Struggling with SSD install & setup; Please help

[blowndes]

Hi, I've just got a SSD for my 2010 MBP and am having a few problems getting it setup.

I've got the SSD installed in the optical slot with a optibay and can see the drive mounted in Finder. I've got a OS X 10.6 image mounted on a partition of my firewire drive (having using Disk Utility to restore from a 10.6 dmg).

The problem is I don't seem to be able to get the Mac to boot to the SSD.

I've run the installer from a active 10.6 partition and it's copied the files to the SSD but when it restarts it just sits there at the grey/white Apple logo screen. I've waited a good 10 minutes with it at this state and nothing happens.

I've also tried booting directly to the 10.6 installer partition; I hold the option key and select the drive with the installer on it (the SSD isn't listed) and again it just sits there whirring away but not actually doing anything.

I've tested my firewire 10.6 install partition on another Mac and it seems to work fine.

I can get the system to boot fine from the standard HD installed in the Optibay.

I've also tried resetting the Mac's PRAM (holding option-P-R at boot) but that made no difference.

Any one got any ideas what's going on?

... OK, there's a little more to this story: when I was trying to get the SSD installed I broke the internal SATA cable which connects to the standard HD drive. Stupid mistake, I know, but as I can boot with the standard HD in the Optibay I don't think this is affecting things.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[dangerfish]

I will be performing this same mod later today or tomorrow. I doubt my comment will be helpful but it is all I can think of right now. I assume you formated the new drive before installing 10.6? Also, what about trying Carbon Copy Cloner to move your system files instead of starting from scratch?

Any tips on how NOT to break the Sata cable? I'd prefer not to have that happen.

 

[blowndes]

I tried booting in verbose mode with the FW installer partition set as the boot drive, it only took a few seconds before it frooze, here's where it go to, does this mean anything to anyone:

 

[dangerfish]

Did you have any luck figuring out your issue?
I got mine installed into the HDD Bay and moved my HDD to the optical bay; formatted the SSD, used CCC to move everything but the User folder, then deleted everything but the User folder from the HDD. Had to do a few more maintenance items but seems to be working well.

 

[MartyF81]

Have you tried going in to Systems Preferences and changing your "Startup Disk" in the panel?

This is what I would do though:

1. Put the SSD in the regular drive, and use the Optibay for "File Storage" or whatever with your regular HDD in there.
2. Once the drive is in the regular bay. Do a clean install of OS-X.

I shaved 20 seconds off my boot time by doing a clean install instead of a "Copy"