2011/2012 Macbook Pro Dual Drive (SSD+HDD/SSD+SSD) Setup Suggestions

[Satnam1989]

Yes, it is model 8.3 listed as "late 2011" here: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

I am not sure that a sata-3 Intel SSD can work at all in a MBP 17", as I did read here that Intel drives are among the problematic ones:
http://communities.intel.com/thread/20352?start=0&tstart=0

Regarding the Corsair Force 3 Series, this is definitely a sata-3 SSD: But it will negotiate a sata-3 connection with the motherboard only on models equipped with the latest chipset, which are mounted only since early-2011 models. More precisely, the early-2011 started with sata-3 supported only for the "main bay", while the "optical bay" was still sata-2. Later along the year, Apple started releasing laptops equipped with sata-3 links on both bays. But, due to bad shielding, mounting a sata-3 drive in the optical bay is not working, according to what OWC says...
You did not say if your Corsair Force 3 Series is connected in sata-3 mode or in sata-2. I understand that currently Apple is only selling sata-2 SSD dirves, which do not have problems, albeit being significantly slower. And if you install a sata-3 drive in a Mac which does not support sata-3, it will negotiate sata-2 speed, and work perfectly...
So the question is: are you sure that your Corsair sata-3 drive is actually connected in sata-3 mode? Which model of MBP do you exactly have? And is the SSD connected to the optical bay connector or to the main HD connector?

btw even tho my Macbook Pro is a "Early 2011" I bought it October and it has 2 SATA-3 connectors....as described by OWC the macbook pro's just don't play nice with SATA-3 SSD's in the optical bay slot. so you have to find the one that works. Some may even have issues in both bays while others will work just fine.

mine is connected to the main bay and is running in SATA-3 mode...it says so in the settings. the HDD obviously not a SATA-3 drive is running in SATA-2 mode. 100% sure of this info I'm providing.

 

[angelofarina]

Ok, thanks. But is yours a 17" or a smaller-size MBP?
It appears that this problem mostly affects 17" units, as my one...

 

[Satnam1989]

Ok, thanks. But is yours a 17" or a smaller-size MBP?
It appears that this problem mostly affects 17" units, as my one...

mine is 15", Try a different combination of SSD's...If u want wat u can do is get a SSD from ur local store and try it out if it works then return it and get the same one from where u get it at the best price(online?)

 

[bjamin82]

I just ordered a new MBP 15. I assume they are still shipping late 2011 models?

Anyways, I have a 128gb SSD as the main HD and I want to take the Superdrive out and replace it with a second HDD, not an SSD... Actually I am looking at the new Hybrid Drive from Seagate... anyways my question is a lot of comments on SATA 3 from the second bay... are those issues related to SSD? should I be okay with a standard HDD or this new hybrid type drive?

Thanks

 

[Satnam1989]

I'm not sure to best honest about the hybrid hdd. Your best bet is to search the forum and read the feedback before u start ur own thread regarding compatibility with the SATA-3 connector working well with the SATA-3 Hybrid HDD

 

[bjamin82]

I'm not sure to best honest about the hybrid hdd. Your best bet is to search the forum and read the feedback before u start ur own thread regarding compatibility with the SATA-3 connector working well with the SATA-3 Hybrid HDD

Hybrid HDD aside... Will a SATA 3 7200 RPM 750GB HDD work in the Optical Drive Bay?

 

[Satnam1989]

Hybrid HDD aside... Will a SATA 3 7200 RPM 750GB HDD work in the Optical Drive Bay?

I haven't done any research on SATA-3 hdd for a laptop.....last I checked the hybrid hdd from seagate was the first one.

