Any necessary preparations for SSD installation?

[Freddy1765]

I just ordered a Samsung 470 128GB, and I was wondering whether there are any preparatory steps I should take before installing it?
I've made a recovery partition on an external HDD for Lion installation, in case Internet Recovery doesn't work for some reason.
But what about the file format of the SSD? Shouldn't it be HFS+ or something to work in my MBP 2011? I only just bought this Mac (which is my first) a week ago, so I'm really completely blank.
I've found a guide detailing the physical installation of the drive, so I should be good on that front..
Oh, and about long-term performance, I really don't want to do any hacking, so TRIM enabler is out of the picture. As I understand, Samsung employs garbage collection which comes into effect during idle conditions, what exactly does this mean? I'm not a 'heavy user', although I do use this Mac for everything - music, taking notes in school, watching movies. No gaming though.. Do these activities allow the GC to do it's thing?
Sorry for all the questions, I'd just hate to screw something up.. : /

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The second link describes the formatting procedure.

MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD​

How to format a new HDD/SSD to install Mac OS X or make a bootable copy onto​

Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

 

[Freddy1765]

So what exactly happens when I boot for the first time?
Wouldn't Internet Recovery take over first, since there isn't an available OS?
Or will I be given the option in the Disk Utility to format the SSD to HFS+ before it installs Lion?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

So what exactly happens when I boot for the first time?
Wouldn't Internet Recovery take over first, since there isn't an available OS?
Or will I be given the option in the Disk Utility to format the SSD to HFS+ before it installs Lion?

I don't know about Internet Recovery, but you could boot from the recovery partition on the now internal HDD when being put into an enclosure for 2.5" HDDs connected via USB to the MBP.

Or you could use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to make a 1:1 copy of the HDD to the SSD, unless the used HDD capacity is bigger than the SSD capacity.

 

[Freddy1765]

What if I haven't got the option to boot from another drive? Is that really a prerequisite for installing a new boot drive? With all of Apple's ingenuity I'm sure they considered this.

 

[TheJing]

I'm new to mac as well but two days ago I installed an SSD in my Macbook Pro.

The way I did it (I have no idea if it is the best or most practical bu I just wanted to share it with you).

I downloaded SuperDuper which lets you clone your HDD to an external hard drive. I had a 750GB drive laying around so I used that one.

After everything was transfered to the external drive I rebooted the computer and chose to boot it from the external drive just to see if it worked. It worked fine. After that I shut it down again, took the HDD out and replaced it with the SSD. Rebooted from external drive and used SuperDuper once again to transfer everything to the SSD. Formatted the SSD and chose it to be my start up drive. That's it. I've had no problems or anything.

 

[shortcut3d]

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If you can't run both drives at the same time simply format the SSD correctly before installing. Then install the SSD, clean install OSX from DVD, use migration assistant from a backup or the old HD.

 

[Freddy1765]

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If you can't run both drives at the same time simply format the SSD correctly before installing. Then install the SSD, clean install OSX from DVD, use migration assistant from a backup or the old HD.

How do I format the SSD correctly before installing? That's pretty much what I want to know. I don't have an external drive bay, and I'd very much like to avoid cloning my existing HDD.