★ Anyone who owns a MAC, Macbook, or a Macbook Pro knows how wonderful these computers are to use. We bought three Macbook Pros in 2007 for ourselves and our two “kids.” The short story, after 5 years of use, two of them developed Hard Disk Drive failures. Which means these MAC are dead.
★ The Answer. Swap out that dead hard disk drive, replacing the 256GB SATA rotating magnetic media disk drive with a new high-tech 256GB Solid State Drive, (SSD Drive) eliminating all the “moving parts” and particularly that magnetic storage media that was spinning at 5400 rpm. SSD Drives have no moving parts, as the 256GB of storage is all solid state chips, similar to the RAM memory that is in Laptop. A SSD drive is similar to a huge Jump Drive with 256GB or more, coupled to a “disk controller” to manage the finding and storage of all your programs, data, settings, and photos.
★ As to Cost. After lots of online study, and watching a short YouTube video clip, I was ready to tackle this task. The online resources lead me to CRUCIAL SSD Drives, the replacement being about $120.
★ Apple’s Service Center charges about $200, however, will only replace the hard-drive with the exact Toshiba replacement model. With a bit of courage, we can replace the old technology “mechanical rotating magnetic media” Drive with high-tech, high-speed, ultra reliable solid state SSD drive.
★ Disk Drive Methodology. Since there is no mechanical rotating magnetic media, spinning at 5400rpm, with precision mechanical Calipers hovering over the spinning magnetic media at distance of a few microns… any significant jarring of the laptop when its reading or writing data on the Disk Drive, can cause the Caliper to touch the magnetic media, destroying the read/write-head and take a notch out of the Disk Drive platter.
★ SSD Speed and Efficiency. With the new Solid State Drives, there are no moving parts, so the speed of accessing data on these drives travels at the speed of charged electrons plus some controlling algorithms. The improvement in data access and data writing is over 50 times faster and significantly more reliable.
★ Special Tools. Apple assembles their Macbook laptops with precision Philips-head screws and Torx-head screws. Therefore you will need Craftsman, or equivalent, PHILIPS screw drivers Number 0, 00, and 000, plus TORX screw drivers Number T4, T5, T6, and T7. Both screw-driver kits can be bought on Amazon for $15.
★ Cloning Software and Cables. To create an Exact copy of your existing Hard Drive, you will also need a USB 3.0 to 2.5″ SATA SSD Cable (Part number USB32SAT3CB) available for $12. Or Apricorn Upgrade Kit EZ-UP3 available for $13 both from Amazon.com. Cloning Software for Windows computers and SuperDuper are included with the Apricorn Upgrade Kit. SuperDuper cloning software is available for free download online.
★ Step-By-Step Procedure. In our case I was removing a dead 256GB Hard Drive and replacing it with a new 265GB SSD Drive. Therefore I could not “Clone” the existing drive as it was DOA. So I used another Macbook Pro for the Cloning process. Once the new SSD drive was “Erased” and Cloned, this SSD Drive is then used to replace the existing dead Hard Drive in my Macbook Pro. Other than these circumstances, the steps that we used are the same as displayed on the c|net video-clip. Below are a list of Steps for replacing a 256GB hard-disk; all parts were purchased from Amazon.com:
➡️ Buy new CRUCIAL SSD 256BG SATA Drive, $120
➡️ Buy or locate Philips and Torx screwdrivers, $15
➡️ Buy USB32SAT3CB connection cable, $13 or
🔄 Buy APRICORN Upgrade Kit, $14
1⃣ Open the SSD drive and attach USB Connecting Cable to the SSD
2⃣ Connect the USB Cable to a working Macbook Pro.
3⃣ Notice the SSD Drive on the Macbook’s display
4⃣ Click onto the SSD Drive Icon, and Erase it
🔄 For Windows computers, Format the SSD Drive
5⃣ Download and Launch SuperDuper Cloning software
6⃣ Clone the working Macbook’s Drive to the new SSD Drive
7⃣ Turn OFF Macbook, and remove bottom case, save screws
8⃣ Locate, unscrew, and unplug the existing Hard Disk Drive
9⃣ Place the Torx Screws from the HD onto the SSD Drive
🔟 Install the new SSD into the Macbook notebook, repalce cover
🔄 Turn on the Macbook, and watch it Re-Boot to the new SSD drive
🔄 NOTE, The SSD Drive Boots slower with its First Power-up Start
★ SAVE Your Macbook Pro or Windows Laptop – You can Do it – We Did it. The process was relatively easy to do, once you overcome the fear-factor. I replaced two SSD drives into Macbook Pro notebooks and replaced the HardDrive in an 8 year old Windows HP ten pound laptop. Since the HP had a runnng HardDrive, the closning process was done using the same computer that received the new SSD Drive, as depicted in the c|net video-clip. The process only took 45 minutes to accomplish.
★ SSD for BACK-UP. Now that you are more familiar with SSD solid state drives, here is an alternate use for SSD. Since the SSD drive “looks” like a typical internal Hard Drive. Therefore I bought ONE more SSD drive and paid the $27.95 to SuperDuper for the full version Cloning Software. Once we got all our MACs running again…
★ Use a second SSD drive as my back-up device for my “restored” Macbook Pro. By performing Steps 5⃣ and 6⃣ above this “backup” SSD drive will begin as a CLONE of the newly running Macbook Pro, and by using the full version of SuperDuper software, every week/month one may connect the SSD with the USB/SATA Cable, load SuperDuper and back-up the drive.
★ SuperDuper, with the full version thereof, the software compares the Original Back-Up to the current state of SSD Drive, and copies over to the external SSD drive, only those files, programs, photos, settings that have changed, were added, removed, or updated since the last Back-up. This saves lots of time, as the initial Cloning of the SSD took 90 minutes to Clone over a million files, 140GB of data. Using this procedure, in the event something disastrous occurs with your Macbook, this SSD back-up drive can be either Installed in the MAC or Cloned back over to the MAC.
★ SuperDuper support is terrific too. I had an issue registering the software, contacted the company, and David Nanian, the developer, contacted me directly and “fixed” my minor issue. (my registered name was spelled in all caps rather than upper and lower) So the registration process is case-sensitive.
★ This link will take you to a very well produced and easy to understand 4-minute video, showing the opening of a Macbook Pro notebook, the tools needed, steps in Cloning the existing HardDrive, and then swapping the new “Bootable” SSD Drive for the Old Hard Disk Drive. I watched this video-clip twice, and found it very helpful, in taking the mystery out of this procedure.
★ TEN Secret Features Using your MAC and Macbook. Assembled in this article are some great tips and tricks that can show you how to save time using your MAC. From taking advantage of its hidden calculator, to discovering the tiny but useful icon that has been right in front of your face the entire time.
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