installing Solid State Hard Drive

Question

installing Solid State Hard Drive

Hi

As the title suggests, i'm trying to install a Samsung SSD 850 EVO to replace the factory standard HD, however I'm encountering problems which i'm hoping someone can help me with?

I've tried to follow a video on You Tube which gives directions on what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBgjnIv0a7w

All I'm trying to do is a fresh new install of my Macbook Pro, not put it back to how it was before (I've saved everything i need onto my external HD). I've tried switching the two HD's using the guide in video, however when I switch on my laptop to use it, instead of getting the apple symbol in the centre of the screen, a flashing file icon with a question mark in it is appearing instead. It's as if the laptop doesn't recognise the hard drive??

i've read about people creating 'bootable flash drives'. I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what that is, i just thought that was if you wanted to transfer any saved data onto the new HD, which i'm not looking to do at this stage? i just thought this process would be as straight forward as switching the 2 hard drives and voila!! (excuse my ignorance if there more to it than this, however from watching the above video, I really did think this would be very straight forward).

I received an installation disk with my new hard drive, do I need to use this at all?

If anyone can give me some advice or a beginner step by step guide on what I should be doing, it would really be appreciated!

Many thanks for reading

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 6, 2016 6:42 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 6, 2016 7:02 AM in response to Community User

What OS X version came installed when you bought your computer?

Which OS X version would you like to install?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 6, 2016 7:09 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me.

It came with Mountain Lion and I'm looking to use the most recent El Capitan

The Macbook Pro I have is a 13-inch, Mid 2012.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 6, 2016 7:14 AM in response to Community User

IT might also be worth adding that all the files on the installation disk are .exe however when I bought the HD, they said it will work with my Mac, however I may need to format it?

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 6, 2016 7:25 AM in response to Community User

Download El Capitan from the App Store. Quit the El Capitan installation as soon as the download finishes.

Follow this guide to create a bootable El Capitan USB installer.

Swap your original HDD with the new SSD. Insert the USB installer into a USB port. Turn on the Mac, press and hold the alt key, select the USB stick as a boot drive. Launch disk utility to clean up the SSD and create a new partition.

The SSD must be partitioned using GUID partition table and HFS+ journaled filesystem.

Go on with the installation.

Reply

Answer 5

Courcoul

Level 6

18,726 points

Jan 6, 2016 7:38 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

You can also use DiskMaker X to create the bootable USB 10.11 installer stick. Does the same things except it is automated and needs nothing more than a few clicks.

Note that the OS X El Capitan installer (now at 10.11.2) is 6.2GB in size. Downloading will take time and you need to have enough room to store it. Also note that after it runs when upgrading from a previous OS X, it erases itself. So be sure to keep a copy of it elsewhere unless you have the masochistic vice of watching things download.

For getting your content on the new drive and OS, there are two (and a half) options: clone the current OS X volume onto the SSD and upgrade-in-place there, or install a fresh copy of ElCap on the SSD, then migrate the stuff from the previous drive. The migrate option can either be done at setup, when the Setup Assistant asks if you want to move your stuff from a previous system, or later thru the Migration Assistant. If you do go the "fresh install then use Migration Assistant" route, be sure to configure an initial administrator account that's completely different from anything you currently have, else you may run across permission and naming problems.

Lastly, it has been discussed that upgrading to an SSD on Macs that did not have it from the start may fail if the drive is already mounted internally. So get an external enclosure, put the drive there and do the installation. When all is good and peachy, swap the drives.

Reply