Summary :
Generally, it is recommended to clone the hard drive of your Mac in case you decide to upgrade the hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD), replace an old or corrupted drive with a new one or if you are going to create a bootable hard drive. In most cases, all these demands can be achieved with the help of cloning. How to partition a Mac hard drive or SSD, or create a APFS volume. (read about how to get old versions of macOS and Mac OS X here). Select the new partition as the location for the installation.
SSDs are very affordable nowadays. If your Mac isn’t too old and ready to retire, this upgrade is a good move. Don't worry if you don’t know how to finish MacBook Pro SSD upgrade; I will give you a tutorial to show you how to do.
With the maturity of SSD technology and the reduction in price, a lot of Mac users plan to upgrade Mac with SSD. After the upgrade, both the speed and performance of Mac will be improved a lot.
Do You Really Need to Upgrade Mac with SSD
Replacing your old hard drive with a new SSD is actually an easy and quick way to boost speed and performance. Yet, the Mac SSD upgrade is not always necessary.
How to confirm whether you need to conduct MacBook pro hard drive upgrade?
- Firstly, you should figure out what are you usually using the Mac for. If you only do some simple works like look up information on the internet and word processing on Mac, the traditional HDD is enough.
- Secondly, if you only want to speed up your Mac, please try clearing junk files. This may help a lot in speed increase.
When Is the MacBook Pro SSD Replacement Necessary
If you come across the following sings on your Mac, it means that you really need to upgrade the MacBook with a new SSD:
- Slow startup every time when you power on Mac
- Sluggish performance in many apps (such as PS)
- Sudden system crash now and then
- File permission errors without any signals
Tip: If you find your Mac hard drive is failing, please hurry to recover data from the failing hard drive and upgrade it with SSD.
How to Upgrade MacBook Pro SSD
Step 1: choose a proper SSD.
What you should take into consideration?
- The reliability
- The read/write speed
- The memory (SLC, MLC, or TLC)
- The capacity: keep a balance between capacity and price
Step 2: prepare necessary stuff.
What are needed during Mac SSD upgrade?
- A SATA-to-USB cable or dock
- A small screwdriver used to open Mac cover
- A Torx head screwdriver used to disassemble the old hard drive
Step 3: format the SSD.
- Connect the new SSD to your Mac via the cable or dock you prepared.
- Open Disk Utility the way you like.
- Choose View and Show All Devices in order.
- Select the new SSD from the left sidebar.
- Click on the Erase button.
- Change the settings if you need.
Step 4: copy the hard drive of your Mac to the SSD.
Step 5: remove the hard drive.
- Shut down your Mac.
- Remove the screws with the small screwdriver you have prepared (put the screws together into a container so you won’t lose any of them).
- Take the cover off and release the static electricity by touching the metal part.
- Unscrew the two black screws on the plastic bracket securing the hard drive. Then, remove the bracket and the hard drive.
- Swing the connector to disconnect the SATA ribbon attached to one end.
- Remove the four Torx screws on the hard drive with the Torx head screwdriver you prepared.
Step 6: install the SSD.
- Put back the four torx screws you have removed from the old hard drive.
- Attach the SATA ribbon to the new SSD you prepared gently.
- Put the SSD to the same place as the old hard drive.
- Attach the bracket.
- Attach the back cover and screw in the ten tiny screws.
- Turn on your Mac to enjoy it.
That’s how to finish the MacBook pro hard drive upgrade.
Finding your MacBook dead? Please start to recover your data from it at once!
To recover data from dead MacBook may be a difficult task for you before, but it will not be like this from now on.
Top Reasons for Upgrading Mac with SSD
Actually, there are mainly 4 reasons to explain why you should upgrade the Mac old hard drive with a new SSD.
- Obviously, the SSD is much faster than the HDD.
- Besides, the SSD uses less power than the HDD.
- Next, the SSD is more resistant to drops and bumps than the HDD.
- Finally, the SSD often has a longer service life than the HDD.
Partitioning a disk on a Mac is an effective way to organize your data into different categories. However, the main concern is that most external hard drives and USB keys come formatted for Windows, which is primarily for PCs. By default, a Mac runs a different file system, so it may bring issues while partitioning your disk on Disk Utility.
