MacBook Pro 2009 with 160 GB Hitachi SATA HDD that won’t mount. Repair or replace with SDD.

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro 2009 with 160 GB Hitachi SATA HDD that won’t mount. Repair or replace with SDD.

I have a MacBook Pro 2009 with 160 GB Hitachi SATA HDD that won’t mount therefore can’t erase. The Macintosh HD sub directory was erased and now I can’t reload OS X. Apple Support was kind to troubleshoot on the phone due to it being an obsolete product, but diagnosed hardware issue that will need to be seen by a third party to repair. Can I upgrade to a SSD in this system? And if so, will I be able to load OS X again? I’m not computer savvy, but willing to learn and try to salvage this laptop.

Posted on Jun 13, 2020 8:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

71,678 points

Jun 13, 2020 4:23 PM in response to Jx4

Yes you can replace the hard drive with an SSD. You will need to be careful with the SSD used though since not all current SSDs are compatible due to issues auto-negotiating the SATA link speed with the slower SATA II drive controller on this laptop. I've used Crucial MX series SSDs on some 2010 models without any issues, but I haven't installed any SSDs on the 2009 model. You want to stay away from the Crucial BX series though as they can be as slow as a hard drive. OWC sells an OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD which doesn't have any issues auto-negotiating the link speed since the 3G SSD uses a SATA II controller as well.

If you cannot boot into Recovery Mode due to a bad hard drive, then you will need access to another Mac compatible with macOS 10.11 El Capitan so you can download and create a bootable macOS USB installer.

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

Or you will need to use a retail copy of the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD so you can install OSX 10.6 so that you will then be able to download & install macOS 10.11.

Reply

MacBook Pro 2009 with 160 GB Hitachi SATA HDD that won’t mount. Repair or replace with SDD.

Similar questions