 

[angelofarina]

Well, in the laptop of my son he has a 256GB SSD in the main bay (a Corsair Performance Pro, as the one having problems in my 17" Mod. 8.3), and a 512GB Hybrid Seagate in the optical bay. Everything works perfectly, but this MBP is a 13" late 2009, which is only equipped with SATA-2 connections, so both disks are running at SATA-2 speed. Exactly as the original Apple disks, so they do not have any problem....
The newest hybrid disk from Seagate, the 750GB model, is instead equipped with sata-3 interface, and hence I suppose will give the same problems as a modern sata-3 SSD if mounted in the optical bay of a 2011 model, which are equipped of sata-3 chipsets for both "main" and "optical" bays....
What would be required is a way to force these modern drives (either SSD or hybrid) to run at sata-2 speed even if the mainboard is equipped with sata-3 chips, whenever the cable or body of the laptop is not shielded well enough for ensuring trouble-free operation.
I would prefer a reliable sata-2 SSD, than an unreliable sata-3, as I have now...

 

[bjamin82]

I haven't done any research on SATA-3 hdd for a laptop.....last I checked the hybrid hdd from seagate was the first one.

So even though MBP are shipping with SATA 3 controllers, they essentially have issues?

 

[angelofarina]

After several days of browsing, my understanding is as follows:
- no problem with the current 13" model with sata-3 drives in "main Bay"
- on the 15", several computers work perfectly with the sata-3 drive in the main bay, although there are also reports of failures
- on the 17" model, instead, I have yet to find a single report about a working solution for a sata-3 drive in the main bay
- regarding the optical bay, it appears that it was working perfectly when it was only equipped of sata-2 chip. As soon as the macbooks appeared with sata-3 chip also on the optical bay, it resulted problematic to mount a sata-3 drive in the optical bay, even on the 13" model.

 

[Satnam1989]

So even though MBP are shipping with SATA 3 controllers, they essentially have issues?

not really...there are many people running Dual-SATA-3 SSD setup's just fine.....it really depends on the brand and the controller its using.....sometimes you just have to try and see.

again as for SATA-3 HDD...the only one I know that exists for laptops is the Seagate Momentus XT(new 750GB one...)

 

[bjamin82]

not really...there are many people running Dual-SATA-3 SSD setup's just fine.....it really depends on the brand and the controller its using.....sometimes you just have to try and see.

again as for SATA-3 HDD...the only one I know that exists for laptops is the Seagate Momentus XT(new 750GB one...)

Okay cool.. well I ordered one today so i will let you know how it goes.

 

[razmanugget]

Another idea for SSD/HDD setup

I'm about to install a 128gb SSD into my 2010 Macbook test system and move the 500gb HDD to the optibay.

You mention the need to have a fail-safe backup method of booting. Well, I was thinking about using the following partitions:

SSD
50gb NTFS - Win 7 (use macdrive)
70+gb HFS - Mac OSX Lion (include Home folder)

HDD
70+gb HFS - backup of OSX with SuperDuper
430gb HFS - movies, music, downloads, extra

With this setup, if the SSD crashed, then I could boot holding the Option key directly into my Mac HDD. Also, I like the idea of having my backup with me at all times. I would lose the 70 gigs, but that's not much to give up for peace of mind.

Plus this way, both OS's would see the benefit of the SSD's speed. And with MacDrive, I could still install large games/programs to the HFS partition even from a Windows boot. I rarely game, but I like having the option.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Satnam1989]

I'm about to install a 128gb SSD into my 2010 Macbook test system and move the 500gb HDD to the optibay.

You mention the need to have a fail-safe backup method of booting. Well, I was thinking about using the following partitions:

SSD
50gb NTFS - Win 7 (use macdrive)
70+gb HFS - Mac OSX Lion (include Home folder)

HDD
70+gb HFS - backup of OSX with SuperDuper
430gb HFS - movies, music, downloads, extra

With this setup, if the SSD crashed, then I could boot holding the Option key directly into my Mac HDD. Also, I like the idea of having my backup with me at all times. I would lose the 70 gigs, but that's not much to give up for peace of mind.

