My late 2008 MacBook unibody SSD install (and a question)

[ekinnyc]

so after several reinstalls and hours spent researching why my Airport no longer works, my SSD is up and running.

i did not use carbon cloner as i was a) not sure how i would restore a 500gb mirror onto a 128gb ssd, and b) i was restoring from time machine

i purchased a 128gb Samsung 830 SSD. the Nvidia MCP79 chipset in these macbooks has known issues with sandforce based drives, so i after research and recommendations from some members here, i decided on the 830. so far, im very happy, and recommend it if you can find it (i purchased from BuyDig for $119)

i then purchased this caddy for my HDD and this external superdrive caddy

the superdrive caddy came in very handy when i realized that i need a CD drive to do a clean install of snow leopard from a CD!!!

once i got the clean install up and running, i botched the user migration from my TM backup, so i wound up re-doing the clean install. on the second try, the migration was a success. one thing i came across while reading around is repointing the home directory to look to my original HD - this allowed me to restore only my user and apps, and not any of my music, pics, or documents, as those still live on the original HD. the SSD will be purely a system drive.

then the trouble started.... somehow i managed to botch the home directory, so i couldnt log into my user profile. luckily i made a backup admin account with a home folder on the SSD, so i logged into that, repointed the main account's home folder to SSD, reboot, repoint back to HD, and that resolved the issue.

but then, WHAMMY!!! my wireless card disappeared from system preferences>Network. i spent the better part of this weekend trying to fix it. this is a fairly common occurence, but none of the solutions i found helped. i tried to reset PRAM and SMC, i deleted the preference files, and even tried another clean install. i still havent resolved this issue, and am worried that i have to get a new airport card and do major surgery on my macbook.

until then, i threw a usb wifi dongle, and got online.

so, was this headache worth it?

with my 7200RPM WD Black 500GB HD, blackmagic showed me read and write speeds of about 89MB/s

with the SSD, i am getting 197MB/s read, 246MB/s write

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

now, i do have a question - since my Home folder is on my old HD, and that HD still has a bootable copy of OS X (i guess its yet another backup), is there any disadvantage in having all of the system folders such as Library, private, and System? all i really want there is my Users/<user> folder that contains all of my files. can i delete the old system files, or leave them as a backup?

 

[ekinnyc]

well, apparently isight and airport both run on the same cable. when i was installing the hdd into optibay, i disconnected the isight cable from the logic board, and during reconnection, i almost broke off a few pins. theyre kinda loose, and one was bent down, which caused airport not to be detected. i just gently straightened the bent pin and plugged in the cable... voila, airport works

 

[peterson12]

so after several reinstalls and hours spent researching why my Airport no longer works, my SSD is up and running.

i did not use carbon cloner as i was a) not sure how i would restore a 500gb mirror onto a 128gb ssd, and b) i was restoring from time machine

i purchased a 128gb Samsung 830 SSD. the Nvidia MCP79 chipset in these macbooks has known issues with sandforce based drives, so i after research and recommendations from some members here, i decided on the 830. so far, im very happy, and recommend it if you can find it (i purchased from BuyDig for $119)

i then purchased this caddy for my HDD and this external superdrive caddy

the superdrive caddy came in very handy when i realized that i need a CD drive to do a clean install of snow leopard from a CD!!!

once i got the clean install up and running, i botched the user migration from my TM backup, so i wound up re-doing the clean install. on the second try, the migration was a success. one thing i came across while reading around is repointing the home directory to look to my original HD - this allowed me to restore only my user and apps, and not any of my music, pics, or documents, as those still live on the original HD. the SSD will be purely a system drive.

then the trouble started.... somehow i managed to botch the home directory, so i couldnt log into my user profile. luckily i made a backup admin account with a home folder on the SSD, so i logged into that, repointed the main account's home folder to SSD, reboot, repoint back to HD, and that resolved the issue.

but then, WHAMMY!!! my wireless card disappeared from system preferences>Network. i spent the better part of this weekend trying to fix it. this is a fairly common occurence, but none of the solutions i found helped. i tried to reset PRAM and SMC, i deleted the preference files, and even tried another clean install. i still havent resolved this issue, and am worried that i have to get a new airport card and do major surgery on my macbook.

until then, i threw a usb wifi dongle, and got online.

so, was this headache worth it?

with my 7200RPM WD Black 500GB HD, blackmagic showed me read and write speeds of about 89MB/s

with the SSD, i am getting 197MB/s read, 246MB/s write

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

now, i do have a question - since my Home folder is on my old HD, and that HD still has a bootable copy of OS X (i guess its yet another backup), is there any disadvantage in having all of the system folders such as Library, private, and System? all i really want there is my Users/<user> folder that contains all of my files. can i delete the old system files, or leave them as a backup?

I have purchased Patriot Pyro SE 120GB SSD for my mid-2009 15” MacBook Pro. The Patriot came with firmware version 3.3.2, but I had it updated right away to 5.0.2. Those with my MacBook Pro model might be scared off from buying any SSDs because of the bug reports. I’ve only seen the bug once. And a quick reboot fixed it right away. The only reason I even saw that it dropped to 1.5gbps was because I was monitoring the new SSD’s link speed every moment I get because of all the mentions of the bug. I didn’t notice any slowdowns that prompted me to check. So, for those holding off on the SSD purchase for Mac, get one unless you’re planning on getting a new laptop soon.

 

[iPaulie81]

Went with Crucial M500

I know this is an old post but this is important information for older MBP users. As a Late 2008 MBP owner I hear your pain. Before purchasing a Samsung 830 Evo I came across some information that suggested Sandforce controllers are incompatible with the Nvidia Chipsets found on earlier Macbook Pros. After more research the message was pretty clear to stay away from Sandforce SSD's. I went with a Crucial M500 which users a marvel controller and could not be happier. My old MBP is quicker now than my wife's 2011 MBP.

As for your backup question, because your disk is not time machine formatted I don't see the need to keep all the system files. Keep your user drive directory and its contents just in case you missed something. I would also suggest getting another external drive and using Time Machine. I cannot stress how awesome Time Machine is. Also make yourself a Bootable recovery USB disk. I made one for Mavericks 10.9.2 using these instructions (option 1)..

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install-drive.html

Good Luck!