How do I replace my drive with an SSD drive?

Hey guys, I have an early 2009 iMac 21" and was curious about replacing the hard drive with a 120gb SSD drive. Will I find it problematic that the SSD is 2.5" nd the original drive is 3.5"?
How would I get around this? I know how to replace it, just don't know exactly what to do for the size.
I will be using this:
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Gb-s2-5-Inch-Solid-SDSSDX-120G-G25/dp/B006 EKJCWM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1383680505&sr=8-4&keywords=ssd+120gb
Thanks guys!

It can be used although you may need to jury-rig a mount.
I would not use SanDisk. Stick to OCZ Vertex 2 or OWC Mercury 3G.

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I've replaced my optical drive with an SSD drive, now what?

So now I have a formatted 60GB SSD inside my iMac in the optical drive space, alongside my existing 1.5TB spinning drive which holds the Lion OS.
What would be the best way to proceed? Should I . . .
Load up the Lion thumbdrive and install Lion on the SSD (ignoring for now the Lion OS on the 1.5TB drive) and then import all settings from the old drive to the new one?
I want all system and all applications to be loaded on the SSD drive and the remaining space I plan to use for editing purposes, such as movies, photos etc. Load them onto the fast drive for editing then off onto the spinning drive for archiving and later re-editing and use.
So once I have a new OS installed on the new drive, what do I delete off of the old drive to get rid of the operating system there without losing any data?
Just the System folder or the System and Library folders? What about the User folder? It's huge obviously, so I clearly can't bring that in, but are there parts of it that should be on the SSD?
I'm also running Parallels, so should I drag _that_ applications folder over as well, _out_ of the Users folder? How about the Virtual Machines, the Windows.PVM and Linux.Pvm virtual machines?
Instead of installing Lion, maybe I should drag the appropriate folders over?
I'm sure it's going to be a mix of these, but not sure what the optimal mix is.
Thanks,.
JoeL
Atlanta, GA

So now I have a formatted 60GB SSD inside my iMac in the optical drive space, alongside my existing 1.5TB spinning drive which holds the Lion OS.
What would be the best way to proceed? Should I . . .
Load up the Lion thumbdrive and install Lion on the SSD (ignoring for now the Lion OS on the 1.5TB drive) and then import all settings from the old drive to the new one?
I want all system and all applications to be loaded on the SSD drive and the remaining space I plan to use for editing purposes, such as movies, photos etc. Load them onto the fast drive for editing then off onto the spinning drive for archiving and later re-editing and use.
So once I have a new OS installed on the new drive, what do I delete off of the old drive to get rid of the operating system there without losing any data?
Just the System folder or the System and Library folders? What about the User folder? It's huge obviously, so I clearly can't bring that in, but are there parts of it that should be on the SSD?
I'm also running Parallels, so should I drag _that_ applications folder over as well, _out_ of the Users folder? How about the Virtual Machines, the Windows.PVM and Linux.Pvm virtual machines?
Instead of installing Lion, maybe I should drag the appropriate folders over?
I'm sure it's going to be a mix of these, but not sure what the optimal mix is.
Thanks,.
JoeL
Atlanta, GA

Hi,I have recently replaced by hard drive with a ssd. My old hard drive has all my iTunes stuff.i would like to install only iTunes programme on the ssd with all the content on the old hard drive. How do I do it?

Hi,I have recently replaced by hard drive with a ssd. My old hard drive has all my iTunes stuff.i would like to install only iTunes programme on the ssd with all the content on the old hard drive. How do I do it?

Install iTunes.
Once install, hold SHIFT and launch iTunes.
When prompted, point iTunes to the correct location for the iTunesLibrary.itl file which should be in the iTunes folder under <user>/Music on the old drive.

How do i replace my 5c with a 5 or 5s

how do i replace my 5c with a 5 or 5s, there is nothing out there for cases or anything to match the button layout on the phone, i have spent $100 in 2 days buying case after case

Returning the phone woudl be a serious hassle as both the 5 and the 5S are in short supply, one permanently and the other for who knows how long!
They didn't have a lot of them, so, good luck.
Best of luck.

