Hard drive replacement for a MacBook pro late 2011

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howienz

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#220154 28-Jul-2017 10:44

I have two questions:

I'm wanting to replace my existing HD and came across this product https://goo.gl/QMDFBH (500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD) and just wanted to check this is an acceptable replacement. I also need a ACENIX® 38 iN 1 Screwdriver Torx Tool Kit for obvious reasons but have only found two outlets: eBay and ubay - are there easier outlets to get the kit from or are these my only options - never bought anything from ubay either...?

Cheers

Maurice

CYaBro

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#1832728 28-Jul-2017 10:57

Yup any standard 2.5" SATA SSD will fit into the MacBook Pro Late 2011 model.

The Torx screwdriver is needed to get the mounts out of the HDD and into the new SSD.

The rest of the screws are phillips head.

You should be able to pick up the single required torx driver from your local hardware store.

The one you need is a T6.

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Dynamic

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#1832733 28-Jul-2017 11:04

https://www.macsales.com/ have excellent kits for upgrading, either with their SSDs or a BYO SSD.

iMacs have (had?) a feature where the chassis fan relied on a temperature sensor in the hard drive that was a bit different from the norm, so if you replaced the hard drive, the chassis fan would spin at top speed. 3rd party software was the workaround the first time I encountered this. The second time I was prepared, and ordered a kit from these guys which included a sensor on a short cable that you velcro'd to the replacement drive.

I don't know if this applies to MacBooks, having never pulled one to bits.

Have a look here https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro/2011 and see what options they have. Their videos are excellent as well.

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Behodar

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#1832735 28-Jul-2017 11:07

Dynamic: I don't know if this applies to MacBooks, having never pulled one to bits.

You don't need anything special in an MBP. Just swap the drive; piece of cake :)

Once you have the OS installed, it can be worth doing a "sudo trimforce enable" to make sure that you're running with TRIM (System Profiler can verify this). This improves speeds and works with 99% of the drives out there.

howienz

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#1833976 31-Jul-2017 06:58

So everything went relatively smoothly i.e. Backed up to time machine, replaced hdd, loaded lion, recovered from time machine and logged in with Apple account. Then attempt to log on with original password but it doesn't work-try the change password with my Apple id and that doesn't work either...?!

Ps I don't have the original disk

Behodar

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#1833986 31-Jul-2017 07:31

What do you mean by "original password"? You say you logged in (presumably successfully) with an Apple account so I'm not sure what you mean here.

There were no discs supplied with this model; the previous one (Early 2011) was the last. You'll have Internet Recovery available (Cmd-Opt-R at the boot chime) if you need it.

howienz

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#1834016 31-Jul-2017 07:37

I used internet recovery which appeared to work, I then proceeded to recover files from airport time capsule-again all ok. Once complete I was prompted for Apple login and then my original login screen appeared for my local - this is where it came unstuck...

Behodar

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#1834017 31-Jul-2017 07:39

Hmm. I've never actually tried to recover my whole account from Time Machine (I normally just grab the files I need) so I don't have any experience with it "losing" the password like that. I think there's an option in recovery mode (Cmd-R, without Option) to reset a local account password - take a look and see.

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CYaBro

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#1834145 31-Jul-2017 10:49

What version of OS X / macOS were you running on the original drive, from where your backup was taken from?

Might pay to install the latest macOS Sierra and then try restore again.

Do the internet recovery again, wiping the drive and then installing Lion.

Once that's done don't restore anything yet, go to the App store and do the Sierra upgrade.

Once that's done then try restore your backup.

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howienz

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#1834307 31-Jul-2017 13:30

CYaBro:

What version of OS X / macOS were you running on the original drive, from where your backup was taken from?

Might pay to install the latest macOS Sierra and then try restore again.

Do the internet recovery again, wiping the drive and then installing Lion.

Once that's done don't restore anything yet, go to the App store and do the Sierra upgrade.

Once that's done then try restore your backup.

Sierra was latest OS X so sounds like a plan - just another 10 hour stint with the restore...stand by :)

Apologies if this may sound a little stupid (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing) but should I wipe the main hard drive (Samsung) or the partition only?

howienz

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#1834660 1-Aug-2017 08:26

Thank you for all the advice and as suggested by CYaBro (i.e re-did the install of OS X and then restore from back-up) I now have a mbp running like new.

Cheers