UpGrade to SSD Without a bootable usb or clone?

Yes you can use Internet recovery if you computer supports it. OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

I don't think recovery will work, because the recovery partition is on your hard drive which will have been removed.

After the OS X is installed you can use Migration Assistant from Time Machine. Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

However it is much easier to clone your existing hard drive using either Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.

If you clone your drive to SSD, you can test it without removing your existing drive.

You can connect your SSD using either an external drive enclosure like this one from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Price%7c0&Ne=5000&N =6430&Ntt=On-The-Go+Kit or a USB to SATA cable like this one.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B006J2L0ZM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detai lpage_o07_s00

My method of choice would be cloning your hard drive to SSD.

Kim

Quickest way is to get an external enclosure for the SSD, plugging it to the still "original" Mac, formatting it, then "copying" the contents of the internal onto the external. "Copying" in this context means cloning, which can be done using any of the shareware products such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, or simply by starting up the Mac in Recovery Mode and using Recovery's Disk Utility to Restore the internal onto the external drive. Once the cloning is done, test it out by restarting and holding down the Option key: both drives should show up in the list, choose the external.

Once you're satisfied it all works, merely swap the drives. Keep the original drive untouched in the enclosure for a few days till you're sure all is ok, then you can use it for backups.

This Seagate Solid State Hybride Drive will fit fine inside the computer. For the external case you would be better getting a USB 3 not USB 2.

Also keep in mind this is not a SSD it is a Hybride Drive. Hybrids drives are somewhere between a SSD and a Hard Drive as far as speed goes.

I have never used one of these drives, but don't expect the speeds of SSD drives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBhf8rpobo

Kim

That's a hybrid drive, not a true SSD. It has a [big] mechanical drive as backend, with a solid state frontend that serves as a cache and speeds things up. Thus getting [mostly] the best of both worlds: better speed, lots of room and not the hideous cost of an SSD (1TB SSD would probably exceed the cost of the Mac). Go for it!

As for the enclosure, if your Mac (which you did not identify) has USB3 ports, better choose one with that kind for better speed. Cloning will take awhile, we're talking hours here.

Keep in mind that someday you may upgrade to a Mac with USB 3 ports.

For the extra $ I think USB 3 is a better choice.

Kim

Absolutely you can. USB 3 is backward compatible with USB 2.

Kim