I installed an SSD in my late 2009 iMac where the disk drive was. I formatted it and partitioned it according to instructions crucial.com which cloned my original hard drive and restored it on to the new SSD. Done! Ok, how do I know that my OS is running off the SSD and not the original hard drive?
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How do I know my OS is running off the SSD?
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How do I know though the OS is running from my SSD since Both the original and the SSD has the OS? Should I erase my original HD?
Are both the old HDD, and your new SSD exactly the same capacity? (hint: probably not)
Discover using Get Info which drive is the HDD. Change the name of that drive.
After changing the drive name, you will always know which drive you might be booted to, from the Apple menu/About this Mac.
And, as quatermass already noted, you should easily tell by how your system responds.
Or, even easier, erase the hard drive, so the situation can't happen.
Make sure your SSD is selected as the default boot drive in your System Preferences/Startup Disk pane.
Discover using Get Info which drive is the HDD. Change the name of that drive.
After changing the drive name, you will always know which drive you might be booted to, from the Apple menu/About this Mac.
And, as quatermass already noted, you should easily tell by how your system responds.
Or, even easier, erase the hard drive, so the situation can't happen.
Make sure your SSD is selected as the default boot drive in your System Preferences/Startup Disk pane.
Look in system prefs, at startup disk.
It will tell you which disk it is using.
Also rename the old one if they are labelled exactly the same.
It will tell you which disk it is using.
Also rename the old one if they are labelled exactly the same.
Yes, both were at the same capacity since Crucial.com instructions was to clone the old HDD. Both you and MarkC426 VVV helped the solve the issue. Since both were named identically, I couldn't tell which was starting up. Once I changed the names, I realized that it was still booting up with the old drive. Now I see the difference since I changed to start up with the SSD.
Thanks for the help. Now that you guys helped me solve this issue, should i go and delete the old drive? I don't see any reason while I shouldn't.
Also, I checked to see if the SSD has Trim support on and its not. Should i go ahead and turn it on?
Yes. Do you need help with that? There's a simple terminal command to do just that:
It will ask for your password. The password will NOT show at all, just type it correctly, then press enter. The terminal will ask you if that's what you want to do, I think you have to type a Y, then press enter again. It will restart automatically after a delay (might be a minute or two), and that's done.
Code:
sudo trimforce enableWhen I cloned my boot disk onto a new SSD, I just took the old Boot HD out and stored it in, just in case, so there was only the SSD for it to start up from. Set the startup disk as the SSD in Prefs -> Startup Disk. Stuck another blank 1TB HD in the empty bay. Don't know how that would work in an iMac. The restart time was astonishing compared to the old HD - no mistaking it.
Definitely enable Trim, just like DeltaMac says.
Definitely enable Trim, just like DeltaMac says.
1. Big drive (1TB~)
Shrink the OS volume, create a new volume for file storage
2. Small drive (~1TB)
Take it out of the iMac and store. In case the SSD simply dead, you would have a drive to boot and restore.
OP wrote:
"How do I know though the OS is running from my SSD since Both the original and the SSD has the OS? Should I erase my original HD?"
Is the old drive still working? (even though it's "slower")
If it is, DON'T erase the original HDD.
It serves as a good backup if the SSD has problems.
Or, it can serve as "extra storage space" for archived files, etc. (that don't need speed)
Go to "about this Mac" (under Apple menu).
That tells you what the boot drive is.
I suggest you give the boot drive its own, descriptive name.
Such as "Mac SSD", etc.
Finally...
Be sure to BACK UP the SSD.
I recommend either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup onto an external drive.
Or -- as mentioned above -- you could also back up to original HDD.
This way, if the SSD ever has a problem, you can IMMEDIATELY boot back up using the hard drive and get to work again.
"How do I know though the OS is running from my SSD since Both the original and the SSD has the OS? Should I erase my original HD?"
Is the old drive still working? (even though it's "slower")
If it is, DON'T erase the original HDD.
It serves as a good backup if the SSD has problems.
Or, it can serve as "extra storage space" for archived files, etc. (that don't need speed)
Go to "about this Mac" (under Apple menu).
That tells you what the boot drive is.
I suggest you give the boot drive its own, descriptive name.
Such as "Mac SSD", etc.
Finally...
Be sure to BACK UP the SSD.
I recommend either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup onto an external drive.
Or -- as mentioned above -- you could also back up to original HDD.
This way, if the SSD ever has a problem, you can IMMEDIATELY boot back up using the hard drive and get to work again.