Plus this way, both OS's would see the benefit of the SSD's speed. And with MacDrive, I could still install large games/programs to the HFS partition even from a Windows boot. I rarely game, but I like having the option.

What are your thoughts on this?

Looks good, I think you will do just fine with that setup. HFS+ is the way to go for storage partition and ya having the backup on it is also perfect as there is nothing wrong with that. I didn't understand what you mean by holding the option key and booting into your HDD.....with no OS on it you cannot boot into it.....if you do a time machine back up then you are out of luck because they are not bootable....your best bet in that case is to clone your drive with "Carbon Copy Cloner" when ever you feel you want to do a backup....as that will be bootable....another plus side of it is that CCC does not do the entire backup each time over again instead it just updates the files on the first backup that you do.

 

[razmanugget]

Cool. Yeah, SuperDuper makes bootable backups just like CCC and the other great thing about using it is that I can easily scan the backup in Finder. So it acts as version control for my docs until I run the next update.

Oh yeah, it also does just the changes too. No need to backup everything from scratch each time, so it's fast.

 

[shammer8]

can't find my hdd when in ssd!

hey there, so after reading hundreds of posts on the topic of running dual drives, i took the leap and put a 120gb ADATA S510 drive in my 13" mbp main bay, and moved my 500gb HDD to the optibay. i figured now would be the time to start with a clean install, which i did. then i used migration assistant to migrate my user folder (without pictures, movies, music, and downloads), and applications. I only did this after i had already made an account on the ssd, and realized how annoying it was not to have my normal desktop, apps, settings and whatnot (but i do realize, that going this route may have negated the possible benefits of a clean install... but i guess i'm just too lazy to find all my settings, preferences, etc.). so up until i made the new user account, everything was fine. i could see my hdd in the finder, and locate any files i needed, in the same way i would for an external drive, which was great. my problem now, is that in my migrated user account, i can no longer see the hdd in the finder. even if i unmount, and remount it in disk utility (which recognizes it no problem) i cannot see it in the finder under "devices" like i could in my setup account (i made an account called SSD Setup, and it still shows up under this account). my plans had been to go in and link all of my ssd applications to my large media libraries, and then manually delete the applications and os data from the hdd. i can still boot from my hdd by holding option on startup, but the default is the ssd (which is, as expected, absurdly fast). my main goal when i'm done is to have a system that resembles the one Matt Gemmell layed out, this seems to be the best way after reading LOTS of pages on the dual drive setup. thanks for the help!

 

[Satnam1989]

hey there, so after reading hundreds of posts on the topic of running dual drives, i took the leap and put a 120gb ADATA S510 drive in my 13" mbp main bay, and moved my 500gb HDD to the optibay. i figured now would be the time to start with a clean install, which i did. then i used migration assistant to migrate my user folder (without pictures, movies, music, and downloads), and applications. I only did this after i had already made an account on the ssd, and realized how annoying it was not to have my normal desktop, apps, settings and whatnot (but i do realize, that going this route may have negated the possible benefits of a clean install... but i guess i'm just too lazy to find all my settings, preferences, etc.). so up until i made the new user account, everything was fine. i could see my hdd in the finder, and locate any files i needed, in the same way i would for an external drive, which was great. my problem now, is that in my migrated user account, i can no longer see the hdd in the finder. even if i unmount, and remount it in disk utility (which recognizes it no problem) i cannot see it in the finder under "devices" like i could in my setup account (i made an account called SSD Setup, and it still shows up under this account). my plans had been to go in and link all of my ssd applications to my large media libraries, and then manually delete the applications and os data from the hdd. i can still boot from my hdd by holding option on startup, but the default is the ssd (which is, as expected, absurdly fast). my main goal when i'm done is to have a system that resembles the one Matt Gemmell layed out, this seems to be the best way after reading LOTS of pages on the dual drive setup. thanks for the help!

