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I need someone to explain how to do this as if I'm a 5 year old lol....

bludragon06

bludragon06

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 27, 2010
154
2
Pittsburg California
I know I asked for it but I am adding a 120 gig sandisk ssd in the normal hdd bay. I am then using an owc data doubler in the optical bay slot and putting the original hitachi hdd in there! I can do this and is no big deal.

The big deal is I want to only have my os on the sad and maybe a few apps because I am planning on adding windows 7 at a later time via boot camp. And all my media (music and video and music) on the hdd that I added in the optical bay slot. So how do I set up the ssd and the hdd to do this? I don't want to have any problems syncing my iPhone 4 or any other peripherals!

Again I know I asked someone, anyone to explain this to me like I'm a 5 year old but I don't understand some of the mac lingo that other people speak of as in point your apps folder to this or that! I have no idea how to do that! lol please help!:cool::D
 
You can change the library location in iTunes (and I assume the same in iPhoto) in iTunes Preferences. Also, if you uncheck the [copy media to library] box, you can get iTunes to see a number of different music library folders as if they were one.

Open iTunes, open the iTunes drop down menu (next to Apple in top left corner of screen), and select Preferences. Hit Advanced, then change your iTunes Media Folder location to somewhere on your HDD. Then deselect the second checkbox ("Copy files to iTunes Media Folder..."). Now, when you open new files in iTunes, they will stay at their original location, and will not be copied to your music library, however iTunes will treat them just like any other file. Furthermore, if you do any encoding in iTunes, the files will be created in your media folder, which is now on your HDD.

Personally, I would recommend doing a fresh install of OSX on your SSD, and leaving it intact there, along with your home folder, and system/user libraries. Then leave all your movies, music, pictures and documents on your HDD. You can then just open all your stuff in iTunes and iPhoto, and it should make links to your data. Just make sure you uncheck the copy media to library box first, or you'll end up with a very full SSD!!!
 
Last edited:
For the record, if you were 5 years old - we wouldn't need to explain anything, you'd already know what to do. ;)
 
i don't understand the point of doing symbolic links instead of altering the account settings to point the user's home directory to the HDD. can someone explain this to me as if i'm a five year old?
 
I don't want the whole home directory on my HDD. I want the library folder to be on the SSD so firefox works faster, for example.

The only directories I have on my HDD are Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures. Everything else lives on the SSD. All my applications, all the associated files and settings, and all the system files are on the SSD. The six directories I listed above are sym linked to the HDD. What that means is that if a program wants to save in /Users/Matt/Documents, the sym link for that directory actually points it to the hard drive, even though /Users/Matt/ is on the SSD. 95% of programs don't know the difference and work as if I'm using a single drive setup. There are a few (very few) programs that cannot follow sym links for some reason. The only ones I can think of off hand are JdiskReport (shows disk usage) and the drive sharing feature in VMWare Fusion. Everything else works fine, even apps like Itunes, iPhoto, and iMovie that have hidden libraries to go with their files.

I've been using this setup for close to two years with almost no problems.
 
Leave the HDD in its original location, it will be better supported, and place the SSD in the optibay instead.
The HDD is more susceptible to vibrations and will be better in its original location, while the SSD would work fine in the optibay.

Just install OS X in the SSD.
Use the Migration Assistant to transfer all what you want to the SSD, the user, apps, etc...

Place the iTunes Library in the Folder where you want to have it.
Open iTunes
Go to Preferences Menu
Advanced
Click on Change...
And select the location of the iTunes Library in the HDD

Do something similar for iPhoto

Do this tomorrow, now go to bed kid.
 
McGiord said:
Leave the HDD in its original location, it will be better supported, and place the SSD in the optibay instead.
The HDD is more susceptible to vibrations and will be better in its original location, while the SSD would work fine in the optibay.

Just install OS X in the SSD.
Use the Migration Assistant to transfer all what you want to the SSD, the user, apps, etc...

Place the iTunes Library in the Folder where you want to have it.
Open iTunes
Go to Preferences Menu
Advanced
Click on Change...
And select the location of the iTunes Library in the HDD

Do something similar for iPhoto

Do this tomorrow, now go to bed kid.
Click to expand...

I thought of this option, but doesn't it defeat the purpose of the upgrade? I have no idea, I'm still trying to learn before starting this upgrade as well. I thought whatever drive is the original position is the master drive and will be first used by computer and the optical bay is the slave that will be used later. I want to upgrade to get the increase benefits of SSD.
 
The master and slave stuff is for windows PCs, with the Mac it doesn't matter, just choose the bootable volume in System Preferences.
 
McGiord said:
The master and slave stuff is for windows PCs,
Click to expand...
Master and Slave has nothing to do with Windows.
It is some old thing from IDE times before SATA.

With SATA is there is no prefered or primary position. Even intialization is more or less random as sometimes the SSD is disk0 and sometimes disk1 in my system.
Unless you have an SATA 6Gb/s SSD a Notebook that has problems with SATA 6 Gb/s in optibay I'd always put the SSD in the optibay and leave the HDD in the mainbay.

