SSD question

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JTyler82

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
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Hey guys

So I was wondering, do I <need> to clone the drive in my mbp in order to install my SSD? Or if I just pop it in, will it fresh install?

Is there anyway to make a back up if I have to clone? Don't have a cable or external enclosure ATM but I have a 16gb flash drive :confused:
 
J

jbzcar

macrumors regular
May 11, 2012
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JTyler82 said:
Hey guys

So I was wondering, do I <need> to clone the drive in my mbp in order to install my SSD? Or if I just pop it in, will it fresh install?

Is there anyway to make a back up if I have to clone? Don't have a cable or external enclosure ATM but I have a 16gb flash drive :confused:
Click to expand...
Best way is to fresh install and then restore using Migration Assistant.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,095
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Oregon
Always backup. Especially if you're going to be messing around with your hard drive.

It doesn't take much to make a mistake and format the wrong drive(admittedly, I had been drinking). But besides that, if something were to go wrong with your original hard drive while you were doing the swap, you'd lose all of your data.

External hard drives aren't exactly expensive. Just pick one up and setup time machine, or use CarbonCopyCloner and create an image of your hard drive.
 
J

JTyler82

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
122
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So I can't just pop a SSD into a new mbp and use lion Internet recovery?

I HAVE to clone it?
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

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Jan 23, 2005
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JTyler82 said:
So I can't just pop a SSD into a new mbp and use lion Internet recovery?

I HAVE to clone it?
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You don't have to clone. If your machine is a 2010+ with the firmware update you can boot to recovery with a blank drive and format then install from recovery. I think the concern was from your first post it does not sound like you have a way to get your data from the old drive to the new one?
 
J

JTyler82

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
122
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Weaselboy said:
You don't have to clone. If your machine is a 2010+ with the firmware update you can boot to recovery with a blank drive and format then install from recovery. I think the concern was from your first post it does not sound like you have a way to get your data from the old drive to the new one?
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There's no data on the machine. Lol. I'm getting my SSD and mbp the same day and was just gonna toss the SSD in before first boot up. If I could.
 
APPLE-FANATIC

APPLE-FANATIC

macrumors 6502a
Aug 4, 2012
690
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Texas
SSD question

Hi Guys, new here and have a question about SSDs, specifically Samsung 830 256gb vs. 512gb. I use an external FW Hard Drive, that has all of my TM back-ups and iTunes is ran directly from it as well. I have the factory 500gb HDD for my MBP (early 2011). I am hearing sooo much talk about ppl upgrading to SSDs because they are so much faster than a factory 500HDD. Ok now onto the Q's, if I am only using 50gb of my 500gbHDD, would it be safe to use a 256gb SSD? I am not a pro with installing MAC products, would Apple install the Samsung hard drive?

Thanks in advance!! I love this forum!!!!!!:)
 
J

JTyler82

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Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
122
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terraphantm said:
You'll need to restore the recovery partition to a USB drive first.
Click to expand...
Awesome. So that link someone posted will get me to do exactly what I need to do before putting the SSD in?

One question about external drives. Can you set any up with time machine? Was gonna throw the 500gb drive in an enclosure for music and stuff

Sorry I'm a noob. I'm coming from being a windows user my whole life and this will be my first Mac.
 
J

JTyler82

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
122
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Man, No one told me that I had to have a Torx 6 screw driver. another 3 day wait to get one
 
J

JTyler82

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
122
0
T5BRICK said:
Do you happen to have a Home Depot nearby?
Click to expand...
I Don't. I live in a little city that's pretty much a retirement community. The city below us has all the mainstream businesses (Best Buy, Home Depot, our mall,e tc) but it's about 35min away, and with gas prices now a days, it was cheaper to spend 5 bucks on a torx set that someone recommended on here and wait the few days.

It's all good though. I have to get an external enclosure anyway for when I take out the 500gb. :)
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,095
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Oregon
JTyler82 said:
I Don't. I live in a little city that's pretty much a retirement community. The city below us has all the mainstream businesses (Best Buy, Home Depot, our mall,e tc) but it's about 35min away, and with gas prices now a days, it was cheaper to spend 5 bucks on a torx set that someone recommended on here and wait the few days.

It's all good though. I have to get an external enclosure anyway for when I take out the 500gb. :)
Click to expand...
You're surely more patient than I.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

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Jan 23, 2005
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JTyler82 said:
Man, No one told me that I had to have a Torx 6 screw driver. another 3 day wait to get one
Click to expand...
You can easily remove those little nub things with a pair of pliers if you don't want to wait for the T6. They unscrew with little effort.
 
themumu

themumu

macrumors 6502a
Feb 13, 2011
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Sunnyvale
Weaselboy said:
You can easily remove those little nub things with a pair of pliers if you don't want to wait for the T6. They unscrew with little effort.
Click to expand...
That may be true, but if I had just plunked down a nice chunk of dough on a new MBP I would be weary of taking pliers to a screw designed for a T6 driver. Few things have the long term potential of messing your hardware up like using wrong tools to open it up. I once bought a dead laptop for parts and I don't know what the previous owner used to open it, but half the screws on the back cover were stripped and the RAM slot cover (was a pre-unibody model, they had a small cover over RAM slots, took 3 screws to take it off) had the whole section where the screws go sawed off! If you might be opening it more than once, proper tools are the way to go.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

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Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
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California
themumu said:
That may be true, but if I had just plunked down a nice chunk of dough on a new MBP I would be weary of taking pliers to a screw designed for a T6 driver. Few things have the long term potential of messing your hardware up like using wrong tools to open it up. I once bought a dead laptop for parts and I don't know what the previous owner used to open it, but half the screws on the back cover were stripped and the RAM slot cover (was a pre-unibody model, they had a small cover over RAM slots, took 3 screws to take it off) had the whole section where the screws go sawed off! If you might be opening it more than once, proper tools are the way to go.
Click to expand...
Yeah... nice lecture and all.... but if you were familiar at all with the part I am talking about you would know it can very easily be removed with a pair of pliers and nobody would ever be able to tell the difference.
 
themumu

themumu

macrumors 6502a
Feb 13, 2011
720
561
Sunnyvale
Weaselboy said:
Yeah... nice lecture and all.... but if you were familiar at all with the part I am talking about you would know it can very easily be removed with a pair of pliers and nobody would ever be able to tell the difference.
Click to expand...
Well, gee, what makes you think JTyler has a pair of pliers handy? :)
 
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