This is my first post here, FWIW
I have a 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard. Recently it started acting erratic, so I got a copy of Scannerz (the full version, not the "Lite" version) and ran tests on my system/drive. At about 25G into the test it starts reporting errors and irregularities in the 25G-28G range. I repeated the test in cursory mode as shown in their video and the results were 100% repeatable, indicating the drive was going bad (a relief actually - I thought it would tell me the logic board was croaking).
They're book on drive troubleshooting goes through steps to try and remap sectors and make the drive useful again, but this is the original drive - it's 6 years old, and it's been getting 4-8 hours use/day for over 6 years now. I think it's time to simply move on. The question is, to what?
Right now my drive is the original 160G drive. It's all Snow Leopard. A lot of the data could easily be moved onto my USB Maxtor and I could get a smaller drive - if you don't know where I'm going with this by talking about smaller drives, I'm thinking SSD, not traditional HD.
I know an SSD (or at least, so I think) will work in my system, but I'm concerned about several things:
I know Lion and Mountain Lion have better support for SSDs than Snow Leopard, but I haven't been keeping up on it that much. I use Snow Leopard because it still supports older programs that I need. I thought there was some third party support for wear leveling and TRIM available from third parties, but it also sounded, at least the last time I checked, like it was fairly hairy to install and somewhat unreliable.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I have a 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard. Recently it started acting erratic, so I got a copy of Scannerz (the full version, not the "Lite" version) and ran tests on my system/drive. At about 25G into the test it starts reporting errors and irregularities in the 25G-28G range. I repeated the test in cursory mode as shown in their video and the results were 100% repeatable, indicating the drive was going bad (a relief actually - I thought it would tell me the logic board was croaking).
They're book on drive troubleshooting goes through steps to try and remap sectors and make the drive useful again, but this is the original drive - it's 6 years old, and it's been getting 4-8 hours use/day for over 6 years now. I think it's time to simply move on. The question is, to what?
Right now my drive is the original 160G drive. It's all Snow Leopard. A lot of the data could easily be moved onto my USB Maxtor and I could get a smaller drive - if you don't know where I'm going with this by talking about smaller drives, I'm thinking SSD, not traditional HD.
I know an SSD (or at least, so I think) will work in my system, but I'm concerned about several things:
- Snow Leopard is getting old - how long will it be supported?
- Does Snow Leopard have trim and wear leveling support
- What brand should I get?
- How reliable are SSDs - I mean REALLY, are they?
I know Lion and Mountain Lion have better support for SSDs than Snow Leopard, but I haven't been keeping up on it that much. I use Snow Leopard because it still supports older programs that I need. I thought there was some third party support for wear leveling and TRIM available from third parties, but it also sounded, at least the last time I checked, like it was fairly hairy to install and somewhat unreliable.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.