Apple MacBook Pro SSD Drives And Take-Apart Tips


"Classic" White Intel MacBook SSD Drive Upgrades

A reasonably easy SSD drive swap: The Classic white and black Apple Intel MacBook has 3 screws in the battery compartment to access the MacBook's "L" shaped metal strip that covers the memory slot. Remove it and you'll see the plastic tab that allows you to pull out the SATA I speed hard drive. 4 Torx screws on the standard drive mount holes remove the thin 'tray' that holds the drive. Put tray that onto your new SATA SSD and slide it back in. Replace the "L"-shaped memory cover, then the battery. That easy.



Note: The White 'consumer' MacBooks all used a SATA I speed 1.5 Gigabit controller chip until early 2009. It wasn't until the first Unibody Aluminum models (and revised late 2009 models of the White MacBook) that Apple moved up to a SATA II 3 GBPS speed controller chip. So if your laptop is several generations old, you may not need to buy a really high-performance SSD. 'Value' series SSD's may be a better match for the 'slower' SATA I spec. Use Apple System Profiler to determine if yours is 1.5 or 3.0 Gigabit.




UniBody MacBoook Pro SSD Drive Upgrade Insights

Apple finally got design decisions right to make Unibody MacBook and MacBook PRO SATA hard drives easily replaceable. They're right under the battery compartment cover (and along with Mac Pro towers) - one of the easiest solid-state Mac drive upgrades to perform. You'll want a good Apple toolkit with a set of Torx bit drivers and small Philips screwdriver. In a nutshell: Turn off the notebook, disconnect cables, flip it over and push down the latch to release the access door, discharge static electricity, unscrew the drive retention bracket, disconnect the SATA connector, remove the 4 T-6 screws and install them on the new drive, and reassemble the computer. It's really that easy!




Internal Battery UniBody MacBoook Pro SSD Upgrades

Apple made things different with the built-in Li-On battery models in it's Mid 2009 and later MacBook Pros. The entire bottom cover must be removed. Then 2 Phillips screws in the drive's lock bar are removed. Lift the hard drive, remove the SATA II cable, then swap drive mount screws. Verify the rubber grommets are in position for the solid-state drive. Reassemble, noting that some of the bottom cover screws go in at a slight 15 degree angle on the rounded bevel edges. Also note the 3 right-rear screws are 13.5mm long - all others are short 3mm.




Rev A and Rev B MacBook Air SSD Insights

Apple changed the TYPE of SSD in the MacBook Air : When first introduced, the Rev. A Air used a PATA - Parallel ATA 40-Pin ZIF interface 1.8" 5mm thick SSD made by Samsung. See this article about the MTron Mobi PATA SSD at notebookreview.com which can be used to upgrade/replace an SSD in the Rev A MacBooks.

Things changed with Later Rev B and beyond models of the MacBook Air. Apple switched to an unusual, somewhat nonstandard LIF SATA Interface rather unique to Samsung and perhaps custom spec'd for Apple.

In 2010, Apple again changed the MacBook Air SSD to a custom interface flash chip module. More like a slim memory chip upgrade, it's proprietary shope somwhat limits options for upgrading to a larger drive module. If you can afford it, OWC offers a custom 512GB module for Air MacBooks.

Learn more about OS X compatible flash memory hard drive options for Macintosh desktop and laptop computers: Visit the Home Page of Apple Solid-State Drive Upgrades for New Flash Storage Product Announcements, Best Performing SSD Prices, Cheap Flash Drive Deals, and Upgrade Tips.