optibay + bootcamp

[mulo]

ill be buying a 128gb ssd and putting my 500GB hdd in the optibay.
so i was wondering how bootcamp would react if i had os x on the ssd and two partitions on the 500gb drive, one for shared data (media) and one for windows?

specifically i'm worried about installation process and partitioning, will it allow me to make a new partition on an other drive then the one os x is on?

 

[ntrigue]

ill be buying a 128gb ssd and putting my 500GB hdd in the optibay.
so i was wondering how bootcamp would react if i had os x on the ssd and two partitions on the 500gb drive, one for shared data (media) and one for windows?

specifically i'm worried about installation process and partitioning, will it allow me to make a new partition on an other drive then the one os x is on?

You won't run into any problems. Both drives CAN be partitioned to your liking. That being said, I've only answered based on second-hand experience.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Any particular reason you'll be putting the magnetic drive in the optibay?

I installed an SSD today, and I read the best place for it was in the original slot. However, I changed my mind at lunch and placed it in the optibay instead. I've not had any crashes or anything. No problems booting either. Just ensure you disable safe sleep.

I prefered having my original drive in the main slot as it still has protection from the Sudden Motion Sensor.

 

[mulo]

Any particular reason you'll be putting the magnetic drive in the optibay?

I installed an SSD today, and I read the best place for it was in the original slot. However, I changed my mind at lunch and placed it in the optibay instead. I've not had any crashes or anything. No problems booting either. Just ensure you disable safe sleep.

I prefered having my original drive in the main slot as it still has protection from the Sudden Motion Sensor.

sms is on the drive, not in the slot.
about the safe sleep thing?

 

[Tyrion]

In the MBP, SMS is not "in the drive", but most definitely in the bay / on the logic board. A mechanical HDD in the optical bay won't be protected against sudden movements or shocks (unless it contains an SMS, like the WD Scorpio Black).

 

[terzinator]

In the MBP, SMS is not "in the drive", but most definitely in the bay / on the logic board. A mechanical HDD in the optical bay won't be protected against sudden movements or shocks (unless it contains an SMS, like the WD Scorpio Black).

I'm going back and forth on this, too... is SMS reason enough to put the SSD in the optibay? (with the OS/Apps/Windows), and then put the HDD (all the mac data) in the regular slot?

Or are there better reasons to go the other direction? (even for those spec'ing it with the SSD and buying the HDD later?)

 

[pulsewidth947]

Well you are both technically correct. You can buy drives with SMS built in, but mulo is correct the SMS implementation on the MBP is from the logic board.

Many people with SSDs using Sandforce Controllers seem to have problems with safesleep. If you don't know what safe sleep is, it's basically a protection that if the battery runs out while sleeping the contents of the RAM will be protected.

Another benefit of disabling this is that yor mac sleeps much quicker! Albeit without the protection if your battery runs out.

For me the biggest reason to keep the magnetic drive out the optibay is that when you restart, or power off your mac, the power is instantly cut to that harddrive. This is potentially dangerous as the hard drive heads may not be parked. This would not normally be a problem as apple expects you do have an optical drive there.

To disable safe sleep:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

 

[pulsewidth947]

An addition - i think there is a lot of misleading information about harddrive placement with the optibay.

If your SSD works in the optibay, why would you NOT want to keep it in there?

Sorry for dragging you off topic

 

[terzinator]

An addition - i think there is a lot of misleading information about harddrive placement with the optibay.

If your SSD works in the optibay, why would you NOT want to keep it in there?

Sorry for dragging you off topic

Would you, if you opted for the SSD from Apple, move it to the optibay, and then put a large HDD in the regular disk bay? (Does the machine care what BAY you boot from?)

 

[mulo]

For me the biggest reason to keep the magnetic drive out the optibay is that when you restart, or power off your mac, the power is instantly cut to that harddrive. This is potentially dangerous as the hard drive heads may not be parked. This would not normally be a problem as apple expects you do have an optical drive there.

To disable safe sleep:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

interesting, I didn't know that.
so i should definitely have my boot drive in the drive slot, that would solve the safe sleep issue? - I don't think the issue of cutting power optibay drive is going to be an issue as its mainly going to hold media files and some game files?

 

[pulsewidth947]

Would you, if you opted for the SSD from Apple, move it to the optibay, and then put a large HDD in the regular disk bay? (Does the machine care what BAY you boot from?)

