Ant

Right so i'm taking the plunge on upgrading my Macbook 2010 model ,what i'm going from is a 640gb 5400rpm HDD to a 128GB OCZ Agility 4.

But i'm going to take the opti drive out and use the existing 640gb as my home and storage folder.

Interested to see what gains i will get.

Also a little question i've figuered how to relocate the home folder but how can i choose the default location for the apps folder?

mike1210

Not my work taken from here, use this as an example but double check volume names and the like. In this case the user is moving the apps folder onto an SSD.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=884917

For Apple apps especially, Software Updates rely on them being in the system Application folder. Many third-party apps would be fine placed somewhere else, but I wouldn't recommend moving the main Application folder without creating a symlink.

OP: you should be able to move the Applications folder via the Terminal.

To start, copy the folder to the SSD (you should be able to do that with the Finder). If, for some reason, copying via the Finder doesn't work, from the Terminal:

Code:
cp -R /Applications /Volumes/[SSD drive name]/Applications
You may have to add sudo to the beginning of that command, but I don't expect that'll be necessary.

Then, rename the original (you'll end up deleting it, but it's best to not do that first to help avoid issues).

Code:
sudo mv /Applications /Apps
You can name it anything you want by just changing the last word of that command, but just make sure it's something different than Applications, of course. I chose Apps just because it's simple.

Now, you have to create the symlink.

Code:
sudo ls -s /Volumes/[SSD drive name]/Applications /Applications
Make sure it appears in your root directory, and that you can open it and browse as normal. Then try running Software Update, make sure it doesn't give you errors (even if there's no updates, it has to check everything, so if it seems to run normally, you're probably good).

Now you can delete the original Applications folder (renamed Apps earlier). Just type the following code:

Code:
sudo rm -R /Apps
Make sure you don't mistype that last one!!! I cannot stress this enough. I'd recommend copy and paste instead of trying to type it in directly. If, for instance, you went to hit Shift to type the A in Apps, but instead hit Enter, you would wipe your entire hard drive. I have done this myself, so I know exactly how bad it can be.

That should complete it all!

jW

mike1210

I would leave the apps on the SSD to be honest.

I have done a similar thing on my Mac Mini

Samsung 840 Pro as the sytem drive, standard drive as the data drive.

Ant

Cheers mike. Hopefully I'll receive it all today , so I'll see how I get on

JackClark

Do let us know Ant, I'm probably doing the same soon.

mike1210

When the SSD is in.

Boot the old drive with the OS still installed and format the SSD using disk utility.

If you are going to install from scratch, beware that Mavericks and Mountain Lion can sometimes think you have a fusion drive when you actually don't.

If it asks to correct this click ignore on the install.

Not sure if your drive has built in garbage collection?

If it doesn't IMO the best way to get it to TRIM is via commands. You may need to re run this on every combi update

http://www.return1.at/trim-enabler-for-osx/

You don't have to get trim working on it, but I thought I'd post the link that I've used.

Ant

I was planning moving the 640gn hard drive to the optibay and fresh installing maverick on the ssd but not erasing the 640gb and using migration for the apps and settings from that to the ssd . Then erasing the 640gn

Is that possible?

mike1210

I've never used it myself, but I've found this guide for it

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872?viewlocale=en_US

I think it's dooable if you select startup disk on the source, but don't quote me on it

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

I used the Samsung migration wizard over USB3, worked like a charm n cloned my old HDD to a 840PRO SSD. Installed the SSD into a 3.5 bay using a 2.5 to 3.5 icybox converter hooked up to Sata6. Hop into the bios changed the boot order to the new SSD. Whole process took about 90mins, job done. Ah wait the migration wizard is only compatible with Windows shame that

JackClark

Another useful post from Cockforger.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Thanks, *******.

Ant

Right it's all done ! and was well worth the effort.

The SSD didn't need a firmware update so that was painless.


How i did it was i placed my ssd direct in to the mac then i connected the boot drive via the usb caddy i have , before all this i made a bootable usb maverick install.

Booted from the usb and installed maverick fresh onto the SSD. Installation was nice and quick.

Once finished i then re-connected my original usb drive and open the migration assistant app up and hey presto it recognised the drive so i transferred over the apps and settings i had installed and there we are all working like before.

Next up was the optibay swap, that only came this morning so i proceeded to do this, following ifixit, it was pretty painless and only took 10 minutes.

OSX found the drive straight away , working brilliantly


I wish i hadn't put it off this long as the performance is incredible now , boot times are a matter of seconds (which i rarely use anyway due to the brilliant sleep mode) and i benchmarked read/write time of about 200mb/sec which is not bad for sata2.



So jack get buying! its worth it

JackClark

Santa will be bringing me a SSD.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

200MB/s? eww. Mine is pumping out 556MB/536MB read/write, but it is sata 6.

You're right about the performance increase, its staggering isn't it I don't bother with sleep/hibernation anymore as a cold boot is just as fast now. Also turning off sleep/hibernation can increase the SSD's life as it will read/write a lot less on bootup.

Ant

yeah its not ideal but i have a 2010 model , but jumping from 5400rpm its a lot better

sata 6 must be rapid!