I honestly don't think I can be of much help to you my friend because that route is too long and complicated and I for one don't see the point in making such changes of locating and relocating home folders, I went the clean and simplest way you can do it.....why stressing about things like that? As for iTunes music you can just have a location of stored music on your HDD...if you want that is...same with iPhoto for your pictures or if you use another application....not necessary to have it all on the SSD....but as for me I have 90% of my daily used files on SSD and only 10% of the things I would access every now and then on the HDD....all my downloads happen to SSD and then if big and don't want I just move to HDD.....that is because I do not want my HDD spinning all the time...with your setup of moving home folder over that means your HDD is gonna be spinning ALL the time....anyway think about it again, read my setup and Its really the best and simplest way to go....if you feel 120 is too less then go get a 160GB...

My 180GB so far I have used about 95GB rest is empty and there is still room that I can make if i want but I have no need, All my movies(Torrents) are on HDD, Music (that I sync with my iPhone approx 500 songs are on my SSD and then I have 1500+ songs stored on HDD), Photo's....I don't use iPhoto for all my photo's so only about 15% of my photos are on my SSD that I would use every now and then, rest 85% are on HDD and those I view by simple "QuickLook" instead when i need to and show someone, Files(Docs, PDF's etc etc) 90% on SSD and only 10% on HDD.

thats all and its working perfectly, I do backup once a month via TimeMachine onto a External.

 

[shammer8]

I honestly don't think I can be of much help to you my friend because that route is too long and complicated and I for one don't see the point in making such changes of locating and relocating home folders, I went the clean and simplest way you can do it.....why stressing about things like that? As for iTunes music you can just have a location of stored music on your HDD...if you want that is...same with iPhoto for your pictures or if you use another application....not necessary to have it all on the SSD....but as for me I have 90% of my daily used files on SSD and only 10% of the things I would access every now and then on the HDD....all my downloads happen to SSD and then if big and don't want I just move to HDD.....that is because I do not want my HDD spinning all the time...with your setup of moving home folder over that means your HDD is gonna be spinning ALL the time....anyway think about it again, read my setup and Its really the best and simplest way to go....if you feel 120 is too less then go get a 160GB...

My 180GB so far I have used about 95GB rest is empty and there is still room that I can make if i want but I have no need, All my movies(Torrents) are on HDD, Music (that I sync with my iPhone approx 500 songs are on my SSD and then I have 1500+ songs stored on HDD), Photo's....I don't use iPhoto for all my photo's so only about 15% of my photos are on my SSD that I would use every now and then, rest 85% are on HDD and those I view by simple "QuickLook" instead when i need to and show someone, Files(Docs, PDF's etc etc) 90% on SSD and only 10% on HDD.

thats all and its working perfectly, I do backup once a month via TimeMachine onto a External.

i did read your original post, and all the posts after it, but as far as i can tell, you had enough space on your ssd to do a complete time machine reinstall. your original post has lots of information about what programs you use, which components you used, how it's working etc. but it didn't say much about how you actually migrated your data (unless all you did was let time machine figure it out). maybe i am over complicating it, and i should just let time machine figure out where to put all of my data, but i have over 300 gb in my user folder, so i didn't see a way that i could simply reinstall my dual drive system from that backup. i don't have enough room to clone my old hdd user data to the ssd and start over with a wiped hdd. my only problem now, is that i can't seem to see my old startup drive from my new, cloned ssd user account. i can see it from another user account on the same drive though, which is what is so strange. thanks anyways, maybe i'll ask in some of the threads where people have set up symlinked libraries to their hdds from an ssd boot and system drive.