Hard drive partitioning is a common issue discussed in many tech forums. In a thread on Apple’s support forum, users complain that their Mac Disk Utility partition grayed-out while trying to partition their external hard drives.
Probably, you just bought your external hard drive and are eager to use it on your Mac. But somehow, you cannot access the Mac Disk Utility partition, so you can’t write data to the drive.
Fear not, we have a solution to this problem. In this post, we will guide you through a step-by-step process on how to restore a grayed-out Disk Utility partition. Many Apple users who have faced Partition grayed out in Mac issues eventually partitioned their external hard drives with the help of these fixes.
Why Partition Grayed Out in Mac (Plus Solution)
Problem 1: Sometimes, you cannot access the Mac Disk Utility partition because your hard drive doesn’t have sufficient space.
Solution: If you want to go ahead with the partitioning task, you need to create more space on your hard drive. In other words, you have to erase the data on your drive to create additional space. You can then format your hard drive using GUID Partition Table. After that, go ahead with your partitioning plans.
Samsung Partition Ssd
Important Note: Before formatting your hard drive, back up your most important files. Needless to say, the process will get rid of all the data on the disk, so you risk losing your files for good.
Problem 2: As mentioned earlier, external drives are usually not compatible with macOS, which may bring issues when you want to partition. In most cases, users choose the wrong partitioning option, and as a result, the Partition option in Disk Utility remains grayed out.
Solution: The right way you should follow when selecting a partition option is to choose the drive name within the list provided under Internal or External (depending on the device you want to partition). Your hard drive will be available on the left side of the Disk Utility pane.
How to Restore Grayed Out Disk Utility Partition: Format Your Hard Drive to Work with Mac
To format your external disk to be compatible with macOS, connect your hard drive to the Mac and follow these steps:
- Open Disk Utility by going to Applications, then select Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Choose the drive name within the list provided under ‘External’. If your hard drive is connected, it will show in the left panel of the Disk Utility. Highlight the disk and click the Erase button in the top toolbar.
- Wait for a window asking you to select the file system you want to use to format your external drive to pop up. For your case, you will select ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’. But if you have plans to use your disk for both PC and Mac, then a better option is ‘ExFAT’. You can also rename your hard disk here to your desired name.
- Wait for the formatting process to complete. The process usually takes less than a minute, but it depends on the size of your hard disk.
- When done, confirm if the formatting was successful by right-clicking the icon for your disk on the desktop and then choosing Get Info. The information is available under Format.
Ssd Partition Software
Antivirus zap 3 1 0 – virus & adware download. If it reads “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”, congratulations, you successfully restored the grayed-out Disk Utility and your hard disk is now compatible with macOS.
Partitioning Your Hard Drive on Mac
Now that you have prepared your hard drive to work with Mac, the next step is to partition it on your Mac by following these steps:
- Launch the Disk Utility app on your Mac and highlight the hard drive icon under ‘External’ (for external hard drives). If you choose any other drive, the partition option will become unclickable.
- Now click Partition on the top toolbar. A window that has partition information will pop up. On the left side of the window, look for the name and the volume size of your hard drive. The next step is to click add(+) button on the bottom of the window to create partitions on your disk. Allocate the desired volume size to each partition.
- Hit the Apply button and wait for a window asking you to verify your choices. Confirm the changes by clicking the Partition button.
- Wait for the process to complete. You can confirm if the process was successful on your desktop. You will see additional disk icons show
Should I Partition Ssd
Pro Tip: If the main reason for partitioning your hard drive is to install Windows, Apple recommends that you use Boot Camp Assistant instead of Disk Utility. You should, however, note that you cannot use Disk Utility to erase a partition generated using Boot Camp Assistant. Make chromebook look like mac.
What Else Can You Do to Resolve Common Mac Issues
If you are like many users, partitioning a hard drive on Mac may not be the only challenge you have had with your computer. Mac users have also reported slow performance, random freezes, and space issues. The best way to guarantee the best performance for your Mac is to scan and clean the computer. Outbyte MacRepair helps you to optimize your Mac for peak performance by checking for and cleaning up junk files, unnecessary apps, and other space hogs that may affect your Mac’s memory.
We hope the above solutions helped you to restore the grayed-out Disk Utility partition. As always, we would love to hear your success story. Share it in the comment section. Also, let us know if you experienced challenges during the partitioning process.
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If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
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