Upgrading Your MacBook Pro with an SSD: A Step-by-Step Guide

As you can see, we've got the optical drive at the top side and traditional hard drive down at the bottom. We're going to pull this 750 gigabyte hard drive out from this location and put it into our adapter. The hard drive is super easy to remove; it's just two little screws along the top side, held in place by Philips double-0 screws. They're attached to this bracket piece, which can be lifted out easily.

We put the hard drive to the side and then you can just lift it up and out. This is a lot easier than it used to be on older generation MacBook Pros, where you had to remove the SATA connector on the back. Be careful with that; don't want to tear the ribbon. On the side of the traditional drive, you've got some screws that hold it in place when it's installed. These are Torx T6 screws, which we'll put into our SSD once it's ready.

We're going to remove these little screws and pull off the screw tabs on the side of the hard drive, as they're held there by a little bit of sticky glue. It's just held in place; no big deal. The reason we need these little feet is that they help us get the SSD into the traditional drive bay location. These are also Torx T6 screws.

Now, let's look at this adapter. This just basically allows you to put a 2.5-inch laptop drive or SSD into your optical drive bay. The reason I'm putting the hard drive into the optical drive bay and not the SSD is because on this particular MacBook Pro, the optical drive bay is only three gigabits per second, whereas the traditional hard drive bay is six gigabits per second. Our Vertex 3 SSD can utilize the extra speed of the other bay.

We're going to remove from the optical drive: there's these three connectors and these two screws along the top that will help you lift up this bracket that holds some of the antenna wiring. Then, there are three screws around the outside of the optical drive; these are Torx T6 as well. After you've got those out, you can just pry the optical drive up and out. Be careful with it; it's fragile.

The optical drive has a couple of connectors on it that are important for interfacing with our adapter. These are going to be crucial in getting everything set up correctly. You'll have to pull this little piece out here and unscrew the backside bracket, which has two screws there. They're easy to spot; you can see them. You'll need to pull that off and put it onto your adapter as well.

Once you've got all that hooked up, slide the adapter along with your hard drive back into its location, lining it up properly. Don't worry if it feels a little bit more loose than the original; it's definitely safe in there. Now that we have our Vertex 3 installed and everything is connected, let's pick up this bracket I mentioned earlier with the two Phillips screws on it.

Zip it back into place once you've got all the parts secured. That's when your SSD will be secure as well. Since we don't have an optical drive installed anymore, we'll go ahead and install our OS over USB. We've got a dedicated USB hard drive for OS installs that I'll show you how to set up in a future video.

For now, let's boot up to the traditional hard drive. Launch Disk Utility; then select the OCZ Vertex as one partition. If your SSD is going to need multiple partitions, just go ahead and select all of them. Once we've got that set up, we'll select the format type. Some have suggested using journaled for it but prefer non-journaled over it because it gives a little bit of extra security and won't slow down as much.