 

[Satnam1989]

i did read your original post, and all the posts after it, but as far as i can tell, you had enough space on your ssd to do a complete time machine reinstall. your original post has lots of information about what programs you use, which components you used, how it's working etc. but it didn't say much about how you actually migrated your data (unless all you did was let time machine figure it out). maybe i am over complicating it, and i should just let time machine figure out where to put all of my data, but i have over 300 gb in my user folder, so i didn't see a way that i could simply reinstall my dual drive system from that backup. i don't have enough room to clone my old hdd user data to the ssd and start over with a wiped hdd. my only problem now, is that i can't seem to see my old startup drive from my new, cloned ssd user account. i can see it from another user account on the same drive though, which is what is so strange. thanks anyways, maybe i'll ask in some of the threads where people have set up symlinked libraries to their hdds from an ssd boot and system drive.

sorry i don't remember if i mentioned but the time of this thread I posted, my macbook pro was brand new and my first ever macbook pro, just within weeks of getting it I did the SSD+HDD setup, I also have tons of files but I my self hand picked the data I needed to be with me always and data that I needed on the HDD which I can access on the go anytime anywhere as its still with me but on a "Unmounted HDD". I my self have over 300GB of data my HDD is almost full as I have 350GB dedicated as "Storage" for OSX and other 150GB is Windows 7 Ultimate via Bootcamp on my 500GB HDD. As for you having 300GB, Im sure you can put All your movies which are the ones that take up most of your space, as for your music you can manually change the directory location in your iTunes to point to a Library stored on your HDD which just means your HDD will spin up every time you use iTunes to listen to music which is ok. Two of the key things I wanted to make sure is Maximize battery life and there is nothing that does it better than a SSD and my second being a SILNET macbook pro...I hate the noise of the HDD that is heard in macbook pro's because in a Macbook 99% of the time only noise you going to hear is the HDD compared to Windows laptops where you hear the fan all the time. I hope I helped you in deciding, but honestly if you have to take a few hours out of your day and organize your self one time in this setup of SSD+HDD then you might as well because that way you can also start to decrease the size of your TimeMachine backups as all you will have to backup is your SSD majority of the time and once in a while you can back up your HDD as well.

 

[shammer8]

sorry i don't remember if i mentioned but the time of this thread I posted, my macbook pro was brand new and my first ever macbook pro, just within weeks of getting it I did the SSD+HDD setup, I also have tons of files but I my self hand picked the data I needed to be with me always and data that I needed on the HDD which I can access on the go anytime anywhere as its still with me but on a "Unmounted HDD". I my self have over 300GB of data my HDD is almost full as I have 350GB dedicated as "Storage" for OSX and other 150GB is Windows 7 Ultimate via Bootcamp on my 500GB HDD. As for you having 300GB, Im sure you can put All your movies which are the ones that take up most of your space, as for your music you can manually change the directory location in your iTunes to point to a Library stored on your HDD which just means your HDD will spin up every time you use iTunes to listen to music which is ok. Two of the key things I wanted to make sure is Maximize battery life and there is nothing that does it better than a SSD and my second being a SILNET macbook pro...I hate the noise of the HDD that is heard in macbook pro's because in a Macbook 99% of the time only noise you going to hear is the HDD compared to Windows laptops where you hear the fan all the time. I hope I helped you in deciding, but honestly if you have to take a few hours out of your day and organize your self one time in this setup of SSD+HDD then you might as well because that way you can also start to decrease the size of your TimeMachine backups as all you will have to backup is your SSD majority of the time and once in a while you can back up your HDD as well.

Well that's actually what I intended to do, but now I cannot "see" the hdd from the finder while logged into my migrated account. It's ver strange because I can see it in the disk utility, and I can see it from another user account I created, but when I look at the finder, there is no "Macintosh HD" under devices (there are no devices, actually, but usb drives and whatnot show up when I plug them in, so the issue is with the hdd somehow). I've tried mounting and unmounting the hdd, but this didn't work either. Not really sure what to do now, but I'm going to post the problem in a few more forums and see if anybody else knows. thanks again for your prompt replies.

