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Setting up SSD on optibay questions

K

konaseema

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2011
18
0
I have macbook pro 13" 2011 model; planning to upgrade to 8GB RAM soon.

I bought $15 ebay optibay, Kingston 96GB SSD;

So my question is,
i) Should I install SSD in optical drive
ii) replace the existing hard drive with ssd and put that drive in optical drive

How difficult is to do (ii) when compared to (i)? I heard there are issues with sleep for option (i). Is there any work-arounds for those issues?


I am planning to setup dual boot with win 7.

Can you guys point me to step by step instructions in setting up SSD? Backup and restore iOS to SSD, replace SSD, etc.,

Also is secondary hard drive files available from both OSs? How does the partition work?
 
konaseema said:
I have macbook pro 13" 2011 model; planning to upgrade to 8GB RAM soon.

I bought $15 ebay optibay, Kingston 96GB SSD;

So my question is,
i) Should I install SSD in optical drive
ii) replace the existing hard drive with ssd and put that drive in optical drive

How difficult is to do (ii) when compared to (i)? I heard there are issues with sleep for option (i). Is there any work-arounds for those issues?


I am planning to setup dual boot with win 7.

Can you guys point me to step by step instructions in setting up SSD? Backup and restore iOS to SSD, replace SSD, etc.,

Also is secondary hard drive files available from both OSs? How does the partition work?
Click to expand...

From what i understand if your SSD is Sata 3 then you would need to put it in the hard drive bay to get the speeds you are looking for. You dont need to as it sould work in the optibay either way.

I installed a SSD in my 2010 macbook pro so this was not a problem for me, my SSD when in the optibay as both are Sata 2 in mine, i did this so i could keep the tilt switch working on the HD.

As for the problems with sleep it seams to be hit and miss, some people have no problems and some people do and this would be for both options you are looking at. Personally i have problems, if the battery dies i lose any unsaved work but i now have smart sleep installed and it removes this problem, to be honest having the speeds of SSD Vs problems with sleep is a small price to pay
 
Last edited:
thank you boontech, my ssd is Sata II only, so i will go with replacing the optibay.

Can you please post the link(instructions) that you followed for setting up the OSs on SSD? Thanks,
 
MBPs have problems waking from sleep when the OSX drive is in the Optibay. It naturally wants to boot from the HDD slot, so I would recommend putting it there.

Edit: I was just told that this problem may no longer exist.
 
Last edited:
pezasied182 said:
MBPs have problems waking from sleep when the OSX drive is in the Optibay. It naturally wants to boot from the HDD slot, so I would recommend putting it there.
Click to expand...
Actually they don't at least mine does not. With the HDD in the optibay one looses the SMS protection and all the decoupling which probably results in more noise than before.

Just put in the SSD in the optibay and copy everything or almost to the SSD. Run Startup Disk and select the SSD. Reboot delete everything on the HDD.
You are done.

If you want Windows too you either clone the old bootcamp or leave it where it is or if you want to do a new install it gets a little complicated because you effectively need to put the optical drive back at least my MBP wouldn't boot Windows from anything but the DVD in the internal optical drive.
 
Put your old drive in the optibay, and the SSD in the normal slot. The SATA 6G is only in the drive bay, and while your SSD probably does not support SATA 6G, neither does that hard drive.

That way down the road if you want to put in a bigger SATA 6G SSD it will be in the right place.
 
dusk007 said:
Actually they don't at least mine does not. With the HDD in the optibay one looses the SMS protection and all the decoupling which probably results in more noise than before.

Just put in the SSD in the optibay and copy everything or almost to the SSD. Run Startup Disk and select the SSD. Reboot delete everything on the HDD.
You are done.
Click to expand...

How annoying is SMS?

So, you mean to suggest install Win 7 on the original hard drive via boot camp prior to installing SSD, and perform the one you mentioned?
"Just put in the SSD in the optibay and copy everything or almost to the SSD. Run Startup Disk and select the SSD. Reboot delete everything on the HDD. You are done."?
 
MacMadHatter said:
Put your old drive in the optibay, and the SSD in the normal slot. The SATA 6G is only in the drive bay, and while your SSD probably does not support SATA 6G, neither does that hard drive.
Click to expand...
Can i just put SSD with cheapo optibay in the original hard drive slot? How complicated is this process? If it is simple, why not many people are doing this other than warranty issues?
 
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