SSD Newbie

[HumanImac]

Hi All

Finally bit the bullet and bought my first ever Apple IMac, been a windows user for many years and im also pretty good with the linux terminal, but wanted an IMac for years and im chuffed to bits

After reading an amazing 17+ page thread on here last weekend I ordered a Corsair SSD Hard drive, Seagate GoFlex and a thunderbolt cable.

Today ive been reading a few threads before my kit arrives tomorrow and they refer to cloning the existing harddrive using CCC and then transferring to the SSD,

However I would like to install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion on the SSD, is this possible at all?

I downloaded Mountain Lion from the Apple Store(using the free upgrade redeem code)

have created an autobooting USB Pen install thing using Lion Disk Maker, what do I do now?

Im also very paranoid about losing my recovery partition on the internal 1TB drive - how can I avoid this?

am I going about this all wrong?

I was under the impression I could connect the TB kit plug in the USB pen and boot the IMac using the pen with the install asking which drive I wanted to install the OS?

Please help, totally confused an have confused myself even more.

All I want to do is have Mountain Lion and all my apps installed on the SSD drive as a clean install.

 

[mmomega]

Are you saying you are going to have an external SSD as your boot drive through Thunderbolt?

If so, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your internal drive as long as you do not format it.
Connect your SSD external,
plug in your USB boot drive,
Hold Option after the boot chime,
Select the USB ML Boot disk,
Once on the install disk,
Open Disk Utility and Select the SSD in the left window
Click Partition on the right Window,
Choose Mac OS Extended and Name your drive whatever you wish
Click the Options button under the Partition layout and check GUID partition table,
Click Apply, wait until the Drive is formatted
Close Disk Utility
Start the ML installer and choose the SSD as the drive

Sit back and wait until the install is finished.

 

[JordieG8]

Can you point me in the direction that that SSD thread?

 

[HumanImac]

Are you saying you are going to have an external SSD as your boot drive through Thunderbolt?

If so, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your internal drive as long as you do not format it.
Connect your SSD external,
plug in your USB boot drive,
Hold Option after the boot chime,
Select the USB ML Boot disk,
Once on the install disk,
Open Disk Utility and Select the SSD in the left window
Click Partition on the right Window,
Choose Mac OS Extended and Name your drive whatever you wish
Click the Options button under the Partition layout and check GUID partition table,
Click Apply, wait until the Drive is formatted
Close Disk Utility
Start the ML installer and choose the SSD as the drive

Sit back and wait until the install is finished.

My plan is to run an external SSD drive via the Seagate GoFlex adapter and the thunderbolt port on my IMac, Thanks for the walkthrough, Im going to follow your steps, Hurry up Mr Postman!

Can you point me in the direction that that SSD thread?

This is the thread that inspired me

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1317577/

 

[philipma1957]

good to see one of my t bolt posts turning up in the iMac section. t-bolt booting is easy and if you have an iMac or a mac mini using a t-bolt booting device means no warranty issues caused by opening the iMac or mac mini to put in an ssd.

I use a seagate stae121 as a booter on one macmini I use a promise pegasus r6 with a second mac mini. I also use a lacie little big disk as a booter with the same mac mini that has the seagate stae121. The promise pegasus is best but cost a lot of money. I do like lacie's little big disk a bit more then the seagate stae121. macmall is selling lacie litlle big disks on their ebay store for 234. I pull the hdds in them out and drop in a pair of ssds. this is my preffered boot drive For my mac mini.

It is 440 am can't sleep too much coffee last night. I will post a link in the morning for the lacie little big disk sale and how to use it to boot your imac.




links in this thread


https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15474218#post15474218

 

[HumanImac]

good to see one of my t bolt posts turning up in the iMac section. t-bolt booting is easy and if you have an iMac or a mac mini using a t-bolt booting device means no warranty issues caused by opening the iMac or mac mini to put in an ssd.

I use a seagate stae121 as a booter on one macmini I use a promise pegasus r6 with a second mac mini. I also use a lacie little big disk as a booter with the same mac mini that has the seagate stae121. The promise pegasus is best but cost a lot of money. I do like lacie's little big disk a bit more then the seagate stae121. macmall is selling lacie litlle big disks on their ebay store for 234. I pull the hdds in them out and drop in a pair of ssds. this is my preffered boot drive For my mac mini.

It is 440 am can't sleep too much coffee last night. I will post a link in the morning for the lacie little big disk sale and how to use it to boot your imac.




links in this thread


https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15474218#post15474218

Hey philipma1957 thanks for popping in, I was checking out my options because the local Apple shop wanted £110 UK pounds to install my SSD internally, £35 for parts and £75.00 for labour, so started looking around for other options and so glad that I landed on your comprehensive review, thanks for taking the time to test different combinations

No Delivery Today

 

[philipma1957]

Hey philipma1957 thanks for popping in, I was checking out my options because the local Apple shop wanted £110 UK pounds to install my SSD internally, £35 for parts and £75.00 for labour, so started looking around for other options and so glad that I landed on your comprehensive review, thanks for taking the time to test different combinations

No Delivery Today

I went and grabbed the 2 ssds on sale today and the little big disk on sale. So I will have a 480gb booter thunderbolt for under 500 usd. not bad. let us know if you get the external setup and how it works..

 

[HumanImac]

I went and grabbed the 2 ssds on sale today and the little big disk on sale. So I will have a 480gb booter thunderbolt for under 500 usd. not bad. let us know if you get the external setup and how it works..

Wow!! 4 SSD drives in RAID0 would be mental, do you have any read/write stats on configuration?.


All the kit arrived this morning and im now up and running from the external SSD, Wow there is a massive speed increase and apps load instantly.

Ive got a small problem and wondering if anyone can help, The Internal 1TB hard drive is read only?.

If I format the internal 1TB will I encounter any problems? what about the recovery partition?

Ive tried moving some files over to the internal drive and it always asks for my password, is there any way round this, I just want to use the 1TB for storage but would like the safety of the recovery partition.

Has anyone tried running RAID 0 with 2 Seagate Adapters? what read/write speed could be achieved with this setup?