So, once we've got our format type selected, we're ready to go ahead with our USB install. I'll show you guys how to set that up in a future video, along with some benchmarks on this Vertex 3 drive.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys it's Lou from unbox therapy today I'm going to show you how to put an SSD inside of your MacBook Pro I'm using the vertex 3 and I'm also going to move my traditional hard drive over to the optical drive bay using this adapter you'll need a Phillips number double zero screw driver as well as a Torx t6 use some decent ones because these screws are really easy to strip you got to pull all the screws off the bottom plate and like I said I've used some cheaper Chinese screwdrivers before and these aluminum screws on the MacBooks are just not happy with those kinds of screwdrivers they get stripped real easy so let's go ahead and remove the backplate and reveal the interior of the MacBook Pro and as you can see we've got the optical drive at the top side and traditional hard drive down at the bottom we're going to pull this 750 gigabyte hard drive out from this location and put it into our adapter now the hard drive is super easy to remove it's just two little screws along the top side here that Philips double-0 screws and they're attached to this bracket piece you can lift the entire thing out after you've got it unscrewed of course we put it to the side and then you can just lift the hard drive up and out this is a lot easier than it used to be on older generation MacBook Pros you've got to remove the SATA connector on the back be careful with that don't want to tear the ribbon now on the side of the traditional drive you've got some screws that hold it in place when it's installed you got to remove these these are Torx t6 screws you're going to put those into your SSD once it's ready and pull off that little pull tab and install that on your SSD as well it's just held there by a little bit of sticky glue no big deal just helps you get it out so here are those little screws the little feet we got to go ahead and install those into the SSD because it's going to be going into the traditional drive bay location again these are Torx t6 screws so once you get that all zipped up put it to the side because we're not going to put it in straightaway we're going to wait till we've got the optical drive out so here's that adapter and this just basically allows you to put a two and a half inch laptop drive or SSD into your optical drive bay now the reason that I'm putting the hard drive into the optical drive bay and not the SSD is because on this particular MacBook Pro the optical drive bay is only three gigabits per second whereas the traditional hard drive bay is six gigabits per second and of course my SSD being a vertex three can utilize the extra speed of the of the other bay so here's what we got to remove from the optical drive there's these three connectors and these two screws along the top will help you to lift up this bracket that holds some of the antenna wiring and then there are three screws around the outside of the optical drive these are Torx t6 as well so after you've got those out you can just lift this little bracket up and that will enable you to sort of get at this last Torx t6 down on the bottom side here and then you can just pry the optical drive up and out just be careful with it it's fragile so put that to the side now the optical drive has a couple of connectors on it these are going to be important this is how we interface with the adapter so you've got to pull this little piece out here and you've also got to unscrew the little backside bracket here there's two screws there you can see them you got to pull that off and put that onto your adapter as well so once you've got that all hooked up all you got to do is slide the adapter along with your hard drive back into that location line it up properly now you don't have as many screw points on the adapter so it might feel a little bit more loose than the original but don't panic it's definitely safe in there so here's the vertex 3 and this is the last part to get this installed here simply go ahead and connect the SATA connector push that in and then align the little feet that you installed push those in as well and then it should just drop down nicely on the other portion there you have it now all you have to do is pick up that little bracket I mentioned earlier with the two Phillips screws on it zip that baby back in and the vertex is going to be secure as well now since I don't have an optical drive installed anymore I'm going to have to go ahead and install my OS over USB now that's ok because I've got a USB hard drive dedicated to OS installs I'll show you how to set one of those up in a future video until then we'll boot up to the traditional hard drive the original 750 launch Disk Utility then we'll select the OCZ vertex click on partition in my case one partition is fine you may need more I'm going to call mine SSD then we've got to select the format type now some have suggested that journaled slows down in SSD but it's going to give you a little bit of extra security so I prefer it over a none journaled partition so once we've got that set up we're ready for our USB install and like I said I'll show you guys how to do that in a future video stay tuned for benchmarks and more of this vertex 3 drive so far feels real fastwhat's up guys it's Lou from unbox therapy today I'm going to show you how to put an SSD inside of your MacBook Pro I'm using the vertex 3 and I'm also going to move my traditional hard drive over to the optical drive bay using this adapter you'll need a Phillips number double zero screw driver as well as a Torx t6 use some decent ones because these screws are really easy to strip you got to pull all the screws off the bottom plate and like I said I've used some cheaper Chinese screwdrivers before and these aluminum screws on the MacBooks are just not happy with those kinds of screwdrivers they get stripped real easy so let's go ahead and remove the backplate and reveal the interior of the MacBook Pro and as you can see we've got the optical drive at the top side and traditional hard drive down at the bottom we're going to pull this 750 gigabyte hard drive out from this location and put it into our adapter now the hard drive is super easy to remove it's just two little screws along the top side here that Philips double-0 screws and they're attached to this bracket piece you can lift the entire thing out after you've got it unscrewed of course we put it to the side and then you can just lift the hard drive up and out this is a lot easier than it used to be on older generation MacBook Pros you've got to remove the SATA connector on the back be careful with that don't want to tear the ribbon now on the side of the traditional drive you've got some screws that hold it in place when it's installed you got to remove these these are Torx t6 screws you're going to put those into your SSD once it's ready and pull off that little pull tab and install that on your SSD as well it's just held there by a little bit of sticky glue no big deal just helps you get it out so here are those little screws the little feet we got to go ahead and install those into the SSD because it's going to be going into the traditional drive bay location again these are Torx t6 screws so once you get that all zipped up put it to the side because we're not going to put it in straightaway we're going to wait till we've got the optical drive out so here's that adapter and this just basically allows you to put a two and a half inch laptop drive or SSD into your optical drive bay now the reason that I'm putting the hard drive into the optical drive bay and not the SSD is because on this particular MacBook Pro the optical drive bay is only three gigabits per second whereas the traditional hard drive bay is six gigabits per second and of course my SSD being a vertex three can utilize the extra speed of the of the other bay so here's what we got to remove from the optical drive there's these three connectors and these two screws along the top will help you to lift up this bracket that holds some of the antenna wiring and then there are three screws around the outside of the optical drive these are Torx t6 as well so after you've got those out you can just lift this little bracket up and that will enable you to sort of get at this last Torx t6 down on the bottom side here and then you can just pry the optical drive up and out just be careful with it it's fragile so put that to the side now the optical drive has a couple of connectors on it these are going to be important this is how we interface with the adapter so you've got to pull this little piece out here and you've also got to unscrew the little backside bracket here there's two screws there you can see them you got to pull that off and put that onto your adapter as well so once you've got that all hooked up all you got to do is slide the adapter along with your hard drive back into that location line it up properly now you don't have as many screw points on the adapter so it might feel a little bit more loose than the original but don't panic it's definitely safe in there so here's the vertex 3 and this is the last part to get this installed here simply go ahead and connect the SATA connector push that in and then align the little feet that you installed push those in as well and then it should just drop down nicely on the other portion there you have it now all you have to do is pick up that little bracket I mentioned earlier with the two Phillips screws on it zip that baby back in and the vertex is going to be secure as well now since I don't have an optical drive installed anymore I'm going to have to go ahead and install my OS over USB now that's ok because I've got a USB hard drive dedicated to OS installs I'll show you how to set one of those up in a future video until then we'll boot up to the traditional hard drive the original 750 launch Disk Utility then we'll select the OCZ vertex click on partition in my case one partition is fine you may need more I'm going to call mine SSD then we've got to select the format type now some have suggested that journaled slows down in SSD but it's going to give you a little bit of extra security so I prefer it over a none journaled partition so once we've got that set up we're ready for our USB install and like I said I'll show you guys how to do that in a future video stay tuned for benchmarks and more of this vertex 3 drive so far feels real fast\n"