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Upgrading to ssd without the use of usb

L

little jonny

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
3
0
Hi guys
First post and it is not as simple as it seems. (At least not for me :) ).I have read through the stickies and guides and have failed to find a solution. Apologies if there is one out there already.

So I have a 2011 mbp. Both usb ports have stopped working. Apple said I cannot replace the ports and I must replace a new board which costs more than buying a new mac, apparently. Whilst this has been an inconvenience I have worked around it, now I need to install an ssd to recuperate some of the performance of the mbp glory days as sadly it's become rather sluggish. I cannot connect a drive to clone my original drive. I cannot write the files to a usb stick and the file size is too large for standard disks.

Any suggestions guys I'd really appreciate the help

Cheers
 
little jonny said:
Hi guys
First post and it is not as simple as it seems. (At least not for me :) ).I have read through the stickies and guides and have failed to find a solution. Apologies if there is one out there already.

So I have a 2011 mbp. Both usb ports have stopped working. Apple said I cannot replace the ports and I must replace a new board which costs more than buying a new mac, apparently. Whilst this has been an inconvenience I have worked around it, now I need to install an ssd to recuperate some of the performance of the mbp glory days as sadly it's become rather sluggish. I cannot connect a drive to clone my original drive. I cannot write the files to a usb stick and the file size is too large for standard disks.

Any suggestions guys I'd really appreciate the help

Cheers
Click to expand...

Do you have access to a working machine? If so you could clone your drive using that
 
I could get hold of a Windows based laptop, could I use that to install a clean version of the os on a stick and use that?
 
You can always use the restore from backup option. This of course is provided that you have a backup... if you don't I would worry about that before worrying about SSDs.

As already said above, your best options are probably connecting through WiFi, Ethernet or Thunderbolt.


Edit: Now that you mention it. If you have access to a machine with working USB ports you could take out the HDD, put it in a USB enclosure, put the SSD in another enclosure, and use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the content of the HDD.

If you are just worried about reinstalling the OS that should be possible either using the CDs or using web restore. But I guess the data transfer is a bigger issue for you.
 
niteflyr said:
Make sure your computer has this EFI update installed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4904

Then install SSD and use Internet Recovery to Format drive and install OSX:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Other option, install current HDD into optical drive bay caddy, place SSD in the main drive bay, and then clone.
Click to expand...

Hey guys thanks for the quick responses.
If I replace the ssd will I still be able to access the internet recovery function on a drive that doesn't have any os on it.

Sorry if I sound dumb I'm not very clued up on this stuff.

Cheers guys





niteflyr said:
Make sure your computer has this EFI update installed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4904

Then install SSD and use Internet Recovery to Format drive and install OSX:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Other option, install current HDD into optical drive bay caddy, place SSD in the main drive bay, and then clone.
Click to expand...


----------

Just to clarify as well I'm not bothered about keeping my data I will be happy with a clean install
 
little jonny said:
Hey guys thanks for the quick responses.
If I replace the ssd will I still be able to access the internet recovery function on a drive that doesn't have any os on it.

Sorry if I sound dumb I'm not very clued up on this stuff.

Cheers guys


----------

Just to clarify as well I'm not bothered about keeping my data I will be happy with a clean install
Click to expand...

If you have that EFI update installed, you should be able to use the internet recovery method on a blank drive. You'll need a wifi or ethernet connection as it downloads the OS. Command+Option+R boot. Once utilities menu loads up select disk utility to format the drive, exit disk utility and select install OSX. It's a slow process, but it works.
 
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