The 2013 models are upgradeable like the previous years, but nobody makes a replacement SSD for these yet. Transcend has said they are working on one, but no announced delivery date that I have seen.
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SSD Buying Guide
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The 2013 models are upgradeable like the previous years, but nobody makes a replacement SSD for these yet. Transcend has said they are working on one, but no announced delivery date that I have seen.
Hi All,
Sorry if this is a repeat question but I'm at work and can't go through all the answers, unfortunately.
About the retina MBP SSDs.
I have a 15" 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, which I upgraded to a 512GB Sandisk Flash SSD after purchase.
I'm looking to downsize to the just-released 13" base retina and swap the Flash drive from the 2012 15" into the 2014 13".
I understand it's probably going to be a bit slower than the new flash drives, but I'm not really fussed about that as it's just used for web development work.
My question is, will the SSD from my 15" fit the 13", or have Apple changed the connectors between these models?
Thanks in advance.
Sorry if this is a repeat question but I'm at work and can't go through all the answers, unfortunately.
About the retina MBP SSDs.
I have a 15" 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, which I upgraded to a 512GB Sandisk Flash SSD after purchase.
I'm looking to downsize to the just-released 13" base retina and swap the Flash drive from the 2012 15" into the 2014 13".
I understand it's probably going to be a bit slower than the new flash drives, but I'm not really fussed about that as it's just used for web development work.
My question is, will the SSD from my 15" fit the 13", or have Apple changed the connectors between these models?
Thanks in advance.
Not totally related to buying, but is there a way to wipe an SSD that is not in the MBP? I want to sell it, but it might have some data on it...
Put it in a USB caddy/enclosure and erase/format as required...its just another drive...
Do you mean like a secure erase? Disk Util won't let you secure erase an SSD, but what you can do is right click on it in Finder then select encrypt. Then once the encryption is done just erase the whole drive again in Disk Util. This way even if someone was able to somehow restore some of the erased data, it would still be encrypted and unreachable.
I got a Crucial M500 960 about 6 months ago. I enabled TRIM and it was blazingly fast. I did have an occasional problem where it would reset itself in sleep mode.
However just the other week the whole system just froze up so did a restart and the Mac wouldn't boot. Luckily I had a Time Machine backup on my old hard drive in the bay where the optical drive was previously.
I had real problems trying to reformat the drive and when I did finally mange to then it started freezing again.
After some research I found that there is a known issue with SATA3 and SSD on the Mac. To top this off when I did manage to get everything back to my old hard drive back up and running the trackpad decided to die on me.
To be honest I have been looking for an excuse to justify to my wife why I need a new MacBook Pro Retina so it is kind of a good although expensive thing to happen..
So just be wary of third party SSDs. I wouldn't recommend Crucial. My Samsung SSD (SATA2) is still going strong in my 6 year old work Mac though, although work is looking to replace soon
However just the other week the whole system just froze up so did a restart and the Mac wouldn't boot. Luckily I had a Time Machine backup on my old hard drive in the bay where the optical drive was previously.
I had real problems trying to reformat the drive and when I did finally mange to then it started freezing again.
After some research I found that there is a known issue with SATA3 and SSD on the Mac. To top this off when I did manage to get everything back to my old hard drive back up and running the trackpad decided to die on me.
To be honest I have been looking for an excuse to justify to my wife why I need a new MacBook Pro Retina so it is kind of a good although expensive thing to happen..
So just be wary of third party SSDs. I wouldn't recommend Crucial. My Samsung SSD (SATA2) is still going strong in my 6 year old work Mac though, although work is looking to replace soon
So you acknowledge there's a SATA3 and SSD issue with your Mac (i.e. Apple's fault) and because of that use it to not recommend Crucial SSDs?
I don't understand.
I don't understand.
gr8 write up
Just ordered the samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB, I will be putting it in my macbook pro 13 I5 late 2011, it has 8 G of ram,
I want to take the optical bay out & use the 500 g HDD for extra storage, i just have to get a caddy, I don't know what to format it to, i have all the sata cable
& carbon copy cloner for transferring the OS to the SSD, could someone give me the heads up please..
thanx in advance...
Just ordered the samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB, I will be putting it in my macbook pro 13 I5 late 2011, it has 8 G of ram,
I want to take the optical bay out & use the 500 g HDD for extra storage, i just have to get a caddy, I don't know what to format it to, i have all the sata cable
& carbon copy cloner for transferring the OS to the SSD, could someone give me the heads up please..
thanx in advance...
I got a Crucial M500 960 about 6 months ago. I enabled TRIM and it was blazingly fast. I did have an occasional problem where it would reset itself in sleep mode.
However just the other week the whole system just froze up so did a restart and the Mac wouldn't boot. Luckily I had a Time Machine backup on my old hard drive in the bay where the optical drive was previously.
