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Mixed Drive Setup (SSD+HDD) in Macbook Pro

circa7 said:
So just to get this clear; I just ordered a 2012 15" MBP and am going to also pick up an SSD. The consensus is that I can and should put the SSD in my optical bay because it supports SATA III? This SSD is going to be my main drive where the system will boot from, and I will use my stock 5400rpm drive to store media files which will be in the original HDD location. Is this correct? I have gotten some mixed advice.
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That's the setup I have w/ my 13" 2012 MBP and it's working out great. I'm able to boot from the SSD w/ no problems. Temperature has not been a problem, and the HDD is not only running cool in the original bay, but it's able to take advantage of Sudden Motion Sensor feature.

The only drawback is that I haven't figured out how to get my Boot Camp installation on the SSD. I tried to make a Boot Camp partition on the SSD before creating the Fusion Drive, and it made the partition, but Windows 7 wouldn't install on that partition. It said something about not installing because it wasn't able to boot from it due to something in the BIOS. So I just combined the whole thing into a Fusion Drive and made a Boot Camp partition from that. It works fine, but it has put the Boot Camp partition on the hard drive, so performance is slow.
 
greytmom said:
Also got a really cheap enclosure for the superdrive on Amazon, and it was a good fit and works fine.
Click to expand...

hey, Greytmom, do you mind telling which superdrive enclosure you got?
i purchased one that was sold together with a optical bay caddy specific for Macbook Pro, but Amazon failed to realize the superdrive enclosure is NOT the right for Mac. I am looking for another one now.
 
2 HDD in MBP?

I'm a hobbyist photographer using mbp mostly for photostorage and edits (not too much). Have accumulated about 130GB in a short time and my hdd is almost nearing it's capacity.

I've ordered an 1TB 2.5" 7200 rpm drive to replace the stock drive (250GB in 2010 13" MBP with 2.4Ghz C2D). Was wondering if anybody has used 2 hdds on a dual drive option? From the posts that I read it looks most use ssd+hdd combo. I don't mind how long mbp takes to boot, but my main concern is about photo edits and fixes.

- Having a dual drive will fix this?
- Is it advisable to have 2 hdds?
- Is it okay to put the 1TB on optibay and the photofiles can move there. while the 250 remains to be used as boot drive and for documents.

Appreciate any suggestions offered.

NOTE: Ram already maxed to 8GB

--------------------------------
Thanks

QUOTE: I like Mac, you mean Mac burger??? :D
 
swamesp said:
I'm a hobbyist photographer using mbp mostly for photostorage and edits (not too much). Have accumulated about 130GB in a short time and my hdd is almost nearing it's capacity.

I've ordered an 1TB 2.5" 7200 rpm drive to replace the stock drive (250GB in 2010 13" MBP with 2.4Ghz C2D). Was wondering if anybody has used 2 hdds on a dual drive option? From the posts that I read it looks most use ssd+hdd combo. I don't mind how long mbp takes to boot, but my main concern is about photo edits and fixes.

- Having a dual drive will fix this?
- Is it advisable to have 2 hdds?
- Is it okay to put the 1TB on optibay and the photofiles can move there. while the 250 remains to be used as boot drive and for documents.

Appreciate any suggestions offered.

NOTE: Ram already maxed to 8GB

--------------------------------
Thanks

QUOTE: I like Mac, you mean Mac burger??? :D
Click to expand...

Yes
 
I replaced my HDD with the SSD. The SSD works fine, the thing is now I don't know how to reformat my HDD to use it as a secondary disk drive. I was going to reformat it to FAT format but I'm not really sure about that. I remember that FAT can't store files bigger than 4GB.

So, can anyone please help me? Is Mac os plus the right format?
 
Hi congratulate for the great post a lot of info to go through.

In my case I may need some direction with below situation.
I have a Macpro 15'/ 9.1 with one segate hybrid 750gb plus the original apple drive installed in the optical bay. Few weeks ago I manage to successfully instal both OX ML and Win 8 on segate drive and use the second drive as data back up. Unfortunately I encounter some dificuties reading from the second drive some lost data as well. So I took the decision to transfer windows on the second drive, unfortunately I was not successful using Win clone mainly due to the inability to create a bootable partition fir windows with boot camp.
Please any advice would help me tremendously to lower my frustration lavel.
thanks
 
Last edited:
hey everyone, I searched the forum for the last couple hours and been soaking in all the information but I'm left with some questions.

I have a 2012 Macbook Pro 15" (9,1 2.6GHz i7 model). I am replacing my 1TB HDD with the SSD and placing the HDD where the Optical Drive was.

My question is this, currently all my files are backed up to my Time Machine and I want to install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion onto my SSD. I have roughly 300 GB used so far in my HDD and the OWC is only a 120GB 6gb/sata drive. So i cant just clone the drive over because theres not enough space.

How would I go about getting all the applications smoothly over to the SSD from my HDD? Would I just install Mountain Lion on the new drive, boot onto that (while the HDD remains the same) and slowly copy paste from one drive to the other, is that even possible? Or using Time Machine?

