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SSD for 2011 MBP: Summary
- Thread starter jijitrash
- Start date
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Question for the day I take the SSD plunge...is it possible to make an exact copy (image) of my current HDD and port that to the SSD so that I don't have to reinstall all my apps and things?
When I picked up my 2011 MBP I used TimeMachine to "migrate" over, but found my laptop seemed to perform slowly, and some apps were not installed correctly (would pop up saying I need to register my trial, etc), so I reformatted and started from scratch. I would HATE to have to re-setup all my stuff again (Photoshop, Office for Mac, Parallels, etc on the mac side, and ArcGIS, Office, and AutoCAD on the Windows side). Extremely time consuming...
When I picked up my 2011 MBP I used TimeMachine to "migrate" over, but found my laptop seemed to perform slowly, and some apps were not installed correctly (would pop up saying I need to register my trial, etc), so I reformatted and started from scratch. I would HATE to have to re-setup all my stuff again (Photoshop, Office for Mac, Parallels, etc on the mac side, and ArcGIS, Office, and AutoCAD on the Windows side). Extremely time consuming...
Yes. Very easy. Just put the SSD in an external USB enclosure then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive to the new.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
Good news there, I will be gettin my owc 120 very soon
(used) until sata3 issues sorted -
Did you do
fresh install Osx and all aps?
fresh install Osx + data migration?
CCC old hdd image to new?
Have you disabled hibernation and stopped sleep- or does it all simply work ok?
with osx and all apps
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
Exactly- that sucks!
However, isnt performance degradation less of an issue with SF ssds in HFS?
Hope apple sort this as I really have my heart set on vertex 3
It's really not as bad as it seems. The primary issue is that people are dead set on using only the very fastest SSDs, and that narrows the field and excludes the ones with no compatibility issues.
I'm using an Intel X25M series drive and have yet to experience a single issue. People are scared by the lack of trim and GC, but after many months I've yet to experience any performance degradation that I can actually feel.
All of these drives are so much faster than a mechanical hard drive it's crazy.
SF-based SSDs have their own GC which is pretty effective. There are quite a few SSDs that don't need TRIM since their FW prevents degradation sufficiently.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
Yes exactly what I thought!
Hence I went for owc drive as temporising measure till next gen Sata 3 drives like the vertex 3 has had potential probs ironed out
It's a bit of a game this!! I ordered a 15" MBP last week, but the Apple SSD is a €500 extra (256gb) when of course I could buy a Crucial 300 for around €430. So I took the 500gb 7200.
I was kinda hoping the Crucial M4 would get released any day now, but spoke to them direct today and it is late April release.
As the Crucials will have no TRIM until I assume LION, and I have in effect already been forced to pay for the 500gb hard drive in the Apple regardless, my own plan is:
1. Run with the standard 500gb 7200 for next 2-3 months.
2. Upgrade to LION in June.
3. Then I can buy an M4 (or other) with TRIM support.
I also just bought my 8GB from Crucial rather than pay €200 with Apple.
Sounds like a sensible plan?
I was kinda hoping the Crucial M4 would get released any day now, but spoke to them direct today and it is late April release.
As the Crucials will have no TRIM until I assume LION, and I have in effect already been forced to pay for the 500gb hard drive in the Apple regardless, my own plan is:
1. Run with the standard 500gb 7200 for next 2-3 months.
2. Upgrade to LION in June.
3. Then I can buy an M4 (or other) with TRIM support.
I also just bought my 8GB from Crucial rather than pay €200 with Apple.
Sounds like a sensible plan?
Thanks for starting this thread OP. It is sorely needed. Intel seems to be the best for reliability which is a very Apple trait. I don't care for hyper transfer rates of OCZ & co if they only last a few weeks. I look their support forum and it's page after page of problems. I'll wait for the G3 Intel drives before making the plunge. In fact I knew I wanted SSD last year but the gains have not been anything remarkable I should of just bought a G2 and be done with it. Rumours are the new G3 has the same controller as the G2 so kudos those who bought those last year. You sure are getting your moneys worth.
Is a while I'm lurking the several threads on SSDs.
I've bought a 15" last winter and I'm thinking about removing the DVD and install an optibay but, honestly, there is a lot of confusion on what to do, which SSD brand to buy, reliability, performances, FW upgrades, sleen and hibernate problems, etc.
Personally I'll wait to see if Lion will implement Trim support before making a choice. Feedbacks on the forum show different opinion but, on the bottom line, there is no "official" position on what needs to be done so, before moving to a Sandforce controller, I need to understand how this will perform against a "standard" SSD in which Garbage Collection is managed by the OS.
Personally I'll prefer to have the OS doing his job instead of having some specialized "software" not related with the OS to play with my data.
My position is to leave the 500GB 7200rpm hd in the standard bay and put the SSD in the Optibay.
On the brand to choose, another big question, if I need to buy today I'll go with Crucial. They are available in Europe, I've upgraded the memory using their RAM and is working fine, let's wait to see if the C400 will be fully reliable running on a Mac and if the price will lower then I'll take a decision.
I've bought a 15" last winter and I'm thinking about removing the DVD and install an optibay but, honestly, there is a lot of confusion on what to do, which SSD brand to buy, reliability, performances, FW upgrades, sleen and hibernate problems, etc.
