SSD/HD Hybrid for Macbook Pro (need advice before buying)

J

jasfa131

The Lone Deranger
My hard drive (the stock 5400rpm 320GB) in the 15" MacBook Pro isn't able to handle the intense demands I put on it with music production. At first, I was considering buying a 256GB SSD, but I don't have the funds for it. I figure the next best option is getting a hybrid HD/SSD.

I found one from Seagate (32MB Cache, 750GB, 7200rpm) that seems to be exactly what I'm looking for and in my price range.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/laptop-hdd/#tTabContentOverview

My questions are:
1. First of all, will this work with my 2011 MacBook Pro?
2. Is installation as simple as opening the laptop and plugging the new HD in?
3. I have an external drive set up for TimeMachine right now, can I have all my data put on the new drive in exactly the same place (instead of manually dragging over all of my files from a fresh install) ?

Thanks !
 
I would stay away from hybrid drives. I heard nothing good in the reports about them. I would look into a data doubler. Then find the largest traditional palter drive and a SSD installed in the same Mac. This way you can have the best of both worlds.
 
If I buy a new HD, and take out the old one. How can I use time machine to recover my backed up system exactly as it was?

Can I put in the new HD and simply use my USB Recovery Disk made with Recovery Disk Assistant?
 
If you have a time machine backup, then it's easy-peasy...
Put in your new HD.
Boot to the Recovery drive. The USB stick is not really needed on the newer Macs, your Mac will connect to Apple's servers over your internet connection, with all the same choices that you have when booting to a Recovery partition.
Anyway - boot to Recovery - and choose Restore from Time Machine backup form the Utilities screen.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/
And, follow the instructions to restore from your backup.
You may need to use Disk Utility first, to make sure the hard drive is formatted (erased) to prep for the install.
 
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