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OWC SSD experiences (for 2010-11 MBA)?
- Thread starter jamesryanbell
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So I just create another partition on the drive and then install Lion on that one? Then when I delete it, the recovery partition stays?
You bet!
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Last question, I promise. lol.
Where do I go to do this? Hold down something at boot? Or can I just select that I want to do this from a menu somewhere in the OS (which would make it reboot, etc).
Just don't want to do anything wrong.
I have a 2010 MBA that originally had the 128G drive and I just upgraded to the OWC 240G drive and wanted to share my experiences.
The good news is that overall the experience was relatively painless. You can do it yourself if you have some experience working on computer hardware. OWC includes the tools needed to open your MBA and install the drive. I recommend adding the external USB enclosure to your order. It only adds a little money and will make the transition much easier. Here are the steps I took.
1. Create a bootable Lion Install USB drive. This probably isn't strictly necessary but made my life easier. Google the Internets if you don't know how to do this.
2. Install the new SSD to the external USB enclosure.
3. Test the new drive... with Mac OS already running, plug the USB cable into your computer. Start Disk Utility. If the external enclosure is working and the new drive works, it should show up on the disk list. Format the new drive using the Mac OS filesystem. Make sure it works. You are now ready to install your data on the new drive.
3. Boot off the Lion Install USB you made in step one. You do this pressing the 'Option' key while the computer is restarting and selecting the appropriate startup drive. When the installer comes up, enter the Disk Utility.
4. Your existing drive and the new drive should show up on the left side. Select your existing Macintosh HD partition.
5. On the panel on the right, select the "Restore" option. You want your existing drive to appear on the "Source" line and the new drive to show up on the "Destination" line. Make sure you get these right... NO ACCIDENTS! Click on the "Restore" button.
6. This will format your new drive and copy over the data from your existing drive. The cool part is, it will also copy over the Recovery partition! You don't have to do anything special. It just worked for me.
7. Test the new drive by booting off the external USB enclosure. Again, press the "Option" key while the computer is booting and select the external USB drive marked "Macintosh HD".
8. If it works, shut down your computer. Don't sleep the machine. You're ready for hardware surgery....
9. Remove the OWC SSD from the external enclosure.
10. Take the bottom panel off the MBA The SSD is right there in the corner. Swap the drives. Put the bottom panel back on your MBA.
11. Reboot with your new drive! You're done!
The good news is that overall the experience was relatively painless. You can do it yourself if you have some experience working on computer hardware. OWC includes the tools needed to open your MBA and install the drive. I recommend adding the external USB enclosure to your order. It only adds a little money and will make the transition much easier. Here are the steps I took.
1. Create a bootable Lion Install USB drive. This probably isn't strictly necessary but made my life easier. Google the Internets if you don't know how to do this.
2. Install the new SSD to the external USB enclosure.
3. Test the new drive... with Mac OS already running, plug the USB cable into your computer. Start Disk Utility. If the external enclosure is working and the new drive works, it should show up on the disk list. Format the new drive using the Mac OS filesystem. Make sure it works. You are now ready to install your data on the new drive.
3. Boot off the Lion Install USB you made in step one. You do this pressing the 'Option' key while the computer is restarting and selecting the appropriate startup drive. When the installer comes up, enter the Disk Utility.
4. Your existing drive and the new drive should show up on the left side. Select your existing Macintosh HD partition.
5. On the panel on the right, select the "Restore" option. You want your existing drive to appear on the "Source" line and the new drive to show up on the "Destination" line. Make sure you get these right... NO ACCIDENTS! Click on the "Restore" button.
6. This will format your new drive and copy over the data from your existing drive. The cool part is, it will also copy over the Recovery partition! You don't have to do anything special. It just worked for me.
7. Test the new drive by booting off the external USB enclosure. Again, press the "Option" key while the computer is booting and select the external USB drive marked "Macintosh HD".
8. If it works, shut down your computer. Don't sleep the machine. You're ready for hardware surgery....
9. Remove the OWC SSD from the external enclosure.
10. Take the bottom panel off the MBA The SSD is right there in the corner. Swap the drives. Put the bottom panel back on your MBA.
11. Reboot with your new drive! You're done!
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It looks like OWC have lowered their prices: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express
Still far from cheap but tempting.
Still far from cheap but tempting.
What kind of performance do you get from the external enclosure? For those that booted off of it, what did it do to your boot times?
I'm considering getting the 180 3g, which would ultimately give me 300gb to play with assuming the performance of the external one is good enough to use for running programs (and not just storing media files).
I'm considering getting the 180 3g, which would ultimately give me 300gb to play with assuming the performance of the external one is good enough to use for running programs (and not just storing media files).
I'll buy it when the high end model is in the $1/GB range (give or take a bit). Right now, the 240GB is still over $2/GB which is way too much for even the highest-end consumer-level SSD.
Booting off an external closure is definitely slower than off the internal SSD. I only did it long enough to test that my drive was working before I swapped it inside.
USB is the big bottleneck here. I doubt the external SSD would be faster in that configuration than any regular HDD for that reason. I run Windows via Parallels from external USB hard drive, I'd say it is usable enough. I only do browser testing on it though.