In addition to what m85476585 said, I'd only put Movies, Music and Picture folders on the HDD. Downloads is often needed when on the road if the HDD doesn't have to spin up when you just download a pdf it is better. Also one often downloads archived stuff like zip/rar/7z/.. which just unpack faster on the SSD. I don't know why anybody would move Desktop and Documents is something I would always keep on the SSD. Either Documents it is working data and what is the point of buying an SSD if you move Documents away. One can create an archived Documents folder for old stuff one doesn't need anymore on the HDD and link that into the normal Documents library.
 
McGiord said:
The master and slave stuff is for windows PCs, with the Mac it doesn't matter, just choose the bootable volume in System Preferences.
Click to expand...

I saw this in that article that you linked

Update: It seems that connecting the SSD to the optical drive slot will give you problems waking from sleep, since the MacBook doesn't look to that SATA port for your main drive. I did not notice this before, as I don't sleep my computer. So, instead of installing your SSD in the Optibay, you'll want to disconnect your regular hard drive, install the SSD in that slot, and then install your old drive in the Optibay and continue as written.
Click to expand...

Seems like it's better to move the drives around.
 
dusk007 said:
Master and Slave has nothing to do with Windows.
It is some old thing from IDE times before SATA.

With SATA is there is no prefered or primary position. Even intialization is more or less random as sometimes the SSD is disk0 and sometimes disk1 in my system.
Unless you have an SATA 6Gb/s SSD a Notebook that has problems with SATA 6 Gb/s in optibay I'd always put the SSD in the optibay and leave the HDD in the mainbay.

In addition to what m85476585 said, I'd only put Movies, Music and Picture folders on the HDD. Downloads is often needed when on the road if the HDD doesn't have to spin up when you just download a pdf it is better. Also one often downloads archived stuff like zip/rar/7z/.. which just unpack faster on the SSD. I don't know why anybody would move Desktop and Documents is something I would always keep on the SSD. Either Documents it is working data and what is the point of buying an SSD if you move Documents away. One can create an archived Documents folder for old stuff one doesn't need anymore on the HDD and link that into the normal Documents library.
Click to expand...

For me the SSD in the regular spot was the obvious choice because I have a MBP4,1 that only supports 1.5Gbps SATA in the regular bay and IDE in the optical bay. IDE is slower and has to go through an IDE to SATA converter to make my hard drive work.

I had no choice but to put Downloads, Documents, and Desktop on the HDD. my SSD is 60GB and it's full (5gb free). Downloads is several GB, Desktop was tens of GB because I would just dump stuff there (even big files) and I'm not sure how big Documents was, because now I moved most of that stuff from desktop to Documents. I think a few VMWare images live in Documents, and there's no way those would fit on my SSD, though there would be a big performance boost if they did. Ideally I would get a bigger SSD to fit more stuff on there, but my setup is a compromise because I couldn't afford a bigger SSD when I got it, and it still isn't really worth it to me. Right now a bigger HDD is a priority because that's full too.
 
Erasmus said:
You can change the library location in iTunes (and I assume the same in iPhoto) in iTunes Preferences. Also, if you uncheck the [copy media to library] box, you can get iTunes to see a number of different music library folders as if they were one.

Open iTunes, open the iTunes drop down menu (next to Apple in top left corner of screen), and select Preferences. Hit Advanced, then change your iTunes Media Folder location to somewhere on your HDD. Then deselect the second checkbox ("Copy files to iTunes Media Folder..."). Now, when you open new files in iTunes, they will stay at their original location, and will not be copied to your music library, however iTunes will treat them just like any other file. Furthermore, if you do any encoding in iTunes, the files will be created in your media folder, which is now on your HDD.

Personally, I would recommend doing a fresh install of OSX on your SSD, and leaving it intact there, along with your home folder, and system/user libraries. Then leave all your movies, music, pictures and documents on your HDD. You can then just open all your stuff in iTunes and iPhoto, and it should make links to your data. Just make sure you uncheck the copy media to library box first, or you'll end up with a very full SSD!!!
Click to expand...

McGiord said:
Leave the HDD in its original location, it will be better supported, and place the SSD in the optibay instead.
The HDD is more susceptible to vibrations and will be better in its original location, while the SSD would work fine in the optibay.

Just install OS X in the SSD.
Use the Migration Assistant to transfer all what you want to the SSD, the user, apps, etc...

Place the iTunes Library in the Folder where you want to have it.
Open iTunes
Go to Preferences Menu
Advanced
Click on Change...
And select the location of the iTunes Library in the HDD

Do something similar for iPhoto

Do this tomorrow, now go to bed kid.
Click to expand...


Erasmus and McGiord... Thank you and to everyone else. I haven't done the change yet! I was a little hesitant to do it because I didn't really understand how to point the application I would have on the SSD to the library or all my media that will be on the HDD. I now understand how to do it for iTunes. But tried the exact same steps for iPhoto and it doesn't have a "click on change" in the preferences like iTunes. Anyone know how to point the app for iPhoto to the library for iPhoto. I just want applications and osx and the such on the SSD. LOL all the parts to do the swap are sitting on the table right now. :D:roll eyes: I need the weekend to come so I can do the swap! WooHoo!

Oh for the record...I am a 35 year old dude. I just asked to explain it like that because sometimes it gets a little confusing! But gotta learn somehow!:cool:
 
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