Late 2011 MacBook Pro SSD Replacement

[paragonj]

Hello all,

I have a Late 2011 MacBook Pro with a 500GB HDD which is almost completely full. I am thinking about buying an external hard drive to move all of my photos (over 300GB) off the internal drive and then replacing the HDD with an SSD. I had a couple of questions.

1) What interface and/or model of drive would everyone recommend for the external drive? With a Late 2011 MBP, my options are USB 2, Thunderbolt 1, or Firewire 800. Note: I'd like some type of 2-disk external drive so I can set it up in RAID 1 mode.
2) What model of SSD would everyone recommend (probably will get a ~500GB one)?
3) Should I enable TRIM on the SSD? If so, is Cindori Disk Sensei the best way to do it, or is there a free way to do it safely?

Thanks for any help!

 

[joecool99]

1) http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid-thunderbolt-2
2) SAMSUNG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...147361&cm_re=512gb_ssd-_-20-147-361-_-Product
3) yes, on 10.10.5 OR NEWER it's included in system: https://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/01/os-x-trim-ssd/

 

[paragonj]

1) http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid-thunderbolt-2
2) SAMSUNG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...147361&cm_re=512gb_ssd-_-20-147-361-_-Product
3) yes, on 10.10.5 OR NEWER it's included in system: https://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/01/os-x-trim-ssd/

Thanks for the suggestions. So to enable TRIM I just need to enter that one line in Terminal?

The G-RAID looks really nice but is probably a bit too expensive for my needs (personal, not professional).

 

[joecool99]

then you don't need RAID.
yes, terminal.

 

[joecool99]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITI0514?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

[paragonj]

then you don't need RAID.
yes, terminal.

Thanks, I do want RAID since I'd prefer not to lose all of my family photos. I looked at the Passport Pro you linked but I don't like that you need to send it in for recovery if a drive fails.

 

[joecool99]

you don't need RAID then! get simple USB drive for backup or 2 of them if you want to remain paranoid.

 

[austinpike]

^ this, you don't need RAID, just get two external drives and put duplicate backups on both of them.

With your port options, assuming you don't want to go Thunderbolt, you could use Firewire which would be faster than USB 2. This Acomdata is cheap and has worked well for me, and has USB also. The Firewire port is only FW400 though so you'd need a 400->800 cable or adapter. You can get FW800 enclosures but they are less common and cost quite a bit more.

So I'd just get two of those and a couple of 2.5" SATA drives of your choice. I'd get them from different manufacturers to reduce the chances of getting two from a "bad batch" or something.

 

[paragonj]

^ this, you don't need RAID, just get two external drives and put duplicate backups on both of them.

With your port options, assuming you don't want to go Thunderbolt, you could use Firewire which would be faster than USB 2. This Acomdata is cheap and has worked well for me, and has USB also. The Firewire port is only FW400 though so you'd need a 400->800 cable or adapter. You can get FW800 enclosures but they are less common and cost quite a bit more.

So I'd just get two of those and a couple of 2.5" SATA drives of your choice. I'd get them from different manufacturers to reduce the chances of getting two from a "bad batch" or something.

Thanks, I'll have to think about whether I really need RAID or not. I should clarify that I am not planning to use the external drive solely for backup. I am planning to move my photos completely off the internal drive to free up space and allow me to go SSD without having to buy a gigantic one. That is why I thought RAID would be a good idea (implicit redundancy without having to do anything).