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Cloning HDD to SSD (with an Optibay)

O

ortegacarlton

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2011
24
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So it's my first time using these forums, and after much time reading post-after-post, I figured this'd be the best place to ask for questions. (I hope what I'm asking hasn't been previously asked before, cause I've searched everywhere, including youtube, for tutorials/help on it, but to no avail.)

I have my SSD coming in with an Optibay, and I plan on putting the SSD in the mainbay and my HDD in the Optibay when I have everything settled in... But my question is, how would I clone my HDD to my SSD without having my superdrive and booting it off of the disc?

Off the top of my head, I'm guessing I just keep my HDD in the main, SSD on the Opti, and then use CCC(Carbon Copy Cloner) to completely clone it to the SSD, then just switch them(HDD >> Opti: SSD >> Main) after everything is done. ---- I'm not completely sure if it'll work that easily, but if someone could enlighten me, It'd help a ton. (I'm trying to avoid buying an external enclosure for my SSD at all costs and running it USB to clone it, but if it's a last resort, I guess I'll have to.)

And my last question is, when I'm successfully able to clone everything(files, OS, etc.) onto the SSD, and run the SSD as my main drive, how would I completely wipe my HDD and partition it to run as my second drive? Just to store music/videos/files/etc. on it... While keeping my applications/programs on my SSD.

I'm not too fond of OS X, since the 2011 MBP is my very first :apple: product: I've always been a Windows-based user. So if anyone could help me/have a guide on it already, I'd greatly appreciate it!
 
Oh, and another question was...

Would I be able to run bootcamp off of the HDD rather than the SSD? If I were to run the HDD as my second drive...
 
ortegacarlton said:
Off the top of my head, I'm guessing I just keep my HDD in the main, SSD on the Opti, and then use CCC(Carbon Copy Cloner) to completely clone it to the SSD, then just switch them(HDD >> Opti: SSD >> Main) after everything is done
Click to expand...
It actually works that easy. You need to format the HDD or delete the OS from it or the Notebook won't know what to boot from but once everything is copied and the HDD empty it that is nothing else you need to do.

Yes it is no problem to run bootcamp of an HDD partition. I wouldn't advise it though if you switch often the bootup times with the SSD are very useful. What do you get an SSD for if you don't use it or is it only 64GB small.

I wouldn't switch SSD and HDD. Let the HDD in the main bay and the SSD in the optibay unless it is SATA 3 and you bought one of the MBPs that doesn't have SATA 3 at both ports. Otherwise I would try it first the normal way and only switch if some serious problems occur.
 
dusk007 said:
It actually works that easy. You need to format the HDD or delete the OS from it or the Notebook won't know what to boot from but once everything is copied and the HDD empty it that is nothing else you need to do.

Yes it is no problem to run bootcamp of an HDD partition. I wouldn't advise it though if you switch often the bootup times with the SSD are very useful. What do you get an SSD for if you don't use it or is it only 64GB small.

I wouldn't switch SSD and HDD. Let the HDD in the main bay and the SSD in the optibay unless it is SATA 3 and you bought one of the MBPs that doesn't have SATA 3 at both ports. Otherwise I would try it first the normal way and only switch if some serious problems occur.
Click to expand...

I have the 2011 13" MBP, got it end of summer, and I've read that some of the superdrive bays are sata2, but some of the 2011 MBPs drive bays are sata3...do you know exactly how to determine that?

So all I would do, is plug in both HDD + SSD the day I get it, boot up, and just CCC it to my SSD, then delete the partition then re-partition the HDD drive? Would I have any issues right at boot-up with having both in it? Or would it just go smooth.

Last question is, how would I delete the partition of the HDD and re-partition it without a disc?
 
ortegacarlton said:
I have the 2011 13" MBP, got it end of summer, and I've read that some of the superdrive bays are sata2, but some of the 2011 MBPs drive bays are sata3...do you know exactly how to determine that?

So all I would do, is plug in both HDD + SSD the day I get it, boot up, and just CCC it to my SSD, then delete the partition then re-partition the HDD drive? Would I have any issues right at boot-up with having both in it? Or would it just go smooth.

Last question is, how would I delete the partition of the HDD and re-partition it without a disc?
Click to expand...

About This Mac -> More Info -> Systems Report
hardware -> Serial-ATA -> Intel 6 Series Chipset

Each one will tell you the Max possible Link Speed and the Negotiated Link Speed for the attached device.

I have an early 2011 machine and port 0 is 6:6 with the vertex 3 and 3:3 with the HD in the DVD slot.
 
dusk007 said:
I wouldn't switch SSD and HDD. Let the HDD in the main bay and the SSD in the optibay unless it is SATA 3 and you bought one of the MBPs that doesn't have SATA 3 at both ports. Otherwise I would try it first the normal way and only switch if some serious problems occur.
Click to expand...

I grossly disagree. I mean unless you can run the main OS off the optibay connection (which I was under the impression you couldn't...I could be wrong) then please install the SSD in the main bay...that is how you get the fastest speeds..If you ever need to go over your RAM your page outs are going to go to the main drive and HDD's suck massively acting as virtual memory in comparison to an SSD which is allot closer to RAM like memory being flash...even if I'm wrong about all that it is still just better to have the SSD as the main drive..you never know.
 
cmclaughlan said:
About This Mac -> More Info -> Systems Report
hardware -> Serial-ATA -> Intel 6 Series Chipset

Each one will tell you the Max possible Link Speed and the Negotiated Link Speed for the attached device.

I have an early 2011 machine and port 0 is 6:6 with the vertex 3 and 3:3 with the HD in the DVD slot.
Click to expand...

I also have the early 2011 MBP, and both link speeds are 6 gb/s, so I guess either port would work. (thank you very much for showing me this!)

Anyways, back to my main concern. Does anyone have a complete guide/step-by-step process on how to do this whole process? Of cloning HDD >> SSD, making SSD main, then cleaning and running the HDD as my secondary? I know 'dusk007' explained a bit of it for me, but I was just curious if anyone knows the exact steps to do so...

Or if someone has done it before, that could tell me/teach me how. I'd greatly appreciate it!
 
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