Managing a MBP with SSD and external drives for data?

dreamsandart · May 9, 2010

Managing a MBP with SSD and external drives for data?

Its come to the point of upgrading my 2007 MBP 2.4 to a new i7 that I'm thinking of ordering it with a SSD drive. Its the biggest 'hit' to increase performance it seems. Problem is the size of the SSD drives for cost. I can justify the 256GB model but not $1300 for 500GB which would be ideal, and even if I wait 6 months or so to get a 500GB I don't see the price coming down all that much. So...

Let say I order an APPLE SSD in my MBP and use it for a boot drive and some files. How do I configure/set-up the external drive to read its files for Aperture, iTunes, documents.... Thinking now is that I would use a WD 2TB external drive in RAID so I have the files on one 1TB and auto back-up on the other 1TB in one inclosure, and another 1TB drive for Time Machine.

This kind of limits my portability, so I'm also thinking I'd also have a portable larger HD to take with me when I need it. How do I sync the files I'm working on and adding to on one external drive with the other (as easy as possible)?

I may be thinking this all wrong, so any suggestions besides just the 'how to?' would be helpful.

Jimmi1321 · May 10, 2010

Wondering same things here.

1 solution would be using an optybay in place of the superdrive.

here are some info from diablo2121 from this thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=902933

Quote

'm putting applications and the OS on the SSD, and leaving the hard drive for media and data. I've not seen a succient writeup on how to do this, so here's some general tips:

You should *keep* your /user account on the SSD. Certain library settings need to stay on this drive. You should move music, media, the itunes folder, photos, downloads, and e-mail to your data drive. This is a bit complex. itunes and iphoto allow you to specify the save directory (and itunes will copy your music). The download folder can be assigned in preferences. e-mail is the toughest. Here's the best instructions, from macperformanceguide.com

0. Quit Apple Mail, and make a backup of your mail folder.
1. Copy the Mail folder to the top level of your data drive (or elsewhere, then modify step 3 appropriately).
2. Rename the original mail folder to Mail.old as an additional backup.
3. Start a Terminal window and type:

ln -s /Volumes/Master/Mail Library/Mail

This makes a symbolic link to the folder Mail on the volume Master (type the name of your volume, and use quotes around it if the volume name contains a space character). The resulting file Library/Mail is a tiny file that says look over there on /Volumes/Master/Mail instead. Note: in this example, the data drive is named "Master" and the folder at the top level is named "Mail". If your's is different, adjust appropriately. This last step is essential to get mail to use an alternate drive as the storage directory. Not simple, but necessary.

Now, you've got apps and system on the SSD, data stored on the HD, and you get the best of both worlds
Click to expand...

!

if you go this way it would work only when connected to the external HD...

I think i would use a 2,5 very portable 500gb firewire external drive.
kepp there music and movies.

Use the 2X 1tb Raid HD for time machine of the ssd and a weekly clone (superduper) of the 500gb movie and music drive....

Managing a MBP with SSD and external drives for data?

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Managing a MBP with SSD and external drives for data?

dreamsandart macrumors member

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