MBP Hard Drive Upgrade

[JayD74]

Hello guys,.
Noob here and 1st time MacBook Pro owner.
I recently purchased a used 2010 MBP with 4gb of ram and 320gb hard drive. It's a core 2 duo running El Capitan.
The question I have is on the Apple site it says I can upgrade to 8gb. ram and either 500gb sata drive or 512gb SSD.
Will it be possible to upgrade to a larger hard drive? Am I limited to 500 or can I swap in a 1tb drive?

 

[JTToft]

You can install up to 16 GB RAM and as large a drive as you want. Consider an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive.
The information on Apple's website only mentions what they sold the machine with, not what it's capable of.

 

[JayD74]

You can install up to 16 GB RAM and as large a drive as you want. Consider an SSD rather than a traditional hard drive.
The information on Apple's website only mentions what they sold the machine with, not what it's capable of.

The website states up to 500gb etc. Which is why I wanted to check with you guys before I purchase.
Is the hard drive as easy of a swap as the memory? Thank you for the reply

 

[zackkmac]

It's very easy. You just remove the 10 screws at the bottom of the laptop, remove the cover and you can replace the RAM right there. The hard drive is also exposed at that point and you just loosen 2 captive screws on the bracket that holds it in, unplug it from the SATA connector and replace with the new drive. I can do both of these in about 5 minutes time.

 

[JayD74]

It's very easy. You just remove the 10 screws at the bottom of the laptop, remove the cover and you can replace the RAM right there. The hard drive is also exposed at that point and you just loosen 2 captive screws on the bracket that holds it in, unplug it from the SATA connector and replace with the new drive. I can do both of these in about 5 minutes time.

Awesome I figured I'd ask,. I've swapped these before on pc laptops and wasn't sure if apple had some special requirements etc to do so. Thank you sir.
Can you confirm the above statement is true? An upgrade from 4 to 16gb of ram and 320gb to 1tb will be supported

 

[MacInTO]

I've put a 1TB SSD in it before. You can use any SATA drive. The largest SSD I've seen is 2TB.

You'll also need a 6mm torx screwdriver (T6) to remove four screws from the side of the existing drive to transfer to your new drive.

Awesome I figured I'd ask,. I've swapped these before on pc laptops and wasn't sure if apple had some special requirements etc to do so. Thank you sir.
Can you confirm the above statement is true? An upgrade from 4 to 16gb of ram and 320gb to 1tb will be supported

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...o-2.4-aluminum-13-mid-2010-unibody-specs.html

ps. Make sure to get 1066MHz speed RAM. Even though DDR3 RAM is backwards compatible, I think the 2010 may not work with faster (ie. 1333MHz or 1600MHz) RAM installed. I ran into this situation once.

 

[zackkmac]

Awesome I figured I'd ask,. I've swapped these before on pc laptops and wasn't sure if apple had some special requirements etc to do so. Thank you sir.
Can you confirm the above statement is true? An upgrade from 4 to 16gb of ram and 320gb to 1tb will be supported

The 1TB drive is definitely supported. As for the RAM, I think 16GB is supported in that model but I am not 100% sure. However, 8GB RAM will work in yours for sure.

 

[JayD74]

Thank you everyone for the support! Now I'm more confident with purchasing
[doublepost=1464143503][/doublepost]Do you guys think this is a good buy for the price, compatibility? Should be the same install process correct. Plug and play?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231926641189

 

[zackkmac]

Thank you everyone for the support! Now I'm more confident with purchasing
[doublepost=1464143503][/doublepost]Do you guys think this is a good buy for the price, compatibility? Should be the same install process correct. Plug and play?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231926641189

I think that is a good buy, yes. The solid state hybrid drives are a nice blend of performance and storage space.

 

[MacInTO]

Thank you everyone for the support! Now I'm more confident with purchasing
[doublepost=1464143503][/doublepost]Do you guys think this is a good buy for the price, compatibility? Should be the same install process correct. Plug and play?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231926641189

This is a hybrid drive. It's a spinning hard drive with a small amount of solid state memory in it. It will run faster than a spinning hard drive but not as fast as a solid state drive. I wouldn't recommend it.

