Old iMac, new SSD

[GimmeSlack12]

I have an iMac 7,1 (mid-2008) that I have been itching to install an SSD in and now have finally pulled the trigger. I got a 128Gb Samsung 7PC-128D along with 2.5" install kit ($180 shipped). It is now time to plan my strategy for install and setup (mainly setup cause there's really only one way to install the thing).

I have a 1.5Tb internal (system) and 1.0Tb external that I will use as media and Time Machine drives respectively. The question now is if I should bother with a Carbon Copy of the system on my 1.5Tb or should I install a fresh copy of 10.7 onto the SSD (if this is even possible)? I'm not super partial on either way but thought I might consult with the MR folks to get a feel for what might be a good idea for this.

Also, any before and after speed tests I should do? I like watching those clips on YouTube and think I might try and make one of my own.

 

[Bear]

You can only migrate the system if you're using less than 128GB on the current boot drive since that's how big the SSD is.

My suggestion is to do a fresh install while leaving your old drive bootable for now. There are many reasons for it. Among other things, depending on what software you've removed and how many updates various applications have gone through, there may be gunk left around taking up space.

 

[geoffreak]

I used the Blackmagic drive speed test (free in app store) when I wiped my drive. I was having major speed issues until I wiped it, and I would encourage you to start from scratch as much as possible too (though keep a backup).

 

[mellofello]

Install fresh Lion to the SSD. The real speed gains will be from the OS, and apps opening up from the SSD. If I were you I would go through and parse out all the media from your current drive and wipe it. Reinstalling itunes, and iphoto(with all of your settings) is as easy as cutting and pasting.

SSD for OS. Big drive for media storage.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

SSD for OS. Big drive for media storage.

Yup, that's the plan. Though moving and then wiping the drive might be easier said than done. I've already been whittling down my media library (mainly movies and TV shows) but to be able to reformat my big drive will still require me to put all this stuff somewhere temporarily. I might have room on the 1Tb external I have but I'll have to wait and see.

Moving a lot of big files takes a while.

 

[mellofello]

I would recommend buying a large FireWire external. 1 tb isn't enough for time machine.

If you have a large external then you can do a time machine backup then install a fresh os. After installing you can go back into your backup and only install specific files, including programs configured exactly as you left them. My hard drive just crashed so I have been going through this for the past week.

Thank goodness I had the time machine. It made it a painless process.

Just incase, I would also make the original hard drive a backup of my music, photos, and documents. I like my double redundancy though.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

For a while I've been using an external 500gb as my Time Machine backup, so moving to my 1Tb drive is welcomed (not to mention the 500gb is a PATA drive and I'm ready to be rid of that).

At this point in the process my fiance is writing a school paper so I couldn't just dive into tearing the iMac apart, so instead I have plugged my SSD into my external enclosure so I could install Lion and I did use the Migration Assistant to move over my Applications and preferences.

I know that this technically isn't the "cleanest" way to install, but man after looking at that fresh install of Lion I realized how much customizing I have done and just couldn't face having to start that all over again. It's a trade-off I'm willing to deal with (not to mention I'm skeptical it hurts performance that much).

So now that I have a bootable drive ready to go I'm ready to install the drive into my iMac. Before I do that though I want to do some timed test comparisons, so far this is what I plan on doing:

1. Test the time from 'off' to desktop with all login items off.
2. Test the time from 'off' to desktop with login items Firefox, Mail.app, iPhoto (with 10gb library) and Automator. (I figure those are decent apps for speed test).

Still open to suggestions on anything.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Ok a brief update on some numbers tests. I did this using BlackMagics Speed Drive Test app. The attached chart is the difference by factor of the test results, so its 2.5x faster, 3x faster etc. Overall my boot time is about 1 minute faster.