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Switching a Macbook Pro 2009 to a 2016 shape

Or how SSD makes the life better for some people

Thursday 7 April 2016, by Valentin Murariu

So, you’ve got a friend (or more than one of them) who’s owning a Macbook pro from 2009. Or maybe it’s up to 2012: this article should apply, too. This friend is seriously considering buying a new Mac, because it’s soooo, but soooo, slow - you get the wait icon all the time on the screen, and launching more than one app at a time is an overkill.

Solution? Switch to a faster drive. Currently, the most convenient, and price-worthy option, is the SSD family.

Step 1: buy your SSD drive. Should be in a 2.5" format. Go for the same capacity as the drive you are trying to replace

Step 2: get a 2.5" enclosure. They come cheap. Install the SSD drive into the casing and plug the casing’s USB cable into the Macbook pro’s USB connector.

Step 3: chose of of the following options:
 easy-peasy with the help of an installable tool: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/upgrade-your-macbook-install-ssd-hard-drive/
 not so easy, but only using standard Mac OSX tools: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-replace-your-macbook-pros-hard-drive-with-an-ssd

That’s it! After swapping the old HDD with the new SSD, there will be such a good feeling of speed to the old/new Macbook pro.


Actually, if you really want to make it a tad little faster, consider replacing the standard 2x2GB (204-pin PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz) RAM with a 2x4GB RAM configuration.

And now, that’s the limit of what you could do with your old Macbook pro.