SSD replacement on 2009 Macbook Pro

Hi

It is a shame indeed. I have not got an SSD yet, but may say to the shop I am going to that if they can make it work then I will buy one. I am pretty sure it is not the cable as the 750g Hitachii SATA 2 drive would not work without hanging in the optibay or main HD bay.

I will let you know how I get on, but I am not hopeful.

Berni

Thanks - looking forward to hearing about how your experience goes.

I am motivated to make this MB Pro last 1-2 more years. I am very circumspect about buying the new MB Pro - as much as I like the retina display.

Nothing can be upgraded in the new retina display MB Pro. Not the RAM. Not the HDD. And definitely not the battery.

My 2009 MB Pro battery is practically dead - and it has not even done 307 load cycles - but I have service required indicator for some time.

And I am not too eager to buy new charging bricks - since I want more than one, and over-priced dongles for display port compatibility.

Hi

Well, I have fitted a Plextor 256 M5S SSD on a clean install in the main bay, and to my great surpise it is working perfectly so far. No beachballs on Safari, or itunes, but it is early days yet. Blackmagic disk spped test gives just over 190 write and 250 read speeds.

I will let you know how it goes......

All the best

Berni

Do these speeds mean that you are able to achieve 3G speeds that the link in MacBook Pro 2009 is good for?

Hi,

Yes getting 3Gigabit negotaiated speed. The other original drive is getting 1.5 Gigabit still. Read and write sppeds on the old drive are around 40 for read and write, so the SSD is much fater, and feels it.

I will see how stable it is over the weekend but good so far.......

Berni

That is very promising. I will also start looking out for 512GB drives and buy one.

Btw, did you move the current HDD to the optical bay?

Hi

I did have the SSD in the main bay and teh old HDD in the optical, but have now swapped them over as I prefer the HDD to be in its original position with the movement sensor, sound insulation and shock absorbers. The SSD is tougher so can live safely on the opticlal bay.

All the best

Berni

Hi Berni29,

I need to ask one more question then - because this setup that you just described can mean that I can retain my 512GB drive in its current place and simply put the SSD in the optical drive. No more noise than the current setup, and my speed fix can still be attained.

Q1. Is the SSD delivering 3G speeds in the Optical drive as well?

Q2. Is it possible to make the SSD which is installed in the Optical drive to become the primary boot drive?

If yes, did you do a clean OS install?

I would ideally like to import the OS from the current HDD, or replicate it from the current HDD using CCC (Carbon Copy CLoner). However, unsure if I can replicate a 512GB drive, perhaps leave out the Pictures and Music and Movies folder and fit it. Should be possible.

Q3. Did you use the OtherWorldComputing enclosure?

Thanks a bunch for helping!

Hey Berni, do share one more update!

1. SSD in optical bay still delivering 3G speed? Esp in the context of 2009 MB Pro.

2. I figured that I can make any disk the start-up disk. So that is answered.

Hi There

I moved the SSD to the main body of the Macbook, and put the old drive in the optical bay. So far the SSD has been perfect and is working at 3 gigabits. I did do a clean install, but then migrated stufff accross which did cause some permission problems. I have Mountain Lion and all my apps on the SSD and home folder plus data on the old HDD. The old HDD is still negotiating at 1.5 gigabits although it is SATA 2. I would get a new one but the as I previously posted I had problems with a more modern 7,200 rpm drive that works perfectly in a late 2008 MBP, but will not run in my machine at 3 gigabit, so am reluctant to mess around.

It is easy to boot from any bootable disk.

Please let us know how you get on.

All the best

Berni

Will update when I upgrade then.

Moving SSD to primary HDD means that I will have to buy a 512GB SSD.

My HDD is quite noisy (7200rpm) and I do not want to put the noisy HDD in the optical drive tray.

Hopefully, thanksgiving will bring some attractive deals on the 512GB drives.

Hi

Apologies! Actually I started out with the SSD in the main bay, but swapped over and now the HDD is in the main bay and the SSD is in the optibay. The SSD works at the same speed in either bay (tested with Black Magic).

Berni

hmm. that changes things - I can then go for 256GB SSD also.

which optibay did you use? one sold by OWC i think sold for $50 or so when I checked. Amazon seems to carry some for much lower...

I personally have a Mid-2009, 2.5Ghz Core 2-Duo 15" Macbook Unibody with upgraded 8GB RAM from OWC installed and then decided to swap off my 250GB HDD for an SSD. Upon doing some research I made my decision going for OWC's Mercury Electra 6G SSD and then installed it. There was a big improvement to start, however, upon completeing a read/write test I found the drive was averaging a top speed of 123mbp/s... which is completel garbage in comparison to the advertised ~500mbp/s r/w speed that was promised.

After making some calls to the company they informed me that this model of Macbook is limited by it's slowest component. In other words a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. They informed me that SSD's are designed on different levels of platforms and you need to properly match up your units capacity to the SSD. *This does not necessarily mean you'll be limited to a maximum read/write speed, however you need to choose the right tools to get there. I with lack of better knowledge purchased a SSD on the 6G platform which made an improvement, however, was designed to communicate with a faster Apple logic board and thus did not run at full speed in my out-dated machine. I then returned this to the company in exchange for their lower-end Mercury Electra 3G unit, naturally on the 3G platform and now have maximum reads of ~497mbp/s r/w.

If looking towards an SSD I would highly recommend selectin one that operates on both platforms from 3G - 6G + because you will experience problems if the capacities are not matched. Many companies allow this such as Crucial, Samsung (specifically in the 830's and 840's), etc.

Reporting on my experience:

I have a Macbook Pro 2009. Recently I upgraded to Crucial m4 512GB SSD. Quite happy with the purcahse.

Here is an image - not too bad.