SSD upgrade on MBP?

[Cassady]

Mine gets jostled, a lot and barring one minor incident - my laptop was struck by a cricket ball (tremendous 6 btw) - I've not had any drive failures.

Damn those odds!

But seriously - would getting a 750(?)GB SSD be justifiable, considering the price, as opposed to the SSD/HDD option for approximately half the expense? Would it purely be an argument based on the expense, or would there be a bit of "no real benefit to only going SSD - combo is good enough/as close as good enough not to notice?"....

 

[vinodh]

My MacBook has a 128GB Vertex 4 running in Fusion mode with a 320GB HDD. The drive has about 200GB of data on it and write speeds are 216MB/s and read speeds are 440MB/s. I think it's a decent compromise. The SSD by itself is definitely faster but not really noticeable in normal use when compared to the Fusion drive. However, the HDD by itself is really slow. I will never change back to a HDD. I'm too spoilt now with SSD goodness.

 

[bwana]

My MacBook has a 128GB Vertex 4 running in Fusion mode with a 320GB HDD. The drive has about 200GB of data on it and write speeds are 216MB/s and read speeds are 440MB/s. I think it's a decent compromise. The SSD by itself is definitely faster but not really noticeable in normal use when compared to the Fusion drive. However, the HDD by itself is really slow. I will never change back to a HDD. I'm too spoilt now with SSD goodness.

I thought about creating a fusion drive but I didn't have any means to back up the hdd at the time. I also wasn't sure if the hybrid hdd in it would cause any problems.

My ssd on it's own thought is slower than your setup, at least with the write speeds.

 

[Cassady]

Think I'm just going to take the plunge and get everything via MacSales.com...

A OWC Data Doubler, 240GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, 5 piece toolkit; OWC Superslim USB 2.0 enclosure for the Apple Superdrive (removed to put in the SSD) - with DHL Express international shipping coming in at $340 - that seems pretty reasonable to me?

What you all think?

Granted - will still need to pay duties etc., and VAT - but the thought of getting everything I need from one reputable dealer is very appealing...

 

[Cassady]

Think I'm just going to take the plunge and get everything via MacSales.com...

A OWC Data Doubler, 240GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, 5 piece toolkit; OWC Superslim USB 2.0 enclosure for the Apple Superdrive (removed to put in the SSD) - with DHL Express international shipping coming in at $340 - that seems pretty reasonable to me?

What you all think?

Granted - will still need to pay duties etc., and VAT - but the thought of getting everything I need from one reputable dealer is very appealing...

 

[vinodh]

That's actually not a bad deal. The only advice I can give you is to take your time when doing the installation. Follow the instructions from MacSales.com very carefully and don't be tempted to rush anything. Also, that couple of seconds you have to wait from when you press the power button till when your Macbook actually boots up without any errors seems like forever.

 

[bwana]

That's actually not a bad deal. The only advice I can give you is to take your time when doing the installation. Follow the instructions from MacSales.com very carefully and don't be tempted to rush anything. Also, that couple of seconds you have to wait from when you press the power button till when your Macbook actually boots up without any errors seems like forever.

Agreed - when I replaced the superdrive on an old MBP because of a SATA error on the HDD bay I inadvertently broke the Wifi connector and had to buy a USB dongle so she could get online.

Personally I prefer the guides at iFixIt.com but that's just my personal preference. YMMV

 

[Cassady]

That's actually not a bad deal. The only advice I can give you is to take your time when doing the installation. Follow the instructions from MacSales.com very carefully and don't be tempted to rush anything. Also, that couple of seconds you have to wait from when you press the power button till when your Macbook actually boots up without any errors seems like forever.

Thanks!

Think I will be OK with the hardware side of things - learnt quite a bit about the need for good tools (hence my decision to get the OWC toolkit) - pretty sure my el cheapo micro-screws is what caused my issue with the stripped screw some time back, when I upgraded my RAM...

Having my MBP open - was strangely comforting - my Mac suddenly became familiar to me again - it doesn't look all that different, afterall, to the various desktops we pulled apart and rebuilt as kids...

I am however VERY unclear about the software side of things. So will no doubt be hanging around here, getting plenty of advice before doing anything...

I downloaded CCC - and will probably clone with it. The one thing that has never been made very clear in all the countless threads and video-tutorials, is how a 500GB is "cloned" onto a 256GB SSD... Cannot get my head around that. I presume you "tell" CCC what to clone, and what to leave - in which case, I will simply leave my iTunes & iMovie libraries on the HDD - and take all the rest across??

