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whats in the optibay?

About your game plan: Put the SSD in the regular HD bay. That way, hibernation works.

I have the SSD in the optibay + hibernation doesn't work. You'll only notice this if you manage to run out of battery completely. But it kinda sucks for those rare occasions.

BTW the way I did it is I had both my original startup HD and the SSD installed, then used CarbonCopyCloner to clone the original. CCC lets you do a partial clone. So what I did is clone everything except my huge media folders. Worked without a hitch.

Prior to this, I had swiped lots of weird huge files from the disk though, using OmniDiskSweeper. OmniDiskSweeper also sizes folders so you will know when you are down to 60GB or so (in my case, as I only have a 80GB SSD).
 
About your game plan: Put the SSD in the regular HD bay. That way, hibernation works.

I have the SSD in the optibay + hibernation doesn't work. You'll only notice this if you manage to run out of battery completely. But it kinda sucks for those rare occasions.

BTW the way I did it is I had both my original startup HD and the SSD installed, then used CarbonCopyCloner to clone the original. CCC lets you do a partial clone. So what I did is clone everything except my huge media folders. Worked without a hitch.

Prior to this, I had swiped lots of weird huge files from the disk though, using OmniDiskSweeper. OmniDiskSweeper also sizes folders so you will know when you are down to 60GB or so (in my case, as I only have a 80GB SSD).

Are you worried about losing the SMS sensor on the hdd?

I have been moving all the large data files to an external drive all day so that I can get the main drive down to below 160gb.

So what would be the steps with ccc?

Leave everything the way it is, do the partial clone then replace the drives. Then do the restore onto the sdd?

Thanks for the help!
 
is anyone having trouble with the latest updates? I'm not on my MBP right now but I believe it was the Superdrive 3.0 firmware update. It addresses the noise the superdrive makes on startup and waking from sleep. Since there's a hard drive in place of the superdrive I would think that polling that SATA connection on startup is a good thing, but I could be wrong. Has anyone with an optibay (or equivalent) done this update? Any problems?
 
ok the whole install took 30 min.

I changed the pathways of itunes, transmission, etc.

Ok...WOW this damn thing is fast!

I ran into a hickup with entourage as I must have moved the identities somewhere off the main drive and it cannot find them. I will move them back.

I did the SSD in the Main hd area and the hitachi 7200 rpm 500 gb drive to the optibay.

One thing I cannot remember is if I left a CD in the superdrive....lol...oh well!
 
THIS IS KILLING ME!!!!

Ok guys this is pissing me off. I have all my programs on the intel SSD (including Itunes.) I Point Itunes to my Hitachi drive where all the MP3s are. When It loads all of the MP3s into Itunes, It takes like 60gigs of random MP3s and puts it on the SSD! It has done this 3 times. Then As soon as I remove the random 60 gigs of MP3s off the SSD, I go into Itunes and Itunes wont find the path to ANY of the 300gigs of MP3s on the Hitachi drive.

Do you guys have your Itunes AND your MP3s on your HDD?

What am I doing wrong here. Time to CCC the drive and reinstall everything to get the SSD formatted... Again.
 
THIS IS KILLING ME!!!!

Ok guys this is pissing me off. I have all my programs on the intel SSD (including Itunes.) I Point Itunes to my Hitachi drive where all the MP3s are. When It loads all of the MP3s into Itunes, It takes like 60gigs of random MP3s and puts it on the SSD! It has done this 3 times. Then As soon as I remove the random 60 gigs of MP3s off the SSD, I go into Itunes and Itunes wont find the path to ANY of the 300gigs of MP3s on the Hitachi drive.

Do you guys have your Itunes AND your MP3s on your HDD?

What am I doing wrong here. Time to CCC the drive and reinstall everything to get the SSD formatted... Again.


I changed the pathway and when I did that, it just imported the meta data and all was good............interesting
 
What is the exact way you changed the pathway? I want to see how it differs from what im doing... thanks.

mike , do not change the path , just deselect itunes option "do not copy itunes files when adding" under advanced options under the preferences.

this will allow you to add your library from multiple locations and not take up any of your ssd.
 
mike , do not change the path , just deselect itunes option "do not copy itunes files when adding" under advanced options under the preferences.

this will allow you to add your library from multiple locations and not take up any of your ssd.

Funny I don't even see that option in my advanced area.
 
About your game plan: Put the SSD in the regular HD bay. That way, hibernation works.