 

[Satnam1989]

Well that's actually what I intended to do, but now I cannot "see" the hdd from the finder while logged into my migrated account. It's ver strange because I can see it in the disk utility, and I can see it from another user account I created, but when I look at the finder, there is no "Macintosh HD" under devices (there are no devices, actually, but usb drives and whatnot show up when I plug them in, so the issue is with the hdd somehow). I've tried mounting and unmounting the hdd, but this didn't work either. Not really sure what to do now, but I'm going to post the problem in a few more forums and see if anybody else knows. thanks again for your prompt replies.

np, i hope you can solve it i really don't have a clue about what is causing the issue with that as I mentioned before that I didn't take this route.

 

[gbelford]

Well that's actually what I intended to do, but now I cannot "see" the hdd from the finder while logged into my migrated account. It's ver strange because I can see it in the disk utility, and I can see it from another user account I created, but when I look at the finder, there is no "Macintosh HD" under devices (there are no devices, actually, but usb drives and whatnot show up when I plug them in, so the issue is with the hdd somehow). I've tried mounting and unmounting the hdd, but this didn't work either. Not really sure what to do now, but I'm going to post the problem in a few more forums and see if anybody else knows. thanks again for your prompt replies.

Silly suggestion: Do you have Finder configured to show hard drives on the desktop / sidebar?

You can check for that by going into Finder Preferences.

What happens when you try to Mount/Unmount it with Disk Utility (I assume) ?

If you have access to an external drive with sufficient space, I would user Carbon Copy Cloner to create a copy of your HD, and then reformat it in order to fix the issue.

---//---

On a completely different note: Thank you very much Satnam1989. I just recently installed an SSD into my 13' late 2011 Macbook Pro and I'm loving it so far. Your thread was a huge help in planning the process out.

I did screw up with a tiny thing, which was that I installed the wrong version of Windows 7 (I installed the 32 bit version instead of the 64 bit) and when I realized that, I had already removed my optical bay, and apparently the one I ordered doesn't work very well.

So like you predicted, things got a little hard when it came to installing Windows without the superdrive installed.

I first tried out modifying the Bootcamp Assistant configuration file (By default this option only works on Macs that don't have a superdrive, like the MacBook Airs) so that it would allow me to burn a Windows 7 ISO file and make a bootable USB drive so that I would be able to boot and install from the flash drive.

Unfortunately I was having some problems with the computer not recognizing the flash USB drive as a valid bootable device. So I had to go through another slighty more complicated route:

1. I partitioned my disk using BootCamp Assistant.

2. I used Virtual Box to create a VM and install Windows 7 choosing my BootCamp partition as a target for the install.

You can find a detailed step walkthrough here: https://kindlevsmac.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/how-to-run-windows-7-bootcamp-in-virtualbox/

I then had some problems, as Mac OS would still not recognize my bootcamp partition and I wasn't able to boot into it. I solved that by installing ReFit which allowed me to successfully boot into my Windows Partition.

I later uninstalled ReFit and now everything works perfectly.

 

[Satnam1989]

Silly suggestion: Do you have Finder configured to show hard drives on the desktop / sidebar?

You can check for that by going into Finder Preferences.

What happens when you try to Mount/Unmount it with Disk Utility (I assume) ?

If you have access to an external drive with sufficient space, I would user Carbon Copy Cloner to create a copy of your HD, and then reformat it in order to fix the issue.

---//---

On a completely different note: Thank you very much Satnam1989. I just recently installed an SSD into my 13' late 2011 Macbook Pro and I'm loving it so far. Your thread was a huge help in planning the process out.

I did screw up with a tiny thing, which was that I installed the wrong version of Windows 7 (I installed the 32 bit version instead of the 64 bit) and when I realized that, I had already removed my optical bay, and apparently the one I ordered doesn't work very well.

So like you predicted, things got a little hard when it came to installing Windows without the superdrive installed.

I first tried out modifying the Bootcamp Assistant configuration file (By default this option only works on Macs that don't have a superdrive, like the MacBook Airs) so that it would allow me to burn a Windows 7 ISO file and make a bootable USB drive so that I would be able to boot and install from the flash drive.

