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dmpizzle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
6
0
So I got an Optibay and installed the SSD in the Optibay last night. The main OS is still on the hard drive. I want to get the main OS onto the SSD. What's the best way to go about this? Ideally, I'd like to do a fresh install on the SSD (while not touching the main hard drive), and then move my Documents, Mail libraries, and iTunes/iPhoto libraries from the hard drive over to the SSD. Then, once I'm confident that I've moved everything over from the hard drive to the SSD that's important, I would wipe the hard drive and use it as my secondary storage.

Is this reasonable? Is there a better way? If I have an SSD and a hard drive with Snow Leopard installed, will Snow Leopard see and be able to access the hard drive if I boot from the SSD?
 

AdrianK

macrumors 68020
Feb 19, 2011
2,230
2
Yeah, definitely do a fresh install on SSD and reinstall your apps, then move your data over.

When you've installed SL to SSD, reboot and hold alt, then choose the SSD and hit return to boot from it. To make the mac always boot from SSD, change the boot disk option in System Preferences.

As long as both drives are installed, OS X will see them.
 

msriotdoll

macrumors member
Dec 1, 2005
50
4
i had the same issue with itunes.. how i solved it was go into the SSD and under your users folder do <<command i >>and make sure you have permissions set to read/write.
Do the same for your users folder on your data drive.
I have a users folder on my ssd and data drive.
Run disk utility>repair premissions and see if that works for you.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,307
I didn't get an optibay but replaced my hd with an SSD and I did a fresh install of the OS. I always have a backup of my system so I just copied back my data and music
 

oakie

macrumors 6502
Oct 16, 2008
407
2
seattle
doing a fresh install on the SSD then copying each folder and application over is going to be time consuming at the very least, but will of course allow you to clean out any orphan files that may have collected over time from repeated software deletions without some type of orphan file management.

there are two other ways to go about it though. the first is drive cloning, which someone already mentioned. of course it is what it says it is, and will copy every single thing across, whether you need it or not. personally, i use this only when replacing/upgrading hard drives or replacing a computer.

the other way, is to cleanly install the OS onto the SSD as you planned, then using the Migration Assistant to copy your files, software, and settings to the SSD from your old HDD, leaving any previously orphaned files behind. this is what i prefer to use when prepping a newly bought Mac (not a replacement).
 
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