I basically just want the OS and all the apps (itunes, iphoto, CS6, ec etc in /applications) to be on my SSD while my music files and personal folders are left on the HDD.

How would I do this simply without creating a huge headache. Any help is appreciated as my drive comes tomorrow and I am eager to get it running.

Thanks!!
 
This thread is awesome! I've been doing lots of research for this setup and this thread has answered all of my questions. Can't wait to get my ssd in the next couple of weeks.
 
Mid 2010 15" MBP Windows 8 install

Hey guys, I appreciate the very helpful guide on the first page, but I have some remaining questions. I have a mid 2010 15" MBP and I have purchased a 120 gb Samsung 840 series SSD and the Amazon caddy previously mentioned. I want to boot Windows 8 off of the SSD and leave Mountain Lion on my regular HDD to keep things simple. What is the best way to go about doing this?

I installed the SSD in the optical bay with the caddy, but my MBP did not recognize the SSD (would not show up in Disk Utility). Do I need to connect the SSD via a USB cable and install Windows 8 via Boot Camp 5 before putting it in the optical bay? Or would it be best to mount the SSD where the HDD is currently? According to the OP, it should not matter where the SSD is mounted.

Thanks for your help!
 
received my caddy from amazon today so i got to work. ease of install and everything is working great.

i have a Crucial M4 SSD 256gb in the main hdd bay and a Seagate 750gb hdd in the odd bay.

love this setup. thanks for all the info in this thread.
 
Originally installed the SSD as the second drive but i was not able to erase the main drive and when I did through recovery mode, I was not able continue booting from the SSD. So i had to do the switch and set the SSD as the primary. Was bothering me I could not erase the original hard drive to use for storage.
 
Ok so I upgraded my Late 2009 MBP with a Samsung 840 250gig SSD the other day. I bought myself an optical bay caddy a few months earlier in preparation of the upgrade.

Everything is working great. Old HD in the optical bay, my computer runs like its new.

But wait!.... I just found a new problem. My wifi connection is piss poor now. I have an airport extreme. Prior to the swap/in/out things were fine. I would connect to my 5ghz connection because I live in a building and the 2.4ghz band is cluttered with other routers. But the moment I put this optibay in my signal has been timing out constantly, more specifically on the 5ghz channel.

Not that I'm against using the 2.4ghz channel but I would like to optimize what I have. I actually went from an airport express to extreme to boost my signal in my apartment. Mind you the signal has to battle a few walls which I understand hinders the strength.

But then I stumbled onto this after a google search.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/10...ro_has_antenna_mounted_to_optical_drive_frame

WTF!
 
robothero said:
I wanted to give this thread a little bump for two reasons...

1. I see a lot of questions on this forum that are answered in the OP, so being on the front page might help some people out!

2. I did this last night! I added a Samsung 830 (256) to my new 15 inch MBP and it was super easy. I've never worked with such tiny screws before, and I only ran into trouble getting one of the screws back in (I had accidentally stripped it), but fortunately the caddy I bought came with a bunch of extras.

I then used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my OS over to the SSD, reboot, wipe the HDD and reboot again. Everything seems to be working perfectly now and the SSD boots up super fast!

This is also my first time using an SSD for anything, and my god are they tiny.

Anyway, for anyone worried about doing a setup like this, I found the OP to be amazingly helpful, and I was able to do the whole thing with a 101 degree fever, so you can definitely do it too.

Next up on my to-do list is to set up bootcamp for windows.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

When you say you "wipe the HDD and reboot again" do you put a copy of an operating system on it? How do you wipe it clean so you can prepare to dump your large data files on to it?
 
MBP 15" '12 switch SSD question with a twist.

(Posted reply and got blank screen-apologize if there is a duplicate version)

1. MBP died. Bought refurb MBP 15" mid '12 and crucial 240 SSD to install per forum posts.
2. Mistakenly installed SSD in HDD bay and proceeded with migrating data from last external hard disc backup with time machine. Realized mistake, and AFTER data migration, began switching the SSD to the optical bay. Noticed rust in logic board, called apple got replacement.
3. Began process again in new computer, left HDD in HD bay and SSD in optical bay. Called apple to help with set up.
4. My data was in the SSD - I didn't think it would have saved it since I never finished the process with the 1st refurb MBP.
5. Went ahead with the partition, manually moved media files to HD.
6. Question: IS THIS A PROBLEM? The computer doesn't recognize it as an SSD. It reads it as HDD with 500 (same as the original one in the HD bay).
It is running smoothly, with some noise in the background, which if I remember correctly, comes with the SSD.
I do not see a marked difference in performance. Is the SSD acting as a SSD or a HHD??
Do I need to make changes??
Thank you!
 
