This is a step-by-step guide for installing a new internal SSD drive on a 13 inch, mid-2010 Macbook Pro. It’s a slightly modified version of the OWC guide.

• Check your Mac is compatible – it should be a “Mid-2009”, “Mid-2010”, “Early 2011,” “Late 2011” or “Mid-2012” MacBook Pro model. You can check it using Apple’s instructions here.
• Buy the right stuff to do the job – you’ll need:1. An anti-static wristband to prevent damage to your laptops internals from stray anti-static sparks from your body. I went for this one from Maplin’s
  3. A #00 Phillips screwdriver and a T6 Torx screwdriver – I got my Phillips one here and the Torx one here (both from Amazon).
  3. Some way to connect up your SSD drive before you install it (so that you can format it and clone your data onto it) – You could use a drive enclosure, but I got this nifty Bipra tool to do the job (it can handle lots of different drive types).
  4. An appropriate SSD drive (2.5 inch internal) – I went for the Crucial 512GB M4 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5 SSD.

• Once you have your new drive hook it up to your Macbook and clone the data from your drive onto it using this OWC guide. I used the Carbon Copy Cloner – it cloned 121GB in around 2 hours.
• Test that your cloned drive can boot ok – Once you are happy follow the instructions on the OWC video to pop your new SSD into your Macbook. Don’t forget to put your anti-static wristband on first and attach it to an earthed source (I used a radiator downpipe) before tinkering
  

The inside should look something like this (the SSD drive is in the bottom left-hand corner)

• If you opt for the Crucial drive you should update the firmware on it – there are a number of issues reported of the drive freezing up on MBP’s using old firmware. To do this head to the Crucial firmware page, download the latest firmware for the Crucial m4 2.5-inch SSD (current version at time of writing is 010G), burn the .iso image to a CD or DVD, reboot your Mac to load from this disk and follow the Crucial guide to install it.
• You should also enable TRIM support on the Mac OS to preserve the lifespan of your SSD by ensuring that OSX does good garbage collection on your SSD.
• Finally, if you notice slower than normal bootup times with your new drive you may need to zap your PRAM to remove the old drive from the list of startup disks.

Happy hacking !