Performance has dropped significantly!
I am trying to figure out if the best thing to do is to get an SSD drive or if there is another better solution to my mac issues. Do you have any ideas?
Is this a good question?
Score
0
287466
1 Answer
Chosen Solution
Rep: 478.9k
35
329
970
Before you go down the upgrade path did you clean out the buildup junk like the log and cache files? Give this app a try: Disk Doctor.
The next thing here is to clean off at least 1/3 of the disk of your old stuff. Remember your system leverages the drive as virtual RAM, so when you don't have much space left it will bog down.
The next step here is make a backup before you go on
These next steps require you boot up from a bootable external drive as you'll need to check your drives health and you'll want to defrag the drive. Run Disk Utility fixing the drives permissions (run it at least twice), next repair the drive. Now the last step you'll want to get a defrag app like: Drive Genius.
I recommend you give your system the once over at least once a year. Afterwards you should see a dramatic performance improvement!
OK, to much work ;-} Then go with the drive upgrade just make sure you get a drive thats large enough. Given the systems age you may want to go with a SSHD hybrid drive like a Seagate laptop SSHD or you could go with a SSD. The only rub here is the cost of the larger SSD drives maybe to much to spend.
We've been putting in Seagate SSHD's in our laptops (over 200 in the field) with great success! We've just started to put in some SSD's in the newer MacBook Pros we have (1 & 2 TB Samsung drives).
We haven't migrated to the retina systems as the RAM & storage limits are too low for our field engineers requirements.
Update (02/02/2016)
Ah... The plot thickens ;-}
Some systems have had issues with the drives SATA cable. This series does not have a chronic failure history (unlike others). While I've had to replace a few most of the time its do to visible damage to the cable.
If we review the specs of this series (see above URL link) we can see the drives SATA port is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) so you could have an issue by putting to fast a drive into it. Many drives are fixed speed (i.e. SATA II or SATA III) and don't play nice when put into a system which is expecting a different SATA speed. Some drives offer auto sense so they match the systems SATA port. In some cases the drive may offer a jumper which needs to be set.
Review the drive specs under the systems profile services About This Mac... > System Report... > SATA/SATA Express section. Paste the drive info here for us to see as well.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
2
I did all that and it performs for a while then drops again. One of the other macbook pro's we had at the office ended up being a cable issue that's why I was asking. Do you guys do diagnostics? Are you guys in Port Washington?
Replace the HD/IR cable with a new 2012 15" cable: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable
IFIXIT is not a service outfit, they do sell parts and offer this site as a place for volunteers to offer their knowledge to others. Some members do offer their services, you'll need to look at their profile to see what they fix and how to contact them. In most cases you would need to ship your equipment to them.
1 Comment
MacBook Pro 15" 2.53 GHz i5 (Mid-2010)
by Dan