SSD + HDD which bay in MacBook Pro

[akaPeach]

Hi there.

I've recently upgraded my MacBook Pro with a new SSD, which I just swapped out with the old HDD.. I then proceeded to purchase a caddy to fit the old HDD in the optical bay, install has all been fine. But I was just wondering, should I put the HDD back in its original position and put the SSD in the optical bay? I read somewhere that it is safer to do so (something to do with motion sensors or something?)

Any help would be much appreciated.. Regardless, everything is working fine, fast, and nothing is over heating. No issues at all.

Cheers.

 

[hallux]

Yes, there is a "Sudden Motion Sensor" for the original HDD bay that will issue a command to park the heads if the computer is moved quickly. You'd be best off leaving the HDD in the original bay and putting the SSD in the optical bay, provided your MBP model is not effected by the SATA bug some were. What model/year is your MBP?

 

[theluggage]

I read somewhere that it is safer to do so (something to do with motion sensors or something?

...True, but the flip side is that some older MBPs don't support SATA 3 speeds in the optical bay and some that did support it have electrical noise problems.

So if you have a 2011 or earlier Mac and you're worried about speed its best to put your slow old HD (which won't tax a SATA 2 interface) in the optical bay, and your superfast SSD (which may well make use of SATA 3 speeds) in the HD bay.

That said, the main speed boost you see from a SSD in general use is down to the order-of-magnitude reduction in seek times, not the x2-3 increase in peak data speed, so it probably won't make a huge difference.

 

[akaPeach]

Hey!

Thanks for your replies.. I have a Mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro, 2.3ghz, 4GB Ram.

Im not experiencing any issues at this stage, I generally don't move the laptop too much, but every now and again I do take it out for some location recording (audio with Pro Tools).

Its not a big issue for me to swap the drives over, I just have a feeling it would be better, now that the Sudden Motion Sensor I read about is in fact there.