Spent the better part of the morning reading up on many different sites and forums. At least I'm now clear on keeping the HDD in the main drive, and simply installing the SSD in the optical bay - mid-2012 MBP's SATA will be able to handle things, and I take comfort in leaving the platter-drive where it belongs...

 

[bwana]

Thanks!

Think I will be OK with the hardware side of things - learnt quite a bit about the need for good tools (hence my decision to get the OWC toolkit) - pretty sure my el cheapo micro-screws is what caused my issue with the stripped screw some time back, when I upgraded my RAM...

Having my MBP open - was strangely comforting - my Mac suddenly became familiar to me again - it doesn't look all that different, afterall, to the various desktops we pulled apart and rebuilt as kids...

I am however VERY unclear about the software side of things. So will no doubt be hanging around here, getting plenty of advice before doing anything...

I downloaded CCC - and will probably clone with it. The one thing that has never been made very clear in all the countless threads and video-tutorials, is how a 500GB is "cloned" onto a 256GB SSD... Cannot get my head around that. I presume you "tell" CCC what to clone, and what to leave - in which case, I will simply leave my iTunes & iMovie libraries on the HDD - and take all the rest across??

Spent the better part of the morning reading up on many different sites and forums. At least I'm now clear on keeping the HDD in the main drive, and simply installing the SSD in the optical bay - mid-2012 MBP's SATA will be able to handle things, and I take comfort in leaving the platter-drive where it belongs...

What I did was install a clean OS on the new drive and then migrate the old stuff I wanted over to the SSD. I decided to leave my user directory on the old HDD but only because it was a little too large for my liking.

I'll pass along a word of advice someone gave me recently when I did this - don't forget the recovery partition! CCC may or may not do this.

Agreed with leaving the HDD where it is - that's where the sudden motion sensor is. The SATA speeds will be the same regardless.

 

[Cassady]

What I did was install a clean OS on the new drive and then migrate the old stuff I wanted over to the SSD. I decided to leave my user directory on the old HDD but only because it was a little too large for my liking.

I'll pass along a word of advice someone gave me recently when I did this - don't forget the recovery partition! CCC may or may not do this.

Agreed with leaving the HDD where it is - that's where the sudden motion sensor is. The SATA speeds will be the same regardless.

Saw that Recovery Partition warning earlier - and only have the vaguest notion of what that entails - I presume it is one of the steps to complete when formatting the SSD for the first time using Disk Utility?

Whereas I kind of get what you (and others) are suggesting - it's the actual nuts and bolts that's making me a bit nervous...

In other words - I don't entirely understand the finer workings of the OSX yet... Leaving the user directory on the HDD makes sense to me, since it would disturb very little, but manually migrating things over to the SSD - that's where I start falling short... It's the "how to actually do" what everyone says you should do, that requires a bit more research on my side!

Actually - ignore the above. ;P

I could go on for hours - and no point in doing that now, since I would then just have to do it again when everything arrives... Pretty sure that when I have everything with me - it will focus the mind on getting the specific questions, and correct order of things properly lined up!

 

[bwana]

Saw that Recovery Partition warning earlier - and only have the vaguest notion of what that entails - I presume it is one of the steps to complete when formatting the SSD for the first time using Disk Utility?

Whereas I kind of get what you (and others) are suggesting - it's the actual nuts and bolts that's making me a bit nervous...

In other words - I don't entirely understand the finer workings of the OSX yet... Leaving the user directory on the HDD makes sense to me, since it would disturb very little, but manually migrating things over to the SSD - that's where I start falling short... It's the "how to actually do" what everyone says you should do, that requires a bit more research on my side!

Actually - ignore the above. ;P

I could go on for hours - and no point in doing that now, since I would then just have to do it again when everything arrives... Pretty sure that when I have everything with me - it will focus the mind on getting the specific questions, and correct order of things properly lined up!

The recovery partition is created when you install the OS on the new drive - that's why I'm not certain if CCC will create it for you.

 

[vinodh]

For me, Time Machine worked a treat. Backed up to an external drive via Time Machine, installed the SSD, restored from Time Machine. You can specify what to restore or in my case, just restore everything. I used Time Machine to restore everything when I created the Fusion drive as well.

 

[Cassady]

For me, Time Machine worked a treat. Backed up to an external drive via Time Machine, installed the SSD, restored from Time Machine. You can specify what to restore or in my case, just restore everything. I used Time Machine to restore everything when I created the Fusion drive as well.