I have the SSD in the optibay + hibernation doesn't work. You'll only notice this if you manage to run out of battery completely. But it kinda sucks for those rare occasions.

FINALLY!!!

Thanks for this. I thought I was nuts. I have 2xIntel X-25 in my MBP as a STRIPE 0 RAID and could never get hibernation to work - I could never figure out why. this will let me rest easy and keep a closer eye on battery level.
 
What do you mean finally? It has been discussed to death in this thread that hibernation issues are common from the superdrive location.

It may be just me but it makes logical sense to make it boot from the original place esp. when you are putting another HD in there. I feel grateful it will even see the other HD. Why try to boot from the superdrive spot? That just sounds like you are trying to create more work for yourself...

For those contemplating this, it really is simple.

1.Put SSD in ORIG. HD location.
2.Put back together and install OSX.
2.Put HD of choice in superdrive location with caddy or alternative method.
3.Put back together again.

I have had no problems whatsoever. Running striped sounds great and all but if the laptop will not permit it w/o a headache it is a moot point. With my way, I can have my OS on my SSD and then my large files on my HD. If I am doing a simple task or working in Ps for and extended amount of time on just a couple of files, I unmount my HD to save battery life if I am away from an outlet. Will striped give you those kind of options? I know you are going to have all out speed with both SSD's but with all of your data being spread out across both it just seems like you are more limited if you get in a sticky situation. Remember, these macs batteries were designed for 1 HD.
 
In the Itunes, preference/ advanced tab, i just selected the correct location of all my media files. Thats all.

Another way to do it is to hold down Option while clicking iTunes and it will prompt you to find your library or create a new one. This is how I went about "linking mine."

Hope this helps. I like keyboard shortcuts. :)
 
1.Put SSD in ORIG. HD location.
2.Put HD of choice in superdrive location with caddy or alternative method.
3.Put your OSX disc in and install it on your SSD.

Small detail, you can no longer install your OS via DVD, it is now full of hard drive, remember?

I booted off of an external then shut down before switching things around. After I was done tinkering, I booted off the external again and then cloned off of my original drive now in the optical bay onto the SSD.

All this said, I agree with the boot drive remaining in the stock drive slot, it is just asking for trouble doing it any other way and it works great, hit a 280 today in XBench disk test, rocking fast. Since my music collection on my portables is only 15GB, I left it on the SSD so I can avoid mounting the 2nd drive while on flights and such. I put in the Intel 160 G2, I have right at 100GB free space remaining.

The only thing that is on the storage drive is photos, full motion / timelapse work and various documents. I am typing this right now only using the SSD.

I have noticed some odd things though, a few things will make the optical bay drive spin up even when not mounted:

1. Dashboard, iStat Pro wants to read it, spins.
2. Disk Utility, if I select it, the disk spins.
3. Waking from sleep when not mounted it spins.
4. Disk Utility will unmount it, but it will still spin.

The only way I can unmount the hard drive in the optical position and get it to stop spinning is to select then eject it.
 
is anyone having trouble with the latest updates? I'm not on my MBP right now but I believe it was the Superdrive 3.0 firmware update. It addresses the noise the superdrive makes on startup and waking from sleep. Since there's a hard drive in place of the superdrive I would think that polling that SATA connection on startup is a good thing, but I could be wrong. Has anyone with an optibay (or equivalent) done this update? Any problems?

Up here,

Did you guys install the new Update with 2 hard disks in your mbp ?
 
Up here,

Did you guys install the new Update with 2 hard disks in your mbp ?

I installed the update the day it was released and I cant tell any problems. Between work and play im on my MBP probably 5 hours a day. No problems or issues thus far.


Anyone with 2 HDDs Running parallels and Win7?

Im making a thread in the windows on macs sub forum. If anyone that did this wants to head over there and chat about this I would appreciate it.
 
They could be locked as well (latest WD 640 is)
So hook them up in place of your stock 250Gb drive, then you rule out adaptor's influence.

Just an update for anyone interested -
Bought an MCE adapter with the free superdrive ext case. Twice as expensive as the newmodeus that came in bad(I didn't return it due to me breaking the faceplate when I tried to install the adapter) BUT you dont have to buy an external dvd drive($50-100) so really, it would have been cheaper for me to buy the MCE originally since I bought a $60 pioneer drive.
Anyway, the 500gb Toshiba from the external drive I pulled apart works great! Since I was in there I also bought an 80GB G2 Intel X-25 and WOW!! does it make a HUGE difference. It worked great using Carbon Copy Cloner to copy over OSX to the SSD. I can't recommend it enough!
 
