Proper procedure for putting a new HDD in UMBP?

[vader1990]

Hi,

I bought my Unibody Macbook Pro about a week after it was released and I truly love it. I have been looking into benchmarks and stuff, and the general vibe is that SSD drives def. improve performance by a lot, a great deal more than a RAM upgrade. I plant o upgrade my 250GB 5400RPM HDD to a SSD drive. Not a big one, since I don't use that much, but a decent one. I want to use the internal 250GB HDD as an external.

I wanted to know, if there is a way to fully 100% clone my internal right now onto my new SSD? Like I want the SSD to be EXACTLY like my HDD right now? How do I do this? What is the proper step by step procedure? I basically want all my little apps to work on the new SSD without me doing anything....

Is there a way?

Thanks a lot guys!!

 

[RKpro]

i used carbon copy cloner http://www.bombich.com/software/index.html

 

[xoggyux]

carbon copy cloner to clone the drive works awsome (make sure you formate the target drive first though)
ifixit.com has a step by step guide to open and replace the HDD, take a look there, however read the whole guide before taking out the first screw as for my laptop I found I needed a #6 torx screwdriver half way in the surgery (for mine I used #00 phillips and #6 torx)
and for a cheap recommendation (~128gb) ssd drive check here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/661948/
It will not stand at the same level than the intel and samsung alternatives but again this one is almost 5 times cheaper and performs just great.

 

[vader1990]

can anyone link me one of these ifixit guides? thanks!!

 

[xoggyux]

I think they do not have an specific "HDD how to" for the unibody MBP 15" but here is a whole disassembly guide, just follow the steps until you get to the HDD and ignore the not related steps:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody/590/1
remember to get torx #6 and phillips #00 (I think in this guide they do tell you at the beginning but just to make sure)