Momentus XT Install tips?

To those that have done Momentus XT installs, did you follow any special procedure?

My plan was to just install from a recent Time Machine backup. I figured that would be easier and more efficient than doing a clean install and then trying to reload all of my apps and transfer all data.

What do you guys think?

This is in my late '10 15" 2.8GHz i7 with 8GB of RAM, and will be replacing the 500Gb 5400RPM drive it came with. It's currently running Lion.

The computer isn't that old, but the Hybrid seemed like a good way to increase performance substantially (both from the SSD part and the 7200RPM part) without dropping huge money on a large capacity SSD.

 

SD25 or SD26? I've heard both revisions tossed around.

I don't really feel like doing a clean install, then copying things off the old drive. I have settings how I want them, applications how I want them, programs how I want them, etc.

RJCP - What made you decide to follow that path, instead of doing a recovery from Time Machine?

If I get the drive, I was going to burn the .iso for SD25/26/whatever ahead of time and then boot from that to update, and then do a TM clone.

It's good to hear that there are no special procedures to go through.

 

Thanks!

So you just plugged it in, booted in Recovery from a Time Machine save, and that was it?

I think I'll pick one up this week!

 

I'm going to pick one of these up today, in a few minutes actually.

I think I'll install it, update the firmware, then do recovery install from a Time Machine backup (done right before shutting down to swap the drive).

How does that sound?

 

I got my Momentus XT today. $99.99!

Did the install, did the firmware update (which wasn't necessary), formatted the drive, and did a Time Machine restore. Took about 2 hours, and everything was good.

On the initial restart, time was cut by 50%.

The drive seems to be running a little hotter than the 5400RPM drive it's replacing, and it is definitely not as smooth (slight vibration).

Overall it seems to be pretty nice. I'm going to do a handful of restarts to try and cement boot time speed and app launching. Things are definitely loading much more quickly, which is a really welcome feature.

 

After 3 cold-boot cycles, boot times are MUCH faster. That alone was worth $99.99!

Battery after just unplugging settled to the mid 7-hour range. Really wild.

So far so good!

 

I don't feel too bad about the vibration and other "downsides". It would have been possible to buy an MBP with a 7200RPM drive, and it wouldn't have been any louder/rougher/whatever as it is now.

Again, for $99 it's hard to go wrong.

Staples had it listed for $149, but another store had it listed for $109. The closest Staples was out of stock, but the next closest one had it in stock. I drove over, and went to check out. I double checked the price on my phone, and the other store had dropped it to $99. Price match and I was out the door!