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Need A DIY of Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD upgrade

I'm familiar that there are many tutorials on how to actually swap out the hard drives.

I'm asking for someone to help me clone my old hard drive first and how, as well as if or not i need to enable TRIM (since my Mac didn't come with an SSD from Apple).

I have a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7, upgraded 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 of RAM, Model # A1286.

Also after I clone it and swap it with the old one, is there anything special i need to do in order for my Mac to start and run as it does with its current hard drive.

Please post as I'm sure others will ask the same question.

I have not found any specific instructions for my Mac. Last one I looked it said to enable TRIM for third party SSD, But on Apple's forums i saw that MacBooks that did not come with an SSD don't quite have that feature/not necessary. I am not quite sure so please help.

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Yes it can be confusing! The time points of what you are reading is why this is somewhat mixed up.

So lets start from the start you don't really want to 'Clone' you what to 'Migrate' your old HD to you new SSD.

To do this you'll need a SATA case or adapter to hold your new drive. Ideally, I would get a Thunderbolt or FireWire drive case that way you can reuse your old drive as a backup drive. These are also the fastest interfaces your system has. Otherwise you can get a USB case or adapter while slower are easier to find. Here's one: Startech 2.5" SATA to USB adapter.

Using Disk Utility you'll need to format the drive for GUID and Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Once thats done run the OS installer I would stick with the Sierra release of MacOS for now and setup a new user account. At the end of the install process you will be asked if you have any apps & data to transfer from another drive this is where you'll Migrate your user accounts, apps & data over. while this is a longer process it creates the recovery partition, sheds your old logs and other no longer used config files. Don't forget to install any OS updates.

OK, the system is setup and running and you want to tune it up a bit more this is where TRIM services comes in.

TRIM was added as an upgrade in Yosemite for use by 3rd party drives. In the case of Samsung EVO drives it can be used without any fears (all of your MacBook Pro's that have Samsung drives have it enabled 200+ systems). You'll need to run a terminal session to enable it, here's a good writeup on it: How to Enable TRIM for Third-Party SSDs on Mac OS X

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So once I format my SSD (btw I have the 850 PRO, not the EVO), then migrate from my old hard drive to the SSD I then manually swap the drives? Correct?

Once I start my computer with a new drive will it require system settings changes or will it start up as my old hard drive did.

Also, how will I know that my SSD will be running up to 6 Gb/s as I see some people having issues with SATA cable.

Also, I am currently running El Capitan 10.11.6. Is updating to Sierra a must before setting up new SSD?

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There is really not difference between the drives (EVO Vs PRO). We just went with the cheaper drive. ;-}

1 - Somewhere in the process you'll need to open the system and swap the drives over. You can put the SSD in first (using the HD in the external case to boot up from) or put the new SSD in the case or connect to the adapter externally leaving the HD alone. The best way to think this: Which sox goes on what foot? It really doesn't matter does it, as long as they are a same (pair).

2 - The only thing you'll want to do is reset the Startup Disk setting, thats it after you swap the drives over.

3 - If you are concerned your HD SATA cable is bad I would just replace it in the upgrade process. Other than running some 3rd party performance test and comparing to another system which is the same as yours there is no real means to tell if the drive is running at 6 Gb/s

4 - No you don't need to upgrade to Sierra if you already have the El Capitan installer on your system.

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