I'm not sure. After installing my SSD, I probably wouldn't pay Apples tax on new technology (started off overpricing RAM, now SSDs!). I guess if I did I'd still probably do what I did, although I'd be less inclined to take apart a brand new Mac

No the machine doesn't care where you boot from. You can even boot from Firewire or USB. My SSD is installed in the optical bay, and the Mac doesn't seem to care. I didn't even need to reconfigure anything when I swapped the drives over.

so i should definitely have my boot drive in the drive slot, that would solve the safe sleep issue? - I don't think the issue of cutting power optibay drive is going to be an issue as its mainly going to hold media files and some game files?

Safe sleep shouldn't be affected by the drive slot. I've read reports that safe sleep works from external drives. I think its just something with the sandforce controller that mucks it up. I've had my mac for over 3 years and I've only actually used the safe sleep feature 3-4 times. Regular sleep is fine for me. Just save your work before sleeping and its not really an issue. Booting from the SSD is quicker than restoring from a sleep image anyway. Another benefit of this is to clear up space. I have 4GB ram so my sleepimage file was 4.29GB. Freed up that space happily.

I'd still keep the magnetic drive in your regular bay as cutting the power is never a really good idea.

 

[mulo]

Safe sleep shouldn't be affected by the drive slot. I've read reports that safe sleep works from external drives. I think its just something with the sandforce controller that mucks it up.

I'd still keep the magnetic drive in your regular bay as cutting the power is never a really good idea.

well is that not contradicting? to my understanding safe sleep had to be disabled if booting from a drive in the optical slot as it would be cut from power immediately and thus wouldn't have time to dump the ram? or am I completely off target here?

 

[mulo]

Oh and I don't think I'm going to be using a sandforce based ssd

 

[pulsewidth947]

to my understanding safe sleep had to be disabled if booting from a drive in the optical slot as it would be cut from power immediately and thus wouldn't have time to dump the ram?

That would make sense to me. I just saw less messages from people with Intels that had problems. So what you gonna do? Make sure whatever you buy has some sort of optimisation while we wait for TRIM support in Lion.

 

[wct097]

I ordered my 15" MBP will the SSD factory installed. I'm currently running the SSD in the optical bay, partitioned for OSX and Windows 7 Bootcamp, with a 1tb WD in the HDD bay.

I was trying to get an image of my old Windows 7 drive up and running on the HDD in bootcamp, but ran into some issues that I ended up narrowing down to Windows apparently not liking me having two bootcamp partitions.

In this configuration, I can get Windows to boot from either the optical bay, or the factory HDD bay, from either the HDD or the SDD in either location. If I have a bootcamp partition on both drives, Windows will only boot in bootcamp from the factory HDD bay, otherwise it BSODs. Both partitions will boot on their own without a corresponding partition in the other bay, from either location.

In the current configuration (SSD in optical bay, HDD in factory location), I've created a bootcamp partition on both the SSD and HDD running Windows 7. The HDD partition would boot fine (and not see the SSD partition), while the SSD partition would BSOD on classpnp.sys... even in safe mode. Both partitions would boot in VMWare. Deleting the HDD partition allowed the SSD to boot through bootcamp again.

In a configuration with the SSD in the factory location, and a HDD in the optical bay, the SSD bootcamp partition would boot fine, while the HDD bootcamp partition would BSOD in roughly the same way described above. Both paritions would boot in VMware. At this point, I didn't realize that multiple partitions were causing trouble, but I *think* the HDD booted one time when I didn't have a bootcamp partition on the SSD.

So, there you have it. With one bootcamp partition, I've managed to have it boot solely from a HDD while running OS X on the SSD. Two bootcamp partitions on different drives appear to boot correctly based on which bay the partition in question resides in.

 

[mulo]

That would make sense to me. I just saw less messages from people with Intels that had problems. So what you gonna do? Make sure whatever you buy has some sort of optimisation while we wait for TRIM support in Lion.

there is trim support in 10.6.6 on the shipping MBPs (newer version) for the apple SSDs, so i might just be getting one of those, especially as they are $100 for the 128GB version. i also found a 500GB 7200RPM drive for $70.

 

[aznguyen316]

Good info in this thread. Quick question as I haven't tried it. Does OSX boot fine with SSD in the Optibay slot? I've always had it in the main drive slot and the HDD in the optibay, never had issues - except for hibernate which rarely happens for me.
I turned off safesleep as instructed earlier also. But yeah just curious about booting from SSD in optibay slot. Thanks!