Unfortunately I was having some problems with the computer not recognizing the flash USB drive as a valid bootable device. So I had to go through another slighty more complicated route:

1. I partitioned my disk using BootCamp Assistant.

2. I used Virtual Box to create a VM and install Windows 7 choosing my BootCamp partition as a target for the install.

You can find a detailed step walkthrough here: https://kindlevsmac.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/how-to-run-windows-7-bootcamp-in-virtualbox/

I then had some problems, as Mac OS would still not recognize my bootcamp partition and I wasn't able to boot into it. I solved that by installing ReFit which allowed me to successfully boot into my Windows Partition.

I later uninstalled ReFit and now everything works perfectly.

hey np I'm so happy my thread was able to help you, Glad you figured your way around the windows 7 situation I know it can be tough once you have already completed the process! Welcome to the dual drive club

 

[angelofarina]

I update the info about the troubles I got attempting to setup my 17" MBP (late 2011) with a 256GB SATA-3 SSD in main bay, and moving the original 750GB SATA-2 HD to the optical bay.
First of all, in a few days Corsair repaired my faulty set of RAM sticks, and now I have my 16 GB RAM fully working with no errors.
My SSD continued to behave erratically, with stalls and complete locks. After attempting almost everything, I gave up, sent it back, and purchased instead a cheaper, older SATA-2 SSD (OCZ Vertex2 E-series). I did loose speed and capacity (240 Gb instead of 256 Gb), but now the system is stable and safe both under OSX and Win7-64.
This machine is used for work, I cannot live with an unstable system, with the risk of loosing my files...
Regarding the optimal format for the HD, so that it can be easily read and written both by OSX and Windows 7 without the need of additional drivers (Paragon, Macdrive), I ended up formatting it in the new exFAT format.
It is very fast, and perfectly reliable under Windows 7. Under OSX, instead, it does not appear so fast, and OSX did mess up completely the allocation table already twice. Furthermore, it appears that under OSX there are not yet reliable partition-repair tools for recovering your data when this does happen.
iPartition did mess it up even more...
Instead, under Windows 7, a CKDSK /F performed inside an Elevated Command Prompt console repairs perfectly the corrupted allocation table, when OSX messes it up.
However, after this experience, and the related "panic" when your data disk becomes not accessible anymore, and OSX is proposing you to reformat the "unknown partition", I would NOT RECOMMEND to format the HD as exFAT. This format is yet too new for Apple supporting it completely and reliably.
Better to remain with one of the "proprietary" formats (HFS, NTFS) and install the required driver (Paragon, Macdrive) for accessing the disk from the "other" operating system...
I think that exFAT on the long term will be the winner, but only when it will be fully supported by all the operating systems, and when reliable repair tools will be available...
Conclusion: my machine is now as I wanted it, very fast and with large storage. I placed the optical unit inside a very nice and slim "silver USB box", for the rare cases I need to read/burn a CD or a DVD.
But if I monetize the time wasted for troubleshooting the problems caused from the Sata-3 SSD and from the exFAT disk being messed up by OSX, I had better searched for another computer, coming with pre-installed dual-disk configuration.
I really hope that Apple recognizes the needs of power users, and in the next revamping of the MBP line starts proposing models without optical drive and factory-equipped of a dual-disk configuration.
It had been much cheaper for me to pay the insane prices which Apple is used to ask for "additional features" such as SSDs, instead of wasting approximately 100 hours of my precious time for configuring my machine in a reliable and performing way...

 

[sebondar]

Dual Boot Not Working

Hello Everyone,

I'm not sure if it's the correct forum, but at our company we have a very powerful dual boot Mac that was always booted to Windows 7 OS. Recently, we decided to boot it back to MAC OS by holding the option key and both monitors are just black. After 4min of nothing we turn off the Mac and tried it again and again. We tried holding X, and C, it would be nice to at least boot it in PC again.

Thank you,
Serge