I had real problems trying to reformat the drive and when I did finally mange to then it started freezing again.
After some research I found that there is a known issue with SATA3 and SSD on the Mac. To top this off when I did manage to get everything back to my old hard drive back up and running the trackpad decided to die on me.
To be honest I have been looking for an excuse to justify to my wife why I need a new MacBook Pro Retina so it is kind of a good although expensive thing to happen..
So just be wary of third party SSDs. I wouldn't recommend Crucial. My Samsung SSD (SATA2) is still going strong in my 6 year old work Mac though, although work is looking to replace soon
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZT71QCCIQ0XK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2ZT71QCCIQ0XK
Are you using a 2011 MBP? I was just about to pull my trigger on a crucial mx 100 512 GB for my 2012 MBP, but looks like Evo would be a safer/faster option. I've also read about people having issues with crucial m4 in 2011 MBPs.
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Just ordered the samsung SSD 840 PRO 256GB, I will be putting it in my macbook pro 13 I5 late 2011, it has 8 G of ram,
I want to take the optical bay out & use the 500 g HDD for extra storage, i just have to get a caddy, I don't know what to format it to, i have all the sata cable
& carbon copy cloner for transferring the OS to the SSD, could someone give me the heads up please..
thanx in advance...
After you have cloned the old drive to the new and booted to the new drive just start Disk Utility and in the erase tab select the old drive. Then name it what you want and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format in the drop down list then apply the change.
Hello Weaselboy,
I remember you suggesting the 256 GB EVO for a 2012 cMBP. I'm also aware how TLC might outlast the computer itself. Things have changed a bit since we spoke and I've a budget of around 250. Which one do you recommend.
1) Samsung EVO 512 249$
2) Crucial MX 100 512 211$ (performance might be a bit less, but since it's MLC and has a lesser price I was leaning for it)
3) Sandisk Extreme Pro 256 172$ (hopefully they have fixed the delay in waking up from sleep issue)
4) Samsung 850 Pro 256 199$
5) Samsung 840 Pro 174$
Usage scenarios: Music Production, DJing, graphic design, video editing (often Adobe aftereffects and photoshop would write data in scratch disks) Don't need any encryption features as well.
I don't want to just go for a drive to brag about the benchmark results, I'm aware how some of those translates to few seconds in day to day activities which I may not even notice. That said I'm okay in paying a premium for reliability over performance since I wouldn't want my drive failing mid-way during a performance (DJing). While we can't say if a drive might fail, but depending on user reviews/feedback and your experience, you can suggest me a drive. I'm all ears.
I remember you suggesting the 256 GB EVO for a 2012 cMBP. I'm also aware how TLC might outlast the computer itself. Things have changed a bit since we spoke and I've a budget of around 250. Which one do you recommend.
1) Samsung EVO 512 249$
2) Crucial MX 100 512 211$ (performance might be a bit less, but since it's MLC and has a lesser price I was leaning for it)
3) Sandisk Extreme Pro 256 172$ (hopefully they have fixed the delay in waking up from sleep issue)
4) Samsung 850 Pro 256 199$
5) Samsung 840 Pro 174$
Usage scenarios: Music Production, DJing, graphic design, video editing (often Adobe aftereffects and photoshop would write data in scratch disks) Don't need any encryption features as well.
I don't want to just go for a drive to brag about the benchmark results, I'm aware how some of those translates to few seconds in day to day activities which I may not even notice. That said I'm okay in paying a premium for reliability over performance since I wouldn't want my drive failing mid-way during a performance (DJing). While we can't say if a drive might fail, but depending on user reviews/feedback and your experience, you can suggest me a drive. I'm all ears.
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I would get the Crucial MX100. The price/performance ratio on that drive just can't be beat. Look at this page.
There is pretty much zero data out there on any of these SSDs as far as long term reliability. All we have is anecdotal stories places like this from users saying "I owned XX and it died" or "I owned YY and it was great". It is hard to draw any conclusions from just a handful of anecdotal reports like this. I have not noticed a wave of reports of problems with any of the SSDs you listed there.
I have seen plenty of other issues being reported online about Crucial not so much with Samsung. There are reports that updating the firmware on the Crucial can help fix the problem.
There are some reported problems on Windows as well so there are a whole bunch of factors.
I think it is partly the manufacturers fault which can be fixed by firmware and part Apple and Microsofts fault. Maybe the Apples decision to move SSD to PCIe instead of SATA was a technical decision as well as improving speed.
The point is that there seem to be a lot of unknowns.
Personally I would go for a cheaper one not the one so if it does fail then there is not much lost. If your work is critical then stick with the slower magnetic disk for now until you upgrade to a new Mac with built in SSD.
I would recommend Crucial. I ran an M4 in my 2011 for 18 months without so much as a blip.