I'm hoping this could work for me too - since I would then simply be selective about what I restore, to keep things off the SSD that would take up too much space... But this leads to all sorts of questions:

1.) How do you 'invoke' a TM restore? Is it fairly straightforward - and how detailed is the option where you get to tell TM what it must leave (i.e. iTunes/iPhoto library etc.)?
2.) Would restoring via TM then 'make' the SSD a bootable drive? Or would it still need to be formatted in that way initially?
3.) What do you do with the HDD that was the original bootable drive? Surely you cannot have two of them co-exist? Wouldn't I need to change something on the HDD to 'make' my MBP boot from the SSD, rather than the HDD?

Apologies for all the silly questions... Live and learn.

 

[bwana]

3.) What do you do with the HDD that was the original bootable drive? Surely you cannot have two of them co-exist? Wouldn't I need to change something on the HDD to 'make' my MBP boot from the SSD, rather than the HDD?

System preferences>Start up disk - then select the drive you want to boot from.

 

[Cassady]

System preferences>Start up disk - then select the drive you want to boot from.

Thanks Bwana - I remember that now.

I presume this is then how things remain, until you change it? So can the original HDD just be left as is - or would there be some benefit to reformatting it?

 

[vinodh]

Use an external drive thats more or less the same capacity as your hard drive. Use Disk Utility to erase it. When you Open the Time Machine app, you can select the external drive to use for backups. From that point onwards, you can use that drive to perform daily incremental backups by simply plugging in the drive to your MacBook.

To restore from the drive, startup your MacBook with the Time Machine drive plugged in and hold down the Option(Alt) key. It will then show you the SSD, your old HDD and the Time Machine drive. You can choose to boot from the Time Machine drive, use Disk Utility to erase the old HDD, if needed and then select the SSD and let Time Machine restore everything. You can choose to restore your profile with Apps and settings or, without Apps, or some other combinations. I just normally restore the lot.

In System Preferences, you can choose what drive will be the startup disk. This means that you can keep the old HDD just in case something goes wrong as an additional backup and boot from the SSD that was restored from Time Machine.

 

[vinodh]

I was still typing when Bwana posted the Startup Disk info. He's quick on the trigger.

The old HDD can be used to create a Fusion drive if needed or you can just keep it separate for data storage.

 

[Cassady]

To restore from the drive, startup your MacBook with the Time Machine drive plugged in and hold down the Option(Alt) key. It will then show you the SSD, your old HDD and the Time Machine drive. You can choose to boot from the Time Machine drive, use Disk Utility to erase the old HDD, if needed and then select the SSD and let Time Machine restore everything. You can choose to restore your profile with Apps and settings or, without Apps, or some other combinations. I just normally restore the lot.

In System Preferences, you can choose what drive will be the startup disk. This means that you can keep the old HDD just in case something goes wrong as an additional backup and boot from the SSD that was restored from Time Machine.

Good idea with your last tip about using the HDD as a backup bootable - I guess the only downside to not formatting, would be still having space taken up by the OS - which is probably negligible in any event...

TM is looking like a good option.

I'll do a bit more research about the latter to get clarity on what exactly can be transferred...

 

[bwana]

One nice thing about restoring from the original hdd is that it's much faster than using an external drive unless you've got it in a thunderbolt or fw800 enclosure. As with restoring from time machine you can choose what you want to restore from the migration.

Have to be said I'm not a fan of time machine. I used it once when I had to restore a new hdd (after that cricket ball incident) and it was painful. These days all my backups are via superduper. If the drive fails I just pop in the backup drive and I'm good to go.

 

[Cassady]

One nice thing about restoring from the original hdd is that it's much faster than using an external drive unless you've got it in a thunderbolt or fw800 enclosure. As with restoring from time machine you can choose what you want to restore from the migration.

Thanks Bwana - at the risk of going round in circles, something just clicked in my head after reading a post over at Macrumors... http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1572848

Correct me if I'm wrong - but I could simply:-

1.) Install the SSD in the optical bay;
2.) Boot up on my existing HDD - and initialise the SSD.
3.) Use CCC to selectively clone only what I need to, to the newly initialised SSD.
4.) Make sure the SSD is working as it should - OK - not entirely sure how I would do this... and then -
5.) Reboot, but then launching off the newly cloned SSD?

Does that make sense?

I think what I needed to get my head around, was being able to start up my MBP with the old HDD - after the new SSD was already installed... So obvious now that I think about it - but I kind of assumed everything would explode if I had both a SSD/HDD in my laptop at the same time, with the OS not knowing what to do with what...