I recently bought a few OCZ ARC 100 240GB SSDs as Newegg had them on sale ($59.49 each). I currently use a 2009 MacBook Pro, and it has been showing its age. The first bottleneck was the RAM, which I upgraded to the maximum 8 GB. This helped for a while, but in the past few months I have noticed that high amounts of disk read/write were slowing down the computer as CPU and RAM were not nearly fully utilized. With this upgrade, I get a bit more space (I’ve had to get used to 160 GB) but more importantly faster loading times for applications. It is extremely satisfying to see an application bounce only once on the dock instead of 5-10 times.

The goods:

  • MacBook Pro 2009
  • OCS ARC 100 240GB SSD
  • PH000 Philips head screwdriver
  • T6 torx screwdriver
  • 16 GB USB drive

The process:

First, download the OSX Yosemite installer from the App Store.  Then format the USB drive using Disk Utility:

  1. Open Disk Utility
  2. Select USB drive (not partition)
  3. Go to Partition tab
  4. Select 1 Partition under Partition Layout
  5. Under Options make sure GUID Partition Table is selected
  6. Name OSX
  7. Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
  8. Then click Apply

To put the installer on the USB drive, run this (from Lifehacker):

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia -volume /Volumes/OSX -applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app -nointeraction

Now power off the computer and remove the 10 screws on the bottom of the computer.  Then, unscrew the 2 screws holding in the drive clip.  Carefully remove and disconnect the drive from the ribbon cable.  It is not fun to replace the ribbon cable if it gets broken (plus you’re out $20).  In the case of my SSD, it did not come with any mounting parts, but it does have the same 4 screw holes the Mac hard drive has.  Unscrew the 4 tiny nubbins around the hard drive and screw them into the new SSD.

To put it back together, connect the drive to the SATA ribbon cable, place it back in the drive bay, screw the drive clip back in place, then screw the bottom plate back on with the 10 screws.  The 3 long screws go in the rear center and the corner with the MagSafe plug.

Plug in the USB drive and while holding the option (alt) key, turn the Mac on.  After a few seconds of holding the option key, it should show an option to boot the Install OS X Yosemite drive.  Select that, and wait for it to boot which will take a few minutes.  Once it is booted, run Disk Utility and add a Macintosh HD partition to the SSD.  It will need to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format and have a GUID Partition Table as set under the Options button.

After the partition settings are applied, quit Disk Utility and run Install OS X.  From there on it is a normal installation.  I have always found that at the end of the installation, it will get stuck on About a second remaining but usually it will continue on after a few minutes.

The results

I have noticed a marked increase in the speed of my MacBook Pro since upgrading to a solid state drive.

Old startup time: 3 minutes 40 seconds

New startup time: 36 seconds