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Dual Drive on MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011

M

maw4bc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 11, 2009
149
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Hello all, I am looking to put SSD in the main bay and moving my 1TB HDD to the optibay. I have been getting really poor performance from the HDD, finally I have had enough. I have a few questions if you all could help.

*EDITED*
1. I was looking at this kit but then saw that it mentions "Hard drive limit of 750GB" Is that normal for the optibay? I thought I would be able to have my 1TB HDD in there?
https://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/9-5-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-080-3

2. I am currently using 720GB of my 1TB HDD, though almost all of that is music/photos/videos. I am curious what people think in terms of what I need for my SSD size wise. I see that the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB is on amazon for 80$. Seems like a great price.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/

3. What is the process of getting the OS and apps onto the SSD?

4. I have been reading some more on this and some people have had SATAIII problems with certain HDD's in the optibay. Is that something I need to worry about?

Thanks for the help!
 
Last edited:
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maw4bc said:
Hello all, I am looking to put SSD in the main bay and moving my 1TB HDD to the optibay. I have been getting really poor performance from the HDD, finally I have had enough. I have a few questions if you all could help.

1. I was looking at this kit but then saw that it mentions "Hard drive limit of 750GB" Is that normal for the optibay? I thought I would be able to have my 1TB HDD in there?
https://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/9-5-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-080-3

2. I am currently using 720GB of my 1TB HDD, though almost all of that is music/photos/videos. I am curious what people think in terms of what I need for my SSD size wise. I see that the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB is on amazon for 80$. Seems like a great price.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/

3. What is the process of getting the OS and apps onto the SSD?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
1. Untrue, any hard drive will work, there is no limitation.

2. Do you truly need to carry all that data with you at all times? Regardless, the only person that can asnwer that is you.

3. Try googling "reinstalling OS X" and "migration assistant", it should point you in the right direction. Apple has a full blown support site with tons of instructions.
 
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snaky69 said:
2. Do you truly need to carry all that data with you at all times? Regardless, the only person that can asnwer that is you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I should have explained myself a little more. I am just curious what amount of space GB wise to run the OS and apps on the SSD.
 
The size of your SSD depends on how often you need to access the files. I have 500GB SSD in the main bay and a 500GB HDD in the optibay. The optibay has all my photos music and videos. The SSD has most of my programs. I'm using 300 GB of the HDD, but only 100GB of the SDD. YMMV. a 250 SSD and a 1TB HDD may be fine for your usage
 
1. No limit
2. I ran a 120GB SSD for OS n Apps for a while but YMMV.
3. I would (and have), used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy your HDD to the SSD, simply tell CCC to exclude your music/videos/photos - I excluded the Aperture and iTunes libraries at the time. Once cloned boot from the SSD to check everything is working, point iTunes at the original HDD location for its library etc. Delete/tidy the HDD of its OS and Apps files manually and voila!
 
simonsi said:
1. No limit
2. I ran a 120GB SSD for OS n Apps for a while but YMMV.
3. I would (and have), used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy your HDD to the SSD, simply tell CCC to exclude your music/videos/photos - I excluded the Aperture and iTunes libraries at the time. Once cloned boot from the SSD to check everything is working, point iTunes at the original HDD location for its library etc. Delete/tidy the HDD of its OS and Apps files manually and voila!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I have been reading some more on this and some people have had SATAIII problems with certain HDD's in the optibay. Is that something I need to worry about?
 
maw4bc said:
Thanks for the feedback. I have been reading some more on this and some people have had SATAIII problems with certain HDD's in the optibay. Is that something I need to worry about?
Click to expand...
Certain SSD's. A HDD won't be a problem.
 
Some optical bays dont robustly run at SATA3, that is a problem as you wont get full speed out of an SSD there. An HDD cant itself run at SATA3 data rates so it isnt a problem.
 
simonsi said:
Some optical bays dont robustly run at SATA3, that is a problem as you wont get full speed out of an SSD there. An HDD cant itself run at SATA3 data rates so it isnt a problem.
Click to expand...

Ok great that is good to know. I planned on having the SSD in the main bay anyways. is CCC free or is there a cost with that?
 
Another question I have is in the exact steps of the process. When I receive the optibay kit and SSD, can I just install it (placing HDD in optibay side), and then do the cloning? Will the mac automatically know that the start up hardrive is in the optibay?
 
maw4bc said:
Another question I have is in the exact steps of the process. When I receive the optibay kit and SSD, can I just install it (placing HDD in optibay side), and then do the cloning? Will the mac automatically know that the start up hardrive is in the optibay?
Click to expand...
Hold alt at boot, you'll be able to select it if it doesn't.
 
maw4bc said:
Another question I have is in the exact steps of the process. When I receive the optibay kit and SSD, can I just install it (placing HDD in optibay side), and then do the cloning? Will the mac automatically know that the start up hardrive is in the optibay?
Click to expand...

CCC has a 30-day free trial period in which it is fully functional.

Yes you can install then boot and clone, OSX boots from a named volume not a drive location. Best to take a backup of your drive first (and always have some kind of backup).
 
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simonsi said:
CCC has a 30-day free trial period in which it is fully functional.

Yes you can install then boot and clone, OSX boots from a named volume not a drive location. Best to take a backup of your drive first (and always have some kind of backup).
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the help. I generally back up once a week on a 1TB external HDD using time machine. Will definitely be doing that right before I start this process.
 
Wow. So I've taken apart the computer and just tried to put the HDD in the optibay but it is so tall for the bay. Any suggestions? If the SSD goes in the optibay will there be issues?
 
maw4bc said:
Does your HGST fit in the optibay? It looks like I am going to have to buy a different HDD as mine is too tall for the bay.
Click to expand...
If the rear cover goes on without a hitch, it isn't too tall.

I'm not aware of any hard drive being too tall to be in the optical bay.
 
snaky69 said:
If the rear cover goes on without a hitch, it isn't too tall.

I'm not aware of any hard drive being too tall to be in the optical bay.
Click to expand...

Looks like I have a 11.5mm tall HDD and you can only have the 9.5mm.
 
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