Just an update for anyone interested -
Bought an MCE adapter with the free superdrive ext case. Twice as expensive as the newmodeus that came in bad(I didn't return it due to me breaking the faceplate when I tried to install the adapter) BUT you dont have to buy an external dvd drive($50-100) so really, it would have been cheaper for me to buy the MCE originally since I bought a $60 pioneer drive.

It's actually a nice case, even smaller than a Air Superdrive and it seems to work well.
 
Just an update for anyone interested -
Bought an MCE adapter with the free superdrive ext case. Twice as expensive as the newmodeus that came in bad(I didn't return it due to me breaking the faceplate when I tried to install the adapter) BUT you dont have to buy an external dvd drive($50-100) so really, it would have been cheaper for me to buy the MCE originally since I bought a $60 pioneer drive.
Anyway, the 500gb Toshiba from the external drive I pulled apart works great! Since I was in there I also bought an 80GB G2 Intel X-25 and WOW!! does it make a HUGE difference. It worked great using Carbon Copy Cloner to copy over OSX to the SSD. I can't recommend it enough!

They never sent me my free superdrive case.... It was on the order confirmation in my email.... but then it wasn't on the packing list. No one will respond to my emails.... they also sent me the wrong documentation CD and I ended up having to figure it all out myself. I think I would have been BETTER off doing a DIY solution than dealing with MCE's OptiBay
 
F*** those chinese cheap screwdrivers! Today I received my caddy and I couldn't unscrew the Superdrive... The crew heads are almost eaten... Will try in a few days with a better screwdrivers...
 
THIS IS KILLING ME!!!!

Ok guys this is pissing me off. I have all my programs on the intel SSD (including Itunes.) I Point Itunes to my Hitachi drive where all the MP3s are. When It loads all of the MP3s into Itunes, It takes like 60gigs of random MP3s and puts it on the SSD! It has done this 3 times. Then As soon as I remove the random 60 gigs of MP3s off the SSD, I go into Itunes and Itunes wont find the path to ANY of the 300gigs of MP3s on the Hitachi drive.

Do you guys have your Itunes AND your MP3s on your HDD?

What am I doing wrong here. Time to CCC the drive and reinstall everything to get the SSD formatted... Again.


Transferring your iTunes Library | iLounge Article
This one I used.

It works fine, all new music goes to specified disk/volume.
Yet I have similar problem with Apps.
iTunes puts new Apps on startup disk (recreates iTunes folders).
I need to consolidate library - then it puts them on external, and then I can delete Apps on startup disk, as iTunes doesn't point to them anymore (I checked) yet they still linger there.


Consult also these:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090204122516833
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
 
I think we should clarify few things on DD locations and SMS.
(they are bit offtopic related to cheap MCE replacements, but we seem to have a lot of traction here)

1. OptiBay is a hack. It never was intended to host HDD. It apparently shuts down on sleep/etc, without a chance for anything to get saved back to HDD.
Just like you would load OSX from SD card reader, and then yank it without proper shutdown.

1a. hence RAID 0 is asking for a MPITA (put on my flame-retardant suit ;))

2. SMS is not part of a drive. Apparently it's external "device".
(Remember problems users (uMBP only?) had recently when used 3rd party HDDs with integral SMS'like features)

2a. Though you have SMS on board, it won't work with your HDD in OptiBay - it only targets drive in "HDDBay"
(in this case (SSD+HDD in OptiBay) it makes sense to disable SMS, and buy HDD with intergated OS'agnostic "SMS")

This all is IMHO & AFAIK.
Please help expand it with your knowledge and experience.
 
I think we should clarify few things on DD locations and SMS.

2. SMS is not part of a drive. Apparently it's external "device".
(Remember problems users (uMBP only?) had recently when used 3rd party HDDs with integral SMS'like features)

2a. Though you have SMS on board, it won't work with your HDD in OptiBay - it only targets drive in "HDDBay"
(in this case (SSD+HDD in OptiBay) it makes sense to disable SMS, and buy HDD with intergated OS'agnostic "SMS")

This all is IMHO & AFAIK.
Please help expand it with your knowledge and experience.

It seems like there would be a hack to get the sms working on any mounted HDD. Unfortunately I am not skilled enough to know what that might be. Is is part of the OS or firmware?
 
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