Personally I'll wait to see if Lion will implement Trim support before making a choice. Feedbacks on the forum show different opinion but, on the bottom line, there is no "official" position on what needs to be done so, before moving to a Sandforce controller, I need to understand how this will perform against a "standard" SSD in which Garbage Collection is managed by the OS.
Personally I'll prefer to have the OS doing his job instead of having some specialized "software" not related with the OS to play with my data.
My position is to leave the 500GB 7200rpm hd in the standard bay and put the SSD in the Optibay.
On the brand to choose, another big question, if I need to buy today I'll go with Crucial. They are available in Europe, I've upgraded the memory using their RAM and is working fine, let's wait to see if the C400 will be fully reliable running on a Mac and if the price will lower then I'll take a decision.
can anyone tell me a super cheap SSD with good quality and no issues (and hat will mount is the bay w/o surgery) (100GB+) for an aluminum macbook (old one)
2.0GhZ, 2GB RAM
Mac OS 10.5.8
thank you in advance
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139113
Same controller as in the SSDs Apple uses and currently 175$ with MIR.
Just bought a new 2011 15" quad-i7 2.3, cracked it open, pulled the battery plug and installed:
Reattached the battery connector, reinstalled the bottom lid, did a SMC reset, booted off the install DVD, opened Disk Utility and partitioned and formatted the Intel SSD as one journaled HFS+ volume and the original HD into 2 partitions (HFS+ and FAT for later bootcamp installation). Installed 10.6.6 off the disks, rebooted, installed all current software updates including 10.6.7.
Works like a dream, no issues whatsoever. Fastest laptop I've ever used in my life.
- 250 GB Intel 510 SSD in HD bay
- Original 750 GB HD in MCE Optibay
- Original Superdrive in Macupgrades external enclosure
- 8 GB RAM
Reattached the battery connector, reinstalled the bottom lid, did a SMC reset, booted off the install DVD, opened Disk Utility and partitioned and formatted the Intel SSD as one journaled HFS+ volume and the original HD into 2 partitions (HFS+ and FAT for later bootcamp installation). Installed 10.6.6 off the disks, rebooted, installed all current software updates including 10.6.7.
Works like a dream, no issues whatsoever. Fastest laptop I've ever used in my life.
Sweet setup! Let me know how it works out man and if you have any trouble with the dual hdd setup or the SSD.
Your lucky that 510 works. Many of us aren't so lucky. However, some users start off with no problems only to later have issues.
It seems very odd to me that about half of the users have major issues with this while the other half have smooth sailing. Makes it more difficult to diagnose (or maybe not). Don't know.
But it's not the way it's installed or the order of installation that's the problem, because some of us have tried variations.
Right, I wanted to be specific about the exact steps I followed and in what order. (Including pulling the battery plug during installation, using Disk Utility from the install DVDs to partition prior to installation, and installing fresh from install media after partitioning.)
I was also exceptionally careful with all the flex cabling during the install (and for what its worth the cabling appeared to be in good condition prior to installation.) I had booted the system up on its original HD and used it for a few days prior to the SSD/optibay install as well.
SSD negotiated 6 Gbps with no problems. Exact model string is INTEL SSDSC2MH250A2, revision PWG2.
If I experience any issues down the line I will post about them here.
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I've recently bought this SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231378 for my wife's MacBook Pro, had have no issues with sleep or hibernation, boot times from pushing the power button are around 15-20 seconds (depending on what is connected). Awake from sleep or hibernation is instant, app load times are stupid fast.
She is also using the original drive in the optical bay.
I would recommend this drive to anyone.
She is also using the original drive in the optical bay.
I would recommend this drive to anyone.
The Vertex 3 is a Sand Force Drive it has inbuilt rubbish collection so you dont need trim. I Am getting the same drive after i get my new MBP (next week
)Kingston SSD OK?
Hi, wanting to install SSD in my 17" new MBP currently with 750 gig 5400rpm-seems slower than my previous early 2009 MBP due, I think to 5400rpm HD.
Really 'non-techie' in UK & really worried by SATA 3 problems on the faster drives.
Is a Kingston V+100 256 (still SATA 2) potentially OK? Seems really expensive on Amazon at £500+, compared with Vertex 3 @ £450 for pre-order on 1 April (April fool's day over here!)
I'm not bothered about super-speed, but do want the speed & reliability of my Macbook Air with 256 SSD & no 'beach-balls'.
Really confused at the moment 'cos Anand doesn't seem to be having or be able to replicate the SATA 3 problems?
Hi, wanting to install SSD in my 17" new MBP currently with 750 gig 5400rpm-seems slower than my previous early 2009 MBP due, I think to 5400rpm HD.
Really 'non-techie' in UK & really worried by SATA 3 problems on the faster drives.
Is a Kingston V+100 256 (still SATA 2) potentially OK? Seems really expensive on Amazon at £500+, compared with Vertex 3 @ £450 for pre-order on 1 April (April fool's day over here!)
I'm not bothered about super-speed, but do want the speed & reliability of my Macbook Air with 256 SSD & no 'beach-balls'.
Really confused at the moment 'cos Anand doesn't seem to be having or be able to replicate the SATA 3 problems?