MBP 13 inch., early 2011, i5 2.3 Ghz - HDD replacement

Theoretically your computer should work with any standard SSD but there were many reports from users that Samsung's 850 series was behaving erratically and their technical support team offered conflicting information. These reports died down after about 12-18 months - because the problem was resolved at Samsung's end, because Mac users stopped purchasing this drive? I don't think anyone knows. Many of us here had been strong supporters of Samsung, Crucial, and OWC drives and as a result of these issues dropped support of Samsung drives. I'm doing much less hands on tech work these days but personally have been sticking mostly with Crucial Tech & OWC drives. YMMV.

The SATA cable (more of a ribbon actually) issue has been well known for a long time. Personally I've never seen a cable that you could look at and know it needed to be replaced though I'm sure others have and I've seen only a handful of cables that needed to be replaced. Upgrading my own computers and those of family and friends I've never replaced the cable at the same time I replaced the drive but being a techie I've always had a cable on hand if needed. I've not needed it very often. YMMV.

As for the process of data transfer: I've put the new SSD in a dock and migrated from the computer to the SSD before installing it in the computer and I've installed the SSD in the computer and the original drive in the dock and then migrated. I'm not sure it makes a difference but a few people I know and respect prefer the latter - installing the SSD before migrating. I've not found it necessary to reset the SMC and as for TRIM - that depends on the SSD manufacturer's recommendation.

4everok wrote:

Thank you very much dwb for your precious help!

So my best choice could be Crucial`s MX500 SSD 1 TB, right?

If I need a new Sata ribbon which one do you think I`d have to buy?

Could you suggest the right way to transfer data from the old HD to SSD in your favourite chronological sequence?

In example I connect SSD via USB, format it, install OS X EL CAPITAN (the same OS X yet installed in HD, but a clean installation I suppose), then reinstall software (MS Office, i.e.) migrate all data (photos, music, documents...) etc.

Is there a step by step guide to follow upgrading SSD?

Thanks for you support

There's really only one ribbon connector available, and that's from Apple. I don't know where some of the parts stores get them (claiming they're new) because Apple theoretically doesn't sell those parts. They're available for Apple service centers/stores and AASPs to install. I don't think you really have any service concerns at this point since your machine is considered vintage by Apple.

There are any number of ways to do it - via Time Machine, cloning using an external USB drive enclosure, or reinstalling from scratch and then using Setup/Migration Assistant (with an external USB drive enclosure with your old drive as the source), etc.

As for the drive itself, there really isn't that much to differentiate different SATA SSDs. You're really pushing against the limits of the SATA interface. They almost all have about the read/write speed specs. I've done pretty well with a SanDisk Ultra 3D 512 GB, which is a capacity only available from Best Buy. This is essentially the same as the WD Blue 3D since WD owns SanDisk. I'd buy based on price and reputation. I'm a bit hesitant about the smaller players, but the big names like Samsung, SK Hynix, WD/SamSung, OCZ (Toshiba), and Crucial should be around to back up their products.

4everok wrote:

Hi y_p_w,

When you say: "You're really pushing against the limits of the SATA interface.", do you think that SATA interface could

be damaged working at SSD's speed?

Thanks a lot

No. What I mean is that the even if the internal portion of the SSD was faster, you're running into the limits of the SATA III interface speed, which is 6.0 Gbit/sec. If you look up specs of almost any newer SATA III SSD, they're going to be around 560 MB/sec read and 530 MB/sec write. That read speed is about 4.5 Gbit/sec There's also some overhead to the SATA III interface.

Think of it like having a Ferrari, that's limited by a 65 MPH speed limit. The performance of most new SATA SSDs are limited by the interface. There are faster interfaces such as PCIe/NVMe, but they're not backwards compatible with SATA. Well - they might be with an adapter, but they're still going to be limited to the speed of the SATA interface.

That would probably be my choice today. As far the the cable goes, I’d stay away from eBay because its nearly impossible to know whether you are getting a used cable or new. I’ve gotten cables at NewEgg and Amazon and stayed away from the obvious suspect offerings.

Assuming the current drive is healthy and you want to transfer everything, using Migration assistant is the easiest way. What I’ve done the last few times is to install the SSD and put the old hard drive into a dock and boot from the external (docked) drive. Since I have a dock this is my preference but you can also use a USB<->SATAcable. I’m having a senior moment here - I think I always launch Disk Utilities and format the SSD before running Migration Assistant (in the Utilities folder). After running Migration Assistant you’ll chose the external (your old hard drive) as the source and the SSD as the target drive. It’s just that easy.