Or you use Time Machine to restore your system to the new drive. You can also boot into recovery mode by holding down Command-R at startup, then you go through the steps to set up the new drive. It will still boot from the old hard drive, but when Finder launches, it should offer to initialize your brand new hard drive if you haven’t formatted it or cloned your data to it already. Step 8: A new startįinally, boot your MacBook Pro. Reinstall the camera and right speaker/subwoofer cables, put the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket back together and reinsert the screws you removed before reconnecting the battery and putting the MacBook Pro’s back plate back on and replacing the screws to complete the upgrade. Go through the previous steps, reinserting the hard drive, optical drive and AirPort/Bluetooth cables back into their slots on the logic board. Once the enclosure is in place, swap the hard drive screws over to your new storage device, attach the hard drive cable, insert the new drive into place and replace the hard drive bracket. Remove the screws holding the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket into place, then remove the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket itself, then disconnect the right speaker/subwoofer cable from the logic board before disconnecting the hard drive and optical drive cables from the logic board. Step 3: Disconnect other items Photo: Chris Barylickĭisconnect the optical drive cable, camera cable and the cables hooked into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket around the top left hand side of the computer. Remove the bottom plate, put it to the side and disconnect the battery before you proceed. Step 2: Disconnect the battery Photo: Chris Barylick Turn the MacBook Pro upside down and discharge any static from your body by touching a piece of metal and begin removing the screws, keeping them organized as you go. Place your Unibody MacBook Pro on a soft, static-free surface. Step 1: Open the laptop Photo: Chris Barylick Not only is it always good to back up your data before doing a hardware upgrade, you can use the backup to set up your new primary storage device.

A driver set with a small Phillips head screwdriver as well as a Torx 6 driver.īefore you proceed, back up your data.Other places where you can buy an enclosure include This enclosure holds the drive that fits into the MacBook Pro’s optical drive slot. Photo: Chris BarylickA hard drive enclosure kit specially made to fit the Unibody MacBook Pro.If you add a SSD, you’ll breath new life into your laptop, because the speed and responsiveness of the SSD as the primary drive will help your MacBook Pro’s overall speed. You can add a second hard drive so you can have more storage space. Photo: Chris BarylickA second 2.5-inch SATA notebook storage device.

Replace mac hard drive