Got the SSD for iMac. Now to move OS data and apps ?

[soamz]

Hi, I just got a Crucial m4 256GB SSD,
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-256GB-2-5-Inch-Solid-CT256M4SSD2/dp/B004W2JL2A/

My iMac is 27-inch, Mid 2010.

Im going to take out my Super Drive , so I can have space for both iMac Internal HDD and the SSD both.
I want to use SSD for OS data and Internal HDD for my work data .

Right now, everything is in my internal HDD only.

So, do I simply copy those folders to the SSD, excluding the USERS folder :

http://d.pr/i/2X2l

Or is there any other good way to move the OS data to the SSD ?

So, after the copy, simply delete those folders from the HDD ?

 

[Thessman]

You can either use Disk utility, and do a restore of your disk to the ssd, or you can use Carbon copy cloner, that lets you choose the items that you want to carry over.

 

[soamz]

Is there a way doing it from Disk Utility ?

So, direct copy pasting and then selecting SSD as boot drive wont fix it ?

And my iMac HDD is 1TB, so around 700GB of data filled in USERS folder .

So, leave behind the USERS folder in the HDD and copy over the other folders as per my above screenshot ?

 

[Mike in Kansas]

You may want to consider turning both of your internal volumes into a home made Fusion Drive. That way, let OSX optimize what things get placed on what drive automatically instead of treating them as 2 separate volumes. I just did that on a 2008 iMac, but instead of using 2 internal drives I used an internal SSD and an external FW 800. My experience has been better than what I was doing before, which was keeping the OS and apps and library on the internal SSD and the Users folder on the external FW800. Over time, ML moves things around to take advantage of the SSD where you need I most.

 

[soamz]

You may want to consider turning both of your internal volumes into a home made Fusion Drive. That way, let OSX optimize what things get placed on what drive automatically instead of treating them as 2 separate volumes. I just did that on a 2008 iMac, but instead of using 2 internal drives I used an internal SSD and an external FW 800. My experience has been better than what I was doing before, which was keeping the OS and apps and library on the internal SSD and the Users folder on the external FW800. Over time, ML moves things around to take advantage of the SSD where you need I most.

So, what should be the 1st step ?
Please explain. I dont want to break or lose any piece of my data.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

So, what should be the 1st step ?
Please explain. I dont want to break or lose any piece of my data.

First step is to have backups of everything! Clones are best, TM is good too.

The rest of the steps can be found in numerous blogs and articles online. It is a little tricky, but doable. From a process standpoint, here are the main steps:

1. Backup EVERYTHING! Clone your existing HDD (you will need an external drive large enough to hold all the contents of your internal HDD from somewhere, and some cloning software). If you don't have a backup/clone on an external drive, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS!
2. Boot off the external drive you cloned to, just to ensure that it works. IT MUST BE BOOTABLE! This will now be your safety net in case something goes wrong with the FusionDrive creation, as you can always clone the contents of this external drive back to your internal HDD and be right back where you were before you started all this.
3. Shut down
4. Install your new SSD into the iMac
5. Boot off the clone you made on the external disk
6. Use Terminal to "fuse" together your new SSD and existing HDD. When you do this, ALL existing data on both drives will be lost!!! This is why you need a backup! Instructions for this can be found online here: http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html
7. Clone from your external clone to your new internal FusionDrive
8. Boot - it should now be running as a Fusion Drive
9. Over time, as you use apps and access documents, OSX will move stuff around to optimize the performance of both the SSD and HDD.

Before doing anything, I suggest reading as much as you can about creating your own FusionDrive just to be comfortable with what you are doing. I thought about doing this for a month before actually doing it. I lived with an internal SSD and external FW800 drive for almost a year, moving things around myself and trying to optimize the user experience. Once FusionDrive was announced in late October, and people figured out how to make your own in early November, I watched the boards and read up on people's experience for all of December and early January before making the plunge. The experience with my home made FusionDrive is better than any manually-managed location of files that I had before. I have a 240GB SSD and a 2TB FW800 drive that are "fused", with about 750GB of apps, data, large Aperture library, large iMovie and iTunes databases, etc. and the experience has been stellar.

Prior to doing all of this, I also made a ML bootable USB key to ensure I could reinstall ML easily in case I needed to, as creating a FusionDrive also wipes out your recovery partition.

 

[soamz]

Ah it sounds complicated and dangerous.

Im thinking to go this way :

1. Install the SSD.
2. Change the boot drive to SSD.
3. Restart and Install Lion on SSD.
4. Use my Time machine backup to restore all apps and settings to the SSD.
5. Restart.
6. Then goto my previous internal drive folder and simply delete the system folders from there. Does that work ?

 

[WizardHunt]

Ah it sounds complicated and dangerous.

Im thinking to go this way :

1. Install the SSD.
2. Change the boot drive to SSD.
3. Restart and Install Lion on SSD.
4. Use my Time machine backup to restore all apps and settings to the SSD.
5. Restart.
6. Then goto my previous internal drive folder and simply delete the system folders from there. Does that work ?

if you try this and it works. Post your results here in this thread.