Here's a better option,

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Force-SATA-6Gbps-960GB/dp/B017UDPV1C

I have the 480gb version of this. The prices fluctuate a lot. I got the 480gb Corsair drive for about $120 when it was on sale recently.

The best SSDs are the Samsung 850 EVO and Samsung 850 PRO, but you'll pay more for these.
[doublepost=1464145674][/doublepost]PS. This is basically the drive that the eBay auction is selling,

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Gaming-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST1000LM014/dp/B00B99JUBQ

They're basically loading OS X for you and charging you $20 for it.

You can do this by creating a bootable USB flash drive. Download El Capitan from the App Store and follow these directions,

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201372

After you've installed the new drive, plug in the USB flash drive, hold down option when booting up and select the USB drive. Use Disk Utility to format the new drive, exit and then proceed with the OS X installer.

 

[jerryk]

With a 2010 Macbook you have a 3GB SATA bus. This is fast, but you can get by with the cheaper SSD. The 2011 Macbook Pro uses a 6GB SATA bus. The 3GB Sata is still much faster than a hard drive. Something on the order of 300 MB/Sec. With the 6GB SATA I see around 500 MB/sec. A hard drive is about 100 MB/sec or less.

On memory you can put up to 16 GB in the system. I have a MBP 13 upgraded to 16 GB and an Corsair SSD, and the difference between the rotational hard drive and 4 GB of memory is night and day.

 

[JTToft]

Is the hard drive as easy of a swap as the memory?

- Here are the instructions: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Hard+Drive+Replacement/4305

I would also recommend against the Ebay drive you linked to. You should get a proper SSD such as the ones suggested by MacInTO.

 

[JayD74]

- Here are the instructions: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Hard+Drive+Replacement/4305

I would also recommend against the Ebay drive you linked to. You should get a proper SSD such as the ones suggested by MacInTO.

Awesome thank you for the link,. Seems simple to follow.
Thanks guys for the advice as well.

 

[JTToft]

Awesome thank you for the link,. Seems simple to follow.
Thanks guys for the advice as well.

- You're welcome. Remember to use the right tools for the job as described by the guide.

 

[Resist]

Is there an easy way to copy everything from old MacBook Pro hard drive to the new SSD drive? I don't want to have to install everything from scratch.

 

[protoxx]

Is there an easy way to copy everything from old MacBook Pro hard drive to the new SSD drive? I don't want to have to install everything from scratch.

Either do a Time Machine backup and restore it to new drive or something like Carbon Copy Cloner. For Carbon Copy Cloner you would need a external sata to usb connection.

 

[Resist]

Either do a Time Machine backup and restore it to new drive or something like Carbon Copy Cloner. For Carbon Copy Cloner you would need a external sata to usb connection.

But Time Machine won't install the OS, right? I need to copy the entire drive to the new one, so after I replace it all I have to do is turn it on and my computer is working.

 

[protoxx]

But Time Machine won't install the OS, right? I need to copy the entire drive to the new one, so after I replace it all I have to do is turn it on and my computer is working.

Sure will.

 

[therealseebs]

On recentish machines, I've had to do the OS install and THEN restore from Time Machine, because apparently some things are automatically excluded by time machine or something.

 

[Resist]

Sure will.

I'm not so sure that's true. Because then that means I could use a Time Machine backup of a previous OS version.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm not so sure that's true. Because then that means I could use a Time Machine backup of a previous OS version.

It is true. If your restore (not migrate) to a new disk with a TM backup it will put the OS on there.

I'm not clear what you are trying to say with your second sentence there though?

 

[Resist]

I'm not clear what you are trying to say with your second sentence there though?

What I meant was, if this was true then I could restore my previous version of MacOS, what was on my computer before Sierra.

 

[Weaselboy]

What I meant was, if this was true then I could restore my previous version of MacOS, what was on my computer before Sierra.

You can do that with Time Machine if your backups go back far enough. There is a step in the restore process where you get a screen like this asking what date you want to restore from. If you pick a date from a previous OS version, it will restore that OS version. The only problem is, it only restores the data from that date also. But it will restore the old OS.

 

[Resist]

Thanks!