What comes after installing new hard drive?

Inktekm wrote:

Yes that is the way I would do it. Best way ever.

Directly is the easiest. However, the first time I did it I didn't have an enclosure - just an external 3.5" hard drive. I did it by cloning to the external drive partition (my backup) and then recloning to the new internal drive after booting from the external drive.

The most direct methods are to either use DiskMaker X to make an USB installation thumbdrive of the version you’d like, and to clone an existing OS to the new drive; the second option requires having both drives connected to the computer at once.

Alternatively, you can use the computer’s original disks or Apple's Internet Recovery system to install an earlier OS on the new drive and then upgrade it. In any case, the new drive will need to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but this can be done from an earlier OS.

(140389)

I suggest the following procedure:

Order an enclosure for a SATA 2.5" HDD in which you will install the replacement HDD (this will also serve as a home for the current HDD).

Connect the new HDD to the MBP via USB.

Open Disk Utility>Erase and format the new HDD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Then use Disk Utility>Restore. The current internal HDD will be the SOURCE and the new external HDD will be the DESTINATION. That will copy ALL information, including the recovery partition, to the new drive from the old. (this may tale several hours depending upon how much data you have)

Boot the MBP with the OPTION key down.

Select the new HDD icon. If it boots the MBP, perform the physical swap.

Ciao.

Hi Michael:

You have a Mid 2010 13 inch Macbook Pro running OS X 10.9.5

OWC is a good place to go for upgrading your Macbook Pro: OWC SSD's

or OWC HDD's

I upgraded my Early 2011 13 inch Macbook Pro using a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB SSD and I have seen a dramatic speed increase.

Once you decide on a HDD or SSD, I suggest that you install it in an enclosure OWC external case or using a USB to SATA adapter USB to SATA adapter and connect it to your MBP via USB.

Open Disk Utility>Erase and format the SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and a GUID partition.

Then use a third party application such as Carbon Copy Cloner Carbon Copy Cloner (Not free, but worth the price) or Super Duper to copy all data from the internal HDD as well as the recovery partition.

The clone will be a exact copy of your hard drive and it will be bootable.

Boot the MBP with the OPTION key and select the new SSD.

If it boots the MBP, perform the physical swap of drives.

Also now that you have your computer open you may want to upgrade the memory. It is very easy. You can install either 8GB or 16GB

OWC OWC memory or crucial Crusial Mac memory are good places to get memory.

You could look at a video guide to see how much is involved.

OWC install videos

Note the model identifier of the computer you have as most applications are shown in page.

Check this link to identify your MacBook Pro model.

• How to identify MacBook Pro models - Apple Support

Kim

Take note of Oglethorpe’s recommendations. If you don’t use an enclosure or drive dock, without a backup you’ve lost all your documents, music, photos, etc. Not only that but you’ll have to download and/or install all your programs again. By purchasing an enclosure you’ll have a source drive to migrate your stuff from and you’ll have a backup drive.

Yes that is the way I would do it. Best way ever.

Thanks! I was missing the step "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Once I went into disk utility, it installed!