I'll wait for trim enabler full Yosemite version ... even i'm running on SSD Beta Yosemite right now .. I'll check storage bi-weekly to see if any issues come up without Trim on .. I keep getting corrupted file - once I try to install Trim enabler.app ..
SSD is instant launch of apps even safari with 12 tab bookmark launch ... SSD safari start window - half bounce of icon then 1 sec or less for 12 tabs.. Running on 840 EVO 500 SSD thru fw800 external 2.5 drive...
SSD is instant launch of apps even safari with 12 tab bookmark launch ... SSD safari start window - half bounce of icon then 1 sec or less for 12 tabs.. Running on 840 EVO 500 SSD thru fw800 external 2.5 drive...
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I purchased a Crucial MX100 for my mid-2010 17" MBP. I installed it per the OWC video guide with no issues, and booted into Internet Recovery, where I partitioned it GUID, ext3 and named it "Macintosh HD", and began cloning my HDD (attached via external bay), to the new internal SSD.
About two hours in I got an error in Disk Utility (I don't recall the exact error), then the drive disappeared. When I rebooted and reopened Internet Recovery to try again, the partition was now named "disk0s2". I repartitioned it and started over. Less than five minutes in I got the same error. I then consulted Crucial's online support and followed their instructions for "Why did my SSD disappear?", which consisted of hold down option on boot and stay at the drive selector for 20 minutes, then open up the computer again, disconnect the drive for 30 seconds, reconnect it, then hold down option on boot again and stay at the drive selector for another 20 minutes.
Upon restarting after this I repartitioned the drive and started cloning, and a few minutes in the drive again disappeared.
It seems pretty unlikely the drive is bad, but it's starting to appear that way. Anyone have any advice? (I'm trying yet again, so I'll have the specific error message soon)
Edit: It's behaving for the moment, but I'm starting to believe it's the SATA cable. The only issue is, wouldn't the drive remount and be viewable in Disk Utility from Internet Recovery if that were the case? I suppose what I'm asking is, is there a way to determine if it's the cable or the drive? Even if it does manage to copy everything, there's no reason an internal drive should just vanish.
Edit 2: For anyone having similar problems that might find this useful in the future, I contacted Crucial and they instructed me to try the firmware reset procedure again, which I did, and it has been working without a hitch so far. I'm still thinking there might be an issue with the SATA cable and that it's just behaving for the moment, but they're pretty cheap and easy to replace if that's the case.
About two hours in I got an error in Disk Utility (I don't recall the exact error), then the drive disappeared. When I rebooted and reopened Internet Recovery to try again, the partition was now named "disk0s2". I repartitioned it and started over. Less than five minutes in I got the same error. I then consulted Crucial's online support and followed their instructions for "Why did my SSD disappear?", which consisted of hold down option on boot and stay at the drive selector for 20 minutes, then open up the computer again, disconnect the drive for 30 seconds, reconnect it, then hold down option on boot again and stay at the drive selector for another 20 minutes.
Upon restarting after this I repartitioned the drive and started cloning, and a few minutes in the drive again disappeared.
It seems pretty unlikely the drive is bad, but it's starting to appear that way. Anyone have any advice? (I'm trying yet again, so I'll have the specific error message soon)
Edit: It's behaving for the moment, but I'm starting to believe it's the SATA cable. The only issue is, wouldn't the drive remount and be viewable in Disk Utility from Internet Recovery if that were the case? I suppose what I'm asking is, is there a way to determine if it's the cable or the drive? Even if it does manage to copy everything, there's no reason an internal drive should just vanish.
Edit 2: For anyone having similar problems that might find this useful in the future, I contacted Crucial and they instructed me to try the firmware reset procedure again, which I did, and it has been working without a hitch so far. I'm still thinking there might be an issue with the SATA cable and that it's just behaving for the moment, but they're pretty cheap and easy to replace if that's the case.
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Alright mate, pulled my trigger on a crucial MX 100 and an owc optibay from Amazon. Let's see how that fares, keeping fingers crossed. Thanks for the suggestion
I'm going to either a 256 or 512 refurb 13" retina in the next few days. There is a price difference of around $300 between the two. If I buy the cheaper 256 with the plan of upgrading the SSD when they become available for the machines, can anyone give me a ballpark of if the cost will be less than / close to / more than the $300 difference now? Ie. would it as much sense just to buy the 512 now?
Thanks
Thanks
The Transcend upgrade for the current models is ~$340, so I would think the new model when it comes out will be around that. This includes a nice external enclosure you could use with you old 256GB for backup if that interests you.
Personally, if you really need the 512GB space, I would get the Apple upgrade so you don't have to mess around with hacks to get TRIM running properly. I suspect the "TRIM hack" is about to get more complicated here when Yosemite comes out.
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