What to do with a Mac HD after replacing it with SSD?

[dawizard]

Hey folks

I am thinking of switching from my 500GB HD (which came pre-installed on my MBP) with a 240GB SSD drive and had a few questions and hoping you can help:

1. Has anyone else gone the route of switching from a 500GB --> 240GB? How was your experience in terms of space needs? (I know this is circumstantial but wanted to hear diverse opinions in case some use case comes up that I hadn't considered....)

2. What do you do with the old HD once you have replaced it with the SSD? I have a Windows desktop sitting around but that's about the only other device I have. I don't believe I can have this HD plugged in as an extension to my MBP externally?

3. (Again subjective) What was the most convenient way to clone the OS and installed software/files from a high capacity HD to lower capacity SSD?

Thanks!

 

[jondunford]

you can turn the old hard drive into an external hard drive with something like this

http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-TB4P/dp/B005EIGUD4/ref=pd_cp_pc_3

 

[Ledgem]

3. (Again subjective) What was the most convenient way to clone the OS and installed software/files from a high capacity HD to lower capacity SSD?

Shift your data to other sources so that your higher-capacity drive has less data than the new drive has space. Don't go for a "perfect fit," either - try to have at least 10-20% of disk space free. For a 240 GB drive, you want no more than 216 GB in use.

Once you've moved your data around so that your main drive has 216 GB or less on it, allow Time Machine to make a backup. You can then power down the machine and swap out the hard drive for the SSD. Boot from the Time Machine volume and select to restore from your latest backup.

It's a painless procedure, but the key is in ensuring that you'll have less data than free space on your new drive.

 

[glenthompson]

I went from a 750 to 512 but was only using about 270gb on either. Speed was worth the loss of space. I put my old drive in my fireproof safe as a backup and to keep it original.

I cloned my drive with CCC. No problems as I had plenty of free space.

 

[ohbrilliance]

I'd go the external hard drive route. Use it for a time machine or other purpose.

 

[dawizard]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like using it as an external drive / time machine might be a good idea and so glad to see there are casings for something like this, did not know about those. Looking forward to up/downgrading the HD!

 

[Sital]

I went from the 500 GB HDD to a 256 GB SSD and I still have plenty of space. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the HDD onto the SSD. As others have mentioned, I bought a disk enclosure and now use the old HDD for backups.

Just out of curiosity are you also thinking of upgrading the RAM? When I switched to the SSD I also bumped the RAM up to 8 GB. The combination of more RAM and an SSD is very nice indeed.