so many options that I'm getting confused regarding what is the correct one.

Thanks, in advance, for your help...

 

[MimiJoy]

Thanks, ecschwarz, I posted my question before seeing your recommended devices to transfer the data to the SSD drive. I will review the options you suggested. There's so many different devices and cables that I was afraid I was going to purchase the wrong one. Thanks, again!!!

 

[ecschwarz]

Thanks, ecschwarz, I posted my question before seeing your recommended devices to transfer the data to the SSD drive. I will review the options you suggested. There's so many different devices and cables that I was afraid I was going to purchase the wrong one. Thanks, again!!!

I completely understand missing a new post as you're writing one - that one should be fine - it will also let you dig up older IDE/PATA drives and use them, too. For your 2.5" SATA drives, you shouldn't need the power component, unless you're using it on an unpowered hub or some weird circumstances that I can't think of at the moment.

 

[MimiJoy]

I DID IT!!! Installed RAM & SSD

Hi Everyone,

I am feeling quite successful that I managed to complete these installations--and my Mac turned back on when I was complete I have a few questions, though, about what I should expect regarding speed. Here are some details:

1) Installed 8 GB RAM (the most it will take)
2) Cloned hard drive using Carbon Copy to Samsung 840 EVO SSD (Clone was successful)
3) Installed Samsung 840 EVO SSD and carefully put Mac back together.

Here are my questions:

1) After installation it takes approx. 44 seconds to boot up (is this good/normal?)

2) According to the Blackmagic Speed Disk Test it reads approximately:

195 MB Write and 266 MB Read (is this good/normal?)

If these speeds are not considered good can you lead in in the right direction regarding what I should try next?

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it since this is my first time doing anything with hardware.

 

[zepman]

1) After installation it takes approx. 44 seconds to boot up (is this good/normal?)

2) According to the Blackmagic Speed Disk Test it reads approximately:
195 MB Write and 266 MB Read (is this good/normal?)

1. Make sure your SSD is selected as the startup disk in system preference.

2. Yes, that's the speed to expect over SATA 2.

 

[ecschwarz]

1) After installation it takes approx. 44 seconds to boot up (is this good/normal?)

2) According to the Blackmagic Speed Disk Test it reads approximately:

That boot up time seems a bit long - as others have said, make sure that it's selected as the startup disk (otherwise the computer will search all available devices). Does it spend most of those 44 seconds on the grey screen with the Apple logo or just a grey screen? If not, there may be some other issues with your OS installation - reinstalling OS X over what's on there could be a quick fix to resolve some issues.

As for the speeds, those seem in line with what you should be expecting.

 

[bigjnyc]

I have the same exact computer and specs that you have. I updated my RAM to 8gb about 2 years ago from OWC it was really cheap and easy. However SSD was way too expensive back then..... Now I am running into 2 issues - one is the slowness of the computer..... it's not excrutiating slow or anything most of the time, but slow enough to annoy me sometimes. Aditionally I am runinng out of storage room and I am down to 54gb available on my HD..... I am weighing my options on whether I should upgrade to a SSD or just get a new retina MBP. I am interested in what your final results are and if you are happy overall with the SSD upgrade?

 

[ecschwarz]

I have the same exact computer and specs that you have. I updated my RAM to 8gb about 2 years ago from OWC it was really cheap and easy. However SSD was way too expensive back then..... Now I am running into 2 issues - one is the slowness of the computer..... it's not excrutiating slow or anything most of the time, but slow enough to annoy me sometimes. Aditionally I am runinng out of storage room and I am down to 54gb available on my HD..... I am weighing my options on whether I should upgrade to a SSD or just get a new retina MBP. I am interested in what your final results are and if you are happy overall with the SSD upgrade?

As I mentioned in another thread on SSDs and old Macs, a friend of mine who had the same machine (but the slower 2.26GHz version) was pondering selling it and getting a new MacBook Air - I talked her into the SSD upgrade (she had the RAM up to 8GB already), and the SSD made a huge difference in making it feel faster. The processor still is going to be slow for really really intensive tasks (it is an almost 5-year-old computer), but for daily Finder/Web/iLife/productivity use, it feels plenty fast for things. Hers boots relatively quickly (maybe 15-20 seconds tops) and she even has FileVault enabled. It actually felt faster than my brand-new mid-2012 13" MBP for a lot of tasks...until I replaced my hard drive with an SSD.

That being said, I didn't want to take over - I'm sure the OP can chime in on their experiences...

 

[MimiJoy]

1. Make sure your SSD is selected as the startup disk in system preference.

2. Yes, that's the speed to expect over SATA 2.

Thanks, zepman, you were right. I went back and selected the SSD as the startup disk. When I restarted the computer my boot-up time was down to 15 seconds. A big improvement!

I have the same exact computer and specs that you have. I updated my RAM to 8gb about 2 years ago from OWC it was really cheap and easy. However SSD was way too expensive back then..... Now I am running into 2 issues - one is the slowness of the computer..... it's not excrutiating slow or anything most of the time, but slow enough to annoy me sometimes. Aditionally I am runinng out of storage room and I am down to 54gb available on my HD..... I am weighing my options on whether I should upgrade to a SSD or just get a new retina MBP. I am interested in what your final results are and if you are happy overall with the SSD upgrade?

bigjnyc I am happy now with the improvements the extra RAM and new SSD have made in the overall performance. I was getting frustrated with the slowness. Once I made sure the SSD was selected as the start-up disk my boot time was only 15 seconds. I use this computer at home because it's so heavy. I also have an 11 inch 2012 Macbook Air that I take to work with me so improving the performance 2009 MBP I think buys me a few more years before needing to get a new one. If I didn't have the 2012 Macbook Air I think I might have been inclined to look for a new one. Now, I'm happy with both of them. Best of luck in your decision-making.

 

[comptr]

I have the same exact computer and specs that you have. I updated my RAM to 8gb about 2 years ago from OWC it was really cheap and easy. However SSD was way too expensive back then..... Now I am running into 2 issues - one is the slowness of the computer..... it's not excrutiating slow or anything most of the time, but slow enough to annoy me sometimes. Aditionally I am runinng out of storage room and I am down to 54gb available on my HD..... I am weighing my options on whether I should upgrade to a SSD or just get a new retina MBP. I am interested in what your final results are and if you are happy overall with the SSD upgrade?

I also have the exact same computer and I also did the ram upgrade but I also did the ssd upgrade 2 years ago and it has made the computer much faster. In fact I still use it as my day to day computer to run aperture and final cut X for when I am not home.