Install A Solid State Drive In Your Notebook

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Installing The SSD

The first stage was to change the hard disk. While on the majority of notebooks the hard disk is fairly easy to access (generally by unscrewing one or two screws), the MacBook Pro has to be taken almost completely apart. And as you’ll see, that is no picnic.

With A PC

With PCs like the Samsung R60 we used to illustrate this article, all you do is remove two screws and lift a panel to access the hard disk, as the illustration shows.

With A MacBook Pro

The Apple notebook, on the other hand, requires that you disassemble most of the case. Here are pictures of all the stages in our installation of the SSD in a MacBook Pro.

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Note that the SSD, despite its high price (around $700 not including tax), is rather poorly finished. To give you an example, we had to tap into the case in order to use the original MacBook Pro screws, even though they’re fully standard screws.

Pierre Dandumont
23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Is there something about that lenovo adapter that's special to lenovo laptops? Is it not a standard ata adapter with a standard form factor?
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    Good article.
    Reply
  • FHDelux
    I dont usually leave comments, but this article has no point. Anyone interested in an SSD, knows how fast it is and how to put one in a laptop. Also, why all of the sudden is this site being mucked up with rediculous MAC stuff. I could care less how fast a MAC boots up, its useless anyway. I come here to read about real computers, not, ooooo its pretty i wanna buy it cause it has a catchy theme song on the commercial computers.
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    What ever boost they got on there mac. You would get on your pc as well..

    Hell my photo shop still opens faster(within a second of the SSD times). But Quad + Raid will do that.

    What machine they use does not matter much. I do agree they may as well of just slapped it into one of there windows notebooks first since its not too hard to do and then they could get some benches for that, but the speed boosts should be about the same on either OS.

    Any day they gut hardware for upgrades(Even if its a mac) is fine with me
    Reply
  • palach
    I think it's more interesting to show what is the battery time gain by installing the SSD compared to the normal HDD in this or other laptops, since most people will take the laptop to a certified technical support if they want to install a new HDD or SSD.
    Reply
  • TeaCup
    In response to FHDelux, I used to be annoyed by everything Apple/Macintosh, until I actually got to use one. Strangely enough; my Macbook Pro is literally the most stable and capable WINDOWS system I've ever owned. I run Windows XP only, and everything works flawlessly. It's practically silent, and has better battery life than any other laptop I've owned. So you're a bit behind the times bashing the apple system they used. Great article btw.
    Reply
  • laxmidd50
    I think most people who know what a SSD is are capable of installing one themselves.
    Reply
  • boogman
    What's with all this "ATA drives not compatible"???


    SATA is ATA.


    PATA is also ATA.

    Sigh...
    Reply
  • bobloadmire
    i find it funny that my Vista desktop launches word and photoshop froma cold bott in about half the time the SSD mac pro does.But yeah ssd's FTW
    Reply
  • bobloadmire
    i find it funny that my Vista desktop launches word and photoshop from a cold boot in about half the time the SSD mac pro does. But yeah ssd's FTW
    Reply