Questions about OS re-install (SSD + HDD + Time Machine)

[bozz2006]

Thanks for the help. Just looking for a little clarification on the best way to go about reinstalling the on OS when I get a replacement SSD. You may have my thread about the demise of my 2-week-old Intel 320 SSD here.

I'm going to get on the phone with Intel later today to request a replacment. My question is about how to go about restoring my system, as it's just a little bit of a complicated set-up (not bad though). In my MBP I had the SSD in an optibay with the stock HDD in the HDD bay. I had the home folder located on the HDD. The HDD and all it's data seem to be in fine shape, as far as I can tell with Disk Utility. I also have an external HDD plugged into my Airport Extreme router and do wireless backups with it.

I know that if I do a simple installation of the OS all my settings and stuff will be there just like before, because all that info resides in the home folder, but any applications won't be reinstalled unless I do some kind of a Time Machine reinstall. Sorry for the long overture to the final question:

How would I go about doing a seamless reinstall?

 

[ZombieZakk]

wouldn't you get faster data rates with the SSD in the hard drive bay and the hdd in the optibay?

was the drive just bad on your old ssd or could it be corruption i mean you can try cloning your current drive and just transferring it to the new ssd. As long as a corruption was not the culprit this should work.

 

[bozz2006]

I don't think putting the SSD in the HDD bay would result in any faster speeds. The SSD negotiates at SATA2 speeds, and both optical and HDD bay in the computer are capable of the same speed.

I don't know what caused it to fail. Could've been corruption or just a lemon of a drive.

And cloning the old SSD is out of the question. The old SSD is dead. Really really really dead. Here's a screeshot from when I booted the install disk to see if disk utility could repair it. Notice it comes up as "unformatted" and with only 8.4MB of total space.

 

[ZombieZakk]

I don't think putting the SSD in the HDD bay would result in any faster speeds. The SSD negotiates at SATA2 speeds, and both optical and HDD bay in the computer are capable of the same speed.

I don't know what caused it to fail. Could've been corruption or just a lemon of a drive.

And cloning the old SSD is out of the question. The old SSD is dead. Really really really dead.

ok yea if it is only a SATA2 drive then it wont matter.

Do your time machine backups combine the two drives or is there separate backups? Sorry but i never really messed with time machine and optibay conversion.

IF there are seperate backups then thats simple and just restore the ssd backup. i doubt it is that simple though.

I cant think of a seamless way to seperate a single backup across 2 drives unless time machine somehow recognizes how its configured.

 

[bozz2006]

Can anyone else offer any insight?

 

[DennyMac]

If you install the SSD as the primary drive the read write speeds will be much faster than any HDD. I would install the SSD in the HDD bay and use it for the OS and any applications that you use on a regular basis. Install the HDD in the Optibay and use it for file storage and to hold apps that you use less frequently.

A properly setup Sata II SSD should read/write at twice the speed of even the fastest Sata II HDD. Even in a Sata III machine.

Another way to increase file read/write speed and save space on the SSD is to store frequently used files on an SD card. I use 16 and 32 GB SDHC cards for everything from videos and ripped DVD's to PDF's and photos. Using the SSD and SD cards for most of your everyday work will also increase battery life and lower operating temps since you don't have to spin the HDD as often.

Eventually SSD technology and reliability will improve such much so that it will render HDD's obsolete. Hopefully that day is not too far away.

 

[bozz2006]

Thanks for the post! Maybe I was unclear though. I actually had it set up with the SSD in the optical drive bay and the HDD (on which I have located my home folder) still in the HDD bay. I won't put the stock HDD in the optical drive bay because the ODD bay has no sudden motion sensor and the HDD doesn't have one built-in. So until I upgrade the HDD at some point, it will stay this way.

The reason I created the thread was because the SSD failed after two weeks' use. I am getting a replacement, and I am wondering about the best way to go about reinstalling the OS and restoring the system.

 

[frankieboy]

If you have your ODD in an external enclosure, boot off that with your system disc, then restore the TM backup to the new SSD.

If no ODD, then you are going to need a bootable external HD of some kind or a bootable partition on your internal HDD. You then clone the bootable external/internal HDD to the SSD. You can perform the clone with SuperDuper, CCC, or with Disk Utility.

(I haven't read your failure thread, but if the failed SSD is still readable and was bootable before the failure, you could clone that.)

 

[bozz2006]

The SSD isn't just mostly dead. It's totally dead. lol. Yes I do have optical drive in an external case. I can definitely hook it up to time machine but I have all my media intact on the internal hard drive. Is Time Machine smart enough to not re-copy all that stuff onto the internal HDD?

 

[TXBDan]

I just did this:

SSD into the HDD bay, keep optical in place for now.

Fresh install onto the SSD via SL DVD.

Install my old HDD into the optical bay spot.

In System Prefs/Accounts, i pointed my fresh install user's home directory to my old home directory. This way all my music, movies, documents, are stored on the old HDD for storage and my existing libraries are all in tact.

Then i copied all the Applications from the old HDD to the new SDD's Applications folder. Some apps requite reinstall, but most worked. Then i deleted the Applications folder from the old HDD and i'm slowly deleting crap off the old HDD i don't need anymore.

With this method i have a fresh and lean system install, but still have all my old data and libraries, etc in tact.

 

[bozz2006]

Yes, all my old data will still be intact as it's on the HDD. Basically the only thing I believe I'll need Time Machine for is to restore my applications. Embarrassingly, I don't really know how to use TM for that. I think I just need to do a clean install and then once installation is complete, open the Time Machine and go back to the day before my SSD failure, and click "Restore". Is that right?

 

[TXBDan]

No, if you do that itll overwrite EVERYTHING including your fresh install. I'd do a fresh/clean install and then open the TM drive and manually drag over the files and apps you want back.

I have my old TM backup still intact incase A) i need to ditch the SSD for some reason and revert and B) incase i remember something i need off of it. After a month or so and things look good, i'll setup TM for the new system/install.

 

[bozz2006]

OK. Like I said, I've only ever actually needed to use TM once before, and for that I just did it with a fresh reinstall from a TM backup. Sorry for such an elementary question, but I just don't know how to use TM. I just enter TM, select the applications that I want back on my computer, and click restore, correct?

Reading THIS tutorial makes me think that's the way to go.

You say to drag them, but I don't see where I am supposed to drag them to. The finder window in Time Machine is just a snapshot of my finder from that particular point in time, isn't it? So I wouldn't just drag my applications into the application folder in the time machine screen, would I?