sunnykk84
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: 2009 MBP HDD Replacement

I am planning to upgrade my SO's 2009 MBP hard drive as it failed last week. I had an extra internal drive lying around from my old PC and I made it into a bootable Mavericks OS external drive using the directions posted here (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796). I did not understand the last part of the article where it says "Once installation to your external device is complete, you can use it to start up your computer. You can then use Disk Utility, the Mac App Store and the OS X installer to install, or erase and install OS X on the normal startup drive of your computer"

Can't I just pop this drive into the HDD slot and assume that this is the boot drive OR do I need to run some commands to let OS know that is a primary boot drive now?

Also, I plan to upgrade the MBP to a new SSD. How do I make the transfer in the easiest possible way? Sorry if I have asked stupid questions but I haven't dealt much with Mac OS and not sure how to install the OS from an external boot drive.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Mar 10, 2015 9:15 PM

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sunnykk84

Q: 2009 MBP HDD Replacement

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  • by kaz-k,

    kaz-k kaz-k Mar 10, 2015 10:23 PM in response to sunnykk84
    Level 5 (5,975 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 10, 2015 10:23 PM in response to sunnykk84

    As far as understand, you can use replaced internal drive as primary boot drive.

    And you can make bootable clone drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Mar 10, 2015 10:24 PM in response to sunnykk84
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Mar 10, 2015 10:24 PM in response to sunnykk84

    I recently paid 10 bucks for a drive caddy which replaced my Superdrive (never use it) and fitted a SSD as the main drive and used the Sata drive as the secondary drive. Before I even formatted the SSD I checked the old Hard Drive in the new Caddy and it worked just fine to boot up the Mac. I don't think you will have any issues with it. I do highly recommend the pure speed of the SSD though. This was in the same model MBP as yours.

     

    Pete

  • by sunnykk84,

    sunnykk84 sunnykk84 Mar 11, 2015 11:16 AM in response to petermac87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 11:16 AM in response to petermac87

    Thanks!! I ordered Crucial MX200 today.

     

    A quick question. Last week, since my SO's MBP was not booting up (or going into recovery), I copied the installer file for OS X Mavericks from my friend's Mac (by going to Mac store on his apple ID). Is it OK to do that?

     

    OR do I need to login with my SO's apple ID and download/install whatever shows up under her "purchased/installed" in Mac store?

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Mar 11, 2015 1:51 PM in response to sunnykk84
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 1:51 PM in response to sunnykk84

    Download your own as his or hers will be tied to their Apple ID for future updates.

     

    Pete