How do I replace the organiser with a new one

How do I replace the organiser with a new one

The problem is to understand your question (or your two questions : do you both mean the same thing ?)
An answer to Hatstead question would help.
1 - Do you really mean using another software to organize your workflow ?
2 - Do you mean using other softwares based on folders rather than databases ?
3 - Or do you mean working with different catalogs ?
If you don't want to use the Organizer, it's not possible to 'delete' it, but it is simple not to use it.
Most other organizing solutions include the choice of selecting PSE editor as the external editor
There are various solutions depending on your platform : Windows, Mac, Linux...
It's important to know if you prefer the folders or database organization to suggest possible solutions.

Help.. Please..Replacing a Spectre 15t hard drive with an ssd

I posed this question a couple of days ago but did not make myself clear enough. I’ll try again…
I purchased a Spectre 15xt touchsmart just before Christmas. I ordered the 128 gig ssd drive upgrade because no larger ssd drive was available and the salesman assured me I could upgrade to a larger drive later. As it turns out, the upgrade to the ssd drive replaced the 32 gig boot ssd with a larger 128 ssd and just eliminated the hard drive.
I have two questions.
If I had purchased the Spectre with the hard drive, instead of chosing the ssd upgrade option, could I have replaced the hard drive with a standard sized ssd drive? If so, I can send the laptop I have back and get one with a hard drive and replace the hard drive with a standard ssd drive (I only have a limited time to do this). I’ve called tech support a few times and get varying answers.
If the only way to increase drive space is by increasing the size of the msata ssd, can I use any brand of msata drive. It comes with a Samsung MAMPC128HBFU. Samsung also makes a 256 gig (MZMPC256HBGJ). Will the larger Samsung drive work? Can I replace it with another brand, say a Crucial m4 256GB ssd (CT256M4SSD3?

xreyuk wrote:
Thanks for the information.
I'm assuming if the fault is found with the new SSD, that's not covered?
Yes that is correct. Any issues with a 3rd party SSD need to be addressed with the manfacturer of the SSD.
What about if replacing the HDD, with the SSD, is responsible for another fault?
I'm sorry, I don't understand the wording of this question. Try asking the question in your native languge, and I will see if I can use a translation program to help me better understand what you are asking

How do I install the new "unified series Beta driver with OpenAL support" driver?

Hey guys, I'm going to reformat later today and I need instructions on how to install these latest drivers.
Once I reformat, I will install Windows 2000 SP4.
When I reboot, I will insert the CD that came with my Audigy 2 and I will select "Custom Install" and I will select to install everything EXCEPT the driver.
Then when I have installed all the Creative software from the CD that came with my Audigy 2, I will reboot.
Now I will install the "unified series Beta driver with OpenAL support" driver and then reboot.
Is that the correct procedure? If not PLEASE tell me!

My game music always (now I've asked for it!!!) seems to work; have you tried disabling cthelper in your config as that seems to ?$!&^ everything up; on my system it was causing crashes and also meant my system was taking 0 minutes to shut down!
And while we're at it, maybe someone from Creative could expand on the really useful info the guys above have given (thanks guys!).
Oh yeah, one last suggestion for Creative; maybe make the installation of "cthelper" optional in the installation program and/or have a check box in the Creative config software to turn it on off with an explanation as to why people may want to do this (ie may cause problems on some systems)...
G

Replacing a Serial ATA Drive with a SSD HD

Does anyone know if its difficult to replace a Serial ATA Drive with a SSD? And if possible and not difficult, which specs should this SSD have?

if you buy your SSD as a kit, it comes with sata to usb connector.
if you buy your SSD as a bare drive then go out and buy an usb external enclosure.
Before you install your new drive, turn your computer on with your old drive, hook up your new drive via external enclosure to your usb port.
Launch Disk Utility, erase/format your new drive with MAC OS Extended Journaled.
Open Carbon Copy ( free download if you don't have it) and start to clone your drive, a pop up will come up saying you haven't created a recovery partition, follow the instructions in Carbon Copy then proceed to clone your drive after.
Once that's done, open the back of your MB, take out the old drive, install your new ssd, then turn it on. You're back in business.
As for your old drive, put it in the external enclosure and use it as a back up drive.

If I Replace my SuperDrive with a Hard Drive or Solid State Drive. Will it void my warranty? i have a brand new macbook pro 13" entry level

I jus bought a brand new macbook pro 13" entry level
If I Replace my SuperDrive with a Hard Drive or Solid State Drive. Will it void my warranty?
Or is it possible to change it as I`ve said and put the extra hdd in the optical drive if its done somewere like bestbuy?

LowLuster, greetings:
LowLuster wrote:
It will void your warranty if Apple finds out that you have made this modification. But if you ever have a need to use the Apple warranty you should put the optical drive back in before taking it to an Apple store for the warranty work.
This is contrary to the terms of use:
8. Keep within the Law
1. No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Ciao.

Lessons learned replacing ThinkPad HDD with an SSD

Installing a Samsung SSD on my 3 year old ThinkPad W510 was easy. Getting Windows 7 set up took me days.
Here are some lessons learned so you can do it faster.
Backup
Lenovo Rescue & Recovery will back up files to a USB 3.0 disk but it took 10+ hours and it put several files and folders at the top level. Can it back up multiple disks (HDD and SSD)? Probably not.
Backup
Windows 7 Backup & Restore doesn’t have those problems backing up data files but when trying to save a disk image to an external drive that’s > 2 TB (with 4K blocks), it runs for a while then fails. The generic error message and event log are not helpful, costing hours of debugging.
SSD “frozen”
Some web sites say that an SSD will perform better if you fully erase it before installing the OS, but when I tried to do this, the Samsung Magician software said the SSD was “frozen.” Apparently this is a confusing way to say it’s locked from erasure. Magician’s workaround recommendations didn’t help. Magician’s PDF guide has alternate workaround recommendations (like turning of AHCI mode in BIOS) but I didn’t find them soon enough.
Clone the HDD or install fresh?
Restoring Lenovo’s factory disk image onto the SSD (instead of cloning the HDD) fixed accumulated problems but it took several days of work and problem solving. (The HDD’s hidden SYSTEM_DRV partition was full. Did that cause some of the problems?)
How to over-provision the SSD
“Over-provisioning” boosts an SSD’s sustained write performance by allocating temporary space. The Samsung Magician program will set this up -- but not on a drive with the Lenovo_Recovery “Q:” partition. Moving and resizing C: and Q: with GParted Live didn’t solve this. Instead it made me start all over restoring the factory disk image and the Windows Updates and Lenovo Updates. The solution (thanks, Samsung’s phone tech support!) is to use GParted or Windows Disk Management to shrink the C: partition. All it needs is some unallocated space between partitions anywhere on the SSD. (Samsung recommends 10%.) You don’t have to do anything to allocate that space to the purpose.
Partition alignment
For speed, you want the partitions aligned on a 4096 byte boundary. GParted will align them on a MiB boundary, which is more than adequate.
Windows restore points
The Windows installer is supposed to make system restore points but I found it started out with a broken configuration. So open System Properties, the System Protection tab, and check the “available drives” for any drives labelled “... (Missing)”. Turn off “system protection” (restore points) for the “missing” drives, then turn it on for the real C:.
Faster updates
After restoring Lenovo’s factory disk image, you must iterate installing Windows Updates and Lenovo Updates over and over until there aren’t any more to install. Fortunately this is faster on an SSD than an HDD. Save more time by having only one user account and no password so Windows reboot won’t stop for login. Also watch the taskbar for license dialogs that open up behind other windows but require your clicks to proceed.
Watch for stuck updates
Lenovo Update quietly gets stuck updating Intel WiFi & WiMax software. The fix is to download those installers from lenovo.com, run them, get an error message that it can’t install over the existing software, uninstall the WiFi & WiMax software, then run the installers again.
Restore from backup, or not?
At key points, I made system disk image backups of the SSD to the old HDD and tried restoring from a backup after the failed repartitioning experiment. But Windows Backup and Restore won’t restore a system image after booting from the destination drive’s recovery partition nor from the source drive’s recovery partition. Since my backup was on the HDD in the Ultradrive bay, I couldn’t boot from the Rescue & Recovery CD. The workaround was to make a bootable System Repair disk on a 512 MB USB key. Windows Backup and Restore then failed with another meaningless error, “The parameter is incorrect. Code: 0x80070057.” Apparently you have to remove the USB key right before starting the system restore operation but that yielded the error, "No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found." I’m not sure if that’s a symptom of removing the USB key or yet another problem with Windows Backup and Restore. Maybe it can’t restore to resized partitions? Windows Backup and Restore failed and burned hours of my time.
Fix the annoying request on bootup?
After you install Windows, all its updates, and Samsung Magician, you can use Magician to adjust system settings for SSD performance. Then you’ll find that Magician needs permission to “make changes to this computer” on every boot. Samsung tech support explained that you can then remove Magician from the startup list via msconfig.
Optimizations
Recomputing the “Windows Experience Index” might make the OS recognize the boot drive as an SSD and disable defrag for it. This didn’t work for me, so be sure to unschedule defrag. Also use msconfig to remove Digital Line Detect from the startup list and turn on “No GUI boot” (no Windows splash screen). Also use power plans Advanced Settings to never turn off the “hard disk.”
ThinkPad
Thumbs up. Easy to replace the HDD with an SSD and move the HDD into an Ultradrive caddy. Sturdy. Easy to work on. Well documented. Hardware that I didn't want to replace.
Microsoft Windows 7
Thumbs down. Buggy, fragile, over complicated, inadequate error messages, painstaking to install, difficult and time consuming to administer, poorly documented, accumulates gunk over time that causes problems, failed backup software, even a fresh install has scary event log errors.
Lenovo forums & support pages
Very helpful. Sometimes it's good to use Use Google to search them e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alenovo.com+"over+provision"
Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Fine hardware. Some confusions around the Magician software. Great phone tech support. Web support doesn’t work.
References and more info
How To Geek, Lifehacker, Lifehacker, SSD Review, Newegg, Newegg, Anandtech, Storage Review.

I may have confused you: Lenovo provides two tools, 1) one makes DVDs that restore the original out-of-the-box factory image of the entire disk (i.e. System partition, C: + Q: partitions) and 2) Backup and Restore, which is the Lenovo user backup tool that does conventional full disk backups, i.e. with all user customizations, added programs and files. Since my system-generation-to-SSD saga hadn't created the the Q: partition correctly, my only alternative was to create a full up-t-date disk backup with the second Backup and Restore tool that include all the Windows + Lenovo updates, but didn't include extra programs and my user files. This fitted on 5 DVDs, which I will use if ever I reinstall the entire operating system.
Once you get above 100-150 GB of backup volume (I'm at 450 GB right now), the Lenovo Backup and Restore is very slow, so I use the much quicker Windows built-in Backup and Restore program to backup incrementally a system image and all files.

Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?

Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?

Qingfeng wrote:
Hi, I bought the macbook pro 15 3 months ago. I wanna upgrade the hard drive to 128G ssd drive. How much I should paid?
Well you won't have very much storage capacity with a SSD that small, also SSD has limited writes, so it wouldn't be good for on-loading and off-loading a lot of files.
SSD isn't being securely erased due to steps to prevent their premature wear, so despite what you do in Disk Utility Secure Erase, your confidential data can still be recovered if you pass the machine on to someone else for instance.
Other than those reasons, small SSD's can be extremely fast, loading your programs and OS much faster. But the real benefit in high speed storage is transfering large amounts of files on/off the computer to ANOTHER fast device. This comes in handy for video and large music collections and so forth.
Since the SSD because of it's limited writes doesn't fit the bill as a large file transfer medium.
If you want to get a SSD drive, you can upgrade it yourself simply by ordering one online at locations like Other World Computing or NewEgg and have a 00 micro phillips head screwdriver handy.
There are instructions over at iFixit for opening your MacBook and replacing the hard drive with the SSD.
Preferably you will want to clone your present boot drive to a external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, then making the switch and hold option to boot from the clone and then clone from the external to the new internal SSD drive.
Prices of SSD are varied, Apple won't replace it for you
This is currently the fastest SSD availalbe
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd.php?hdd=OCZ-VERTEX3+MI

A600 Replacing SATA HDD with SATA SSD

I have reviewed the current knowledge base materials, but don't see one directly tied to my problem. Appreciate any help received.
My current HDD has been making a lot of noise lately, at least much more than I have heard in the past. It's a little over 5 years old. I bought an Intel 730 series 240G SSD, and have tried to use that drive as my primary drive, replacing the current one. I used Intel's cloning software, which took a while, but appeared to be successful. My problem is that the BIOS does not recognize the new drive. Looking in the BIOS, my SATA drive 0 now shows "None", and the screen at power-up fails with "No Boot Filename received". Is there an issue with the BIOS not recognizing newer SSD's? I've read other inputs saying that people have been successful in powering up via new SSDs, so I thought it could be done. Anyone have any thoughts? Appreciate it.

Thanks Caveman31 for your thoughts. I checked the BIOS, and this model has very limited BIOS options, which don't include any options for SATA control. There are probably 1/2 of the options in my Lenovo A600 BIOS, then in my generic PC (ASUS motherboard) I put together a couple years ago. It has a menu option for SATA control, located in the "Main" tab of the BIOS screen.
Unless there are some other options, or a way to get more control with this BIOS, I won't be able to select between AHCI or IDE regarding the SATA control. Do you know if that's the only way for me to replace my HDD with a SSD for this computer?
Thanks for your help!

How do I perform maintenance on my iMac SSD Drive so I can extend it's life

I recently purchased a Mid 2011 27" 3.4GHZ i7 /16GB Memory iMac and would like to know how do I perform maintenance on my iMac SSD Drive so I can extend it's life, Does apple now support Trimm or is there some thing else I need to do? Defrag? I do not store anything thing but OS and APPS on the drive
thanks

There is nothing you need to do to the SSD. Do not attempt to defrag an SSD as there is no need and uses the device excessively. TRIM is supported only if the SSD is an Apple device so if you reformat the SSD there's no need to Zero Data for garbage collection.

How to Replace existing Hard Drive with new Hard Drive, while keeping old files

Hi All,
I have recently replaced my hard drive on my Macbook Pro, with a new hard drive. The old Hard Drive was 160 GB, while the new one is 320 GB.
What I did before replacing it was clone my hard drive using "SuperDuper". I cloned it to the new hard drive and then simply removed my old hard drive and installed the new one with the clone on it. Then I booted it up and began running it. In fact I am using it right now.
My questions are:
Is this a good practice?
Will this work, without problems, indefinitely?
Is this the prescribed way to upgrade ones laptop hard drive?
The reason I did it this way was because I upgraded to Mountain Lion via the apple store download and I do not have the CD for the OS. So I figured if I could make a bootable copy, that might work. So far everything seems fine, but I really just want to know if this will last for a long time. I plan on also making a partition with Windows on it also, so I was wondering if anyone can comment on that too.
If anyone can comment or give any advice on this topic I would really appreciate it.
Thank you very much!
Cheers.

Every thing is fine except Super Duper does not clone the recovery partition. If you start your MBP holding the OPTION key, you should see the internal HDD and the ML recovery partition.
You can reinstall ML or reclone using Disk Utility>restore.
Ciao,.

How do i replace my ipad with a new model in itunes?

I'm replacing an iPad with an iPad 3rd generation and will be gifting the iPad to a friend.
What steps do I need to take in iTunes for this to run smoothly?
I want to end up with:
1) The new iPad working but with all of my data, screen layouts and settings from my old iPad.
2) The old iPad "de-registered" (if that's possible/necessary) and reset to factory default conditions with no data present and working on myfriends iTunes account.
Is 1) as simple as backing up the original iPad in iTunes and plugging the new one in and restoring from the old backup? Possible complication: I get the "This iPad is synced with another computer. Do you want to erase and restore..." message whenerver I plug it in, although it does seem to sync when I cancel the "erase and restore" dialog. Would this complicate things?
Re 2), my friend has an iPhone 4 and uses iTunes already. Is plugging in my "wiped" iPad all he needs to do? How do I reset the original iPad?
I hope that these are simple questions, already encountered by many of you, but myself and my friend are at the stage where we have both only had one apple product and have never had to manage another device in iTunes so we just don't know what to expect and don't want to lose any data!
Thanks in advance for your time and help!

Is it as simple as backing up the original iPad in iTunes and plugging the new one in and restoring from the old backup?
Yes
How do I reset the original iPad?
Settings --> General --> Reset --> erase all content and settings;.

How do I replace my drive with an SSD drive?

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