MBP 15" early 2008 SSD in optical bay won't mount

I installed an Intel X25-M Sata 1 SSD in my optical bay before formatting it. Disk utility doesn't see it. What do I need to do to format and clone it from HD?
thanks Chaz
 
federalreserve said:
Hey guys, I appreciate the very helpful guide on the first page, but I have some remaining questions. I have a mid 2010 15" MBP and I have purchased a 120 gb Samsung 840 series SSD and the Amazon caddy previously mentioned. I want to boot Windows 8 off of the SSD and leave Mountain Lion on my regular HDD to keep things simple. What is the best way to go about doing this?

I installed the SSD in the optical bay with the caddy, but my MBP did not recognize the SSD (would not show up in Disk Utility). Do I need to connect the SSD via a USB cable and install Windows 8 via Boot Camp 5 before putting it in the optical bay? Or would it be best to mount the SSD where the HDD is currently? According to the OP, it should not matter where the SSD is mounted.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

I'm about to go through the same process with the same exact setup (except I bought the 840-EVO). I was looking at the caddies on Amazon and some people reported the same thing you are. Some indicated they thought the caddy was physically disconnecting. It could be the cheaper caddies are well--cheap. I bought the MCE one. I'll report what happens with that when I get it all setup later this week.
 
After the SSD firmware update have you tried it in the optical bay?

mrwheet said:
Okay, it looks like it's fixed (fingers crossed for a few days)!

The latest firmware from Crucial (010G) seems to do the trick on my machine. I updated both drives (which was a major pita, since I had to install the DVD drive to boot the installer iso) with the new firmware and all seems well -- haven't had a hiccup in sample playback so far. Hopefully it stays this way, as the machine is blazing fast with this setup (and no, I'm not brave/crazy enough to do the RAID 0 thing!). Fast, powerful, portable - I finally have a single-machine audio production set-up that works!
---------------------------------------------------
So, for anyone in future having issues with a Crucial M4 512 running in the optibay on a mid-2012 (non-retina) Macbook Pro, the 010G (or greater) firmware seems to do the trick. Not sure what changed, since this "fix" was already done for the late-2011 models, but it seems happy now.
Click to expand...

MrWheet, since doing the SSD firmware update have you tried the SSD in the optical bay? Also, any problems with wi-fi (referring to appleinsider article about antenna mounted to optical drive frame)?
 
MacBook Pro late 2008

I was ready to pack it in. Was having problems handling Aperture, and the optical drive was dead. Got the OWC kit and put SSD in HD bay, old HD into optical bay. No problems, WiFi works great, now boots in 40 seconds (way faster). Read/write went from 80 to 200mbs. Really fixed aperture and Photoshop problems. Now I'm kind of attached to it.
MBP 2008 (enhanced)
iMac 27 Fusion
iPad (original)
iPhone 4
 
I have a mid 2010 MBP with a 500gb HDD. I want to upgrade to an SSD. I have been reading that with MBP that are pre-2011 I need to place the SSD in the optibay instead of putting the old HDD in the optibay. Is this correct? Or would it not matter? If so, do I just go about installing the SSD into the optibay just as if I was going to install the HDD there?
 
I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro 15 as well. For me, it did not matter. I started by installing the SSD (Samsung) into the optibay adapter... installed OSX on that.

Later, I decided to open it up again and move the SSD to the hard drive spot and the hard drive to the optibay to see if there was any speed difference.

When I did that, I didn't have to reinstall anything and there was no noticeable difference in performance.
 
aaronlam said:
I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro 15 as well. For me, it did not matter. I started by installing the SSD (Samsung) into the optibay adapter... installed OSX on that.

Later, I decided to open it up again and move the SSD to the hard drive spot and the hard drive to the optibay to see if there was any speed difference.

When I did that, I didn't have to reinstall anything and there was no noticeable difference in performance.
Click to expand...

Ok sweet. Did you just purchase the SSD and the diskcaddy? I am confused about the part on how you set up the SSD... Id like to hear from someone who is doing it on the same hardware as I am. Do I just remove my HDD and put in the SSD and then remove my Optical Drive and install my old HDD in the diskcady there? Where does the HDD plug into when it is in the location of where the optical drive was. THANK YOU
 
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread! It's been a very helpful source of information. :)

My current HDD configuration is a single 750GB 2nd Gen. Momentous XT (SATA III) in a late 2011 15" MBP. I've since decided to upgrade to an Intel 530 120GB SSD (also SATA III). What would be the best configuration for my computer? Should I put the SSD in the original bay or caddy? Both chipsets (Intel 6 Series) on the computer state their link speed at 6Gb/s (SATA III). I've read the posts about the caddy having issues with SATA III drives—particularly with 15" and 17" 2011 MBPs—and sleep/wake issues. At the moment I'm planning on installing the SSD in original bay since—correct me if I'm wrong—the Momentous XT can't take advantage of SATA III speeds since the r/w is only about 100 or so MB/s. I'm only worried that the optical bay will reject any SATA III drive. I wonder if any changes/fixes/improvements have been make in 10.9 Mavericks.

Does anyone know if the Momentous XT has a built in SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor)? Is there any way to check this and is having SMS on an HDD crucial?

Thanks!
 
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