Upgrade to SSD on Macbook Pro 15"

GunRunner

GunRunner

GunRunner

Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2007
Posts
603
Please bear with me, I am out of touch with the latest partition software and the latest SSD drives.

I currently have a Macbook Pro (15" early 2011). It is the intel core i7 2.2 ghz with 8gb RAM (2 x 4gb 1600 mhz modules).

It has the older Toshiba 750gb (5400 rpm) drive that I always found slow. In early 2011 when my brain was a little faster, I partitioned the drive and installed Windows Pro 7 (x 64) into a 250 gb NTFS partition to run several windows programs including Quicken 2000. Leaving 500gb for Mac OS X. Naturally it has Boot Camp version 4 installed allowing me to boot to OS X 10.11.4 (El Capitan) or Windows 7. It is necessary for me to keep this configuration, because when I go on holiday (frequently), I use Quicken 2000 for my finances.

I have been looking at upgrading the HD to an SSD (BX200 960GB SSD SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (CT960BX200SSD1)) or similar.

My question is as follows;

Is it possible to just clone the current HD (contents and partitions) to an SSD and carry on using both the Mac OSX and Windows 7 as I am doing now?

I was looking at making the Mac OS partition smaller (say 230 gb) when cloning so that I could save some pennies going to a smaller size SSD say 500gb, although this is not imperative and if it best left alone at the full 500gb then I will.

I would like advice from any knowledgeable reader on how to proceed with pointers to partition/clone software. Keeping it simple is the name of the game. If this was a standard PC, I would have no problem.

Two further questions.

1. If I disconnect the DVD writer and couple up an SSD on the end of its cable, would it [SSD] be recognised and would I be able to clone directly from the 750 gb Toshiba to the SSD, and then switch cables back to the normal configuration?

2. Is this software useful for my cloning and changing the size of my partitions?

http://download.cnet.com/Stellar-Partition-Manager/3000-2094_4-75375362.html

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Bump!

Anyone any thoughts on this? Surely there are experts in this area on this forum?

Perhaps I should just clone the existing Apple partition onto a new SSD and then create a new partition and reinstall Windows 7 x64 into it.
 
A complete reinstall is always better but you can clone it.

I would do this;

1) https://www.overclockers.co.uk/dyna...enclosure-black-usb3-hd2.5s-1b-hd-000-dn.html
Pop the SSD in, use cloning software to clone your current HDD to the SSD.

2) Swap the HDD and SSD, (handy to have the 750gb in the enclosure, after using the SSD for a few weeks and everything is ok then just format it and keep it for backups)

3) Boot up the laptop and everything should be as you had it before but 1000x faster!

Regarding changing sizes of partitions, when you clone the HDD it will just adjust to fit on the SSD I believe, never done a boot camp clone before!

As I say, I would if you can do a complete reinstall as I always find its good to 'blow away the cobwebs' and then set things up fresh!
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
A complete reinstall is always better but you can clone it.

I would do this;

1) https://www.overclockers.co.uk/dyna...enclosure-black-usb3-hd2.5s-1b-hd-000-dn.html
Pop the SSD in, use cloning software to clone your current HDD to the SSD.

2) Swap the HDD and SSD, (handy to have the 750gb in the enclosure, after using the SSD for a few weeks and everything is ok then just format it and keep it for backups)

3) Boot up the laptop and everything should be as you had it before but 1000x faster!

Regarding changing sizes of partitions, when you clone the HDD it will just adjust to fit on the SSD I believe, never done a boot camp clone before!

As I say, I would if you can do a complete reinstall as I always find its good to 'blow away the cobwebs' and then set things up fresh!
Click to expand...

Thanks for this information. Good to know.

Any thoughts on the cloning software? To clone both partitions?

My primary concern is to clone the Mack OS, so which software for Mac? If push comes to shove, I would reinstall windows 7 x64, but if I can get away with cloning both in one go I will.

Thanks
 
Carbon Copy Cloner is well recommended, what I would do is give it a go.

If it clones and you boot from the SSD and its not quite right then I would say just reinstall.

Dont do anything to the original hard disk until your 100% happy as worst case with the cloning etc you can put it back in and carry on working.

* Ensure you backup what you need to also before any cloning to another external drive or something! Can never be too sure!
 
Not directly related to the OP but I see a lot of talk of cloning drives, CCC often mentioned, but less talk of using Time Machine. Can't Time Machine be used restore an OS X system onto a clean drive from the backup?
 
Yes, it can, it's just a lot slower. Also, if you don't have a base install of OSX to work from or a recovery partition then you have to boot over the Internet...which can take a while.
 
Forget bootcamp. It is unnecessary complication for everything. Much better for you to use virtualisation and install your finance software in a VM.

Personally I'd recommend following approach:
1) Create a OSX install USB-stick
2) Backup OSX to timemachine
3) Backup everything from windows via whatever method you want
4) Take off the old HDD and put in the new SSD
5) Reinstall OSX from USB-stick and restore from time machine during installation
6) get virtualisation software (like parallels or vmware fusion if you are willing to pay, or virtual box for free)
7) Install windows from scratch to a virtual machine
8) Restore you windows data to the virtual Windows.

Enjoy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom