Installing a Solid State Drive (SSD)

Hi,
I am helping a friend instal a SSD into their Mac Pro. I have changed out drives before, but it has been a long time. From what I have seen on the web, it looks like a fairly easy process. There are no ribbon cables to attach, nor power cables.... wow, it's almost like hot swappable.....
(1) I assume I should put the SSD in slot number 1 and move the existing HD to slot 2?
(2) Do I need to set the jumpers so that the SSD is the master and the older HD is the slave?
It is a first generation Mac Pro 2.66
Thanks.

There are no master/slaves in an SATA relationship.
There is an Icy Dock for $14-19 that makes it easy and better to attach to the drive sled so it lines up properly.
There really is no need to move to another slot. Unlike a PC, or even with one, port #0 is merely the first to be scanned but that is all, it isn't necessary for boot drive.
I assume you are going to do a clone or selective clone. Or clean install.
http://www.macsales.com/ssd

Similar Messages

Can I install a Solid State Drive (SSD) on a P6510f

I have a HP p6510f computer. I need to know if I can purchase a 120 gig SSD drive and use it as my PRIMARY drive and use the 750 gig as a slave. I've read a few links about changing the BIOS setting but have not seen a solution.
I do not want to go out and buy one if it does not work. I currently have 16 gigs of ram and upgrade the 250 watt power supply to a 500 watt power supply.
I want to do some video editing (already changed the video card to an ATI 6850).
What is the best way to speed up my hard drive for video editing?

Hi:
You should be able to, as long as you get one that comes with an 3.5" adapter to connect to the drive bay.
Below is the link to the service manual. It appears that there are two drive bays in the cage. Just ensure you have another SATA power lead.
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01859455.pdf
As far as configuring, check to see that the storage controller can be set to AHCI.
If it can't, then set it to RAID.
I have no idea what port you connect the 750 GB drive to, looking at the motherboard diagram. Look at the port that the boot drive is currently connected to and it should be labeled on the motherboard. Normally SATA 0. You will want to connect the secondary drive to the SATA port with the next corresponding number such as SATA 1.
You will not be able to use recovery disks to install W7 as a 120 GB drive is much smaller than the drive that you are using now, so you will need to install W7 using this method:
Copy the SWSetup folder from your C:\ drive to a portable storage device.
That contains all of the program and driver installation files that came with your PC, and you can explore the sub-folders and reinstall whatever programs you want. All should be there except office 2010 starter.
If you can read the 25 character Microsoft windows 7 product key, you can download plain Windows 7 ISO files to burn to a DVD for the version of windows that came installed on your PC, and that is listed on the Microsoft COA sticker on your PC's case.
Burn the ISO using the Burn ISO option on your DVD burning program and burn at the slowest possible speed your program will allow. This will create a bootable DVD.
Or use the Windows 7 USB/DVD installation tool to compile the ISO file you download from Digital River. Link and instructions below. You need a 4 GB flash drive to use the USB method of compilation.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
Use the 25 character product key on the PC to activate the installation.
The key will activate either a 32 or 64 bit installation.
Then go to the PC's support and driver page to install the drivers you need.
Link to the W7 ISO file downloads is below.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Paul

Can I install a solid state drive in my CQ62-215DX

I need to replace my hard drive in my laptop and I'm curious first on whether or not I can install a solid state drive in this laptop and if so, are there any recommendations?

Hi,
Yes you can, SSD's are much cheaper now. You can buy from the following reliable vendor, it guaranties its products will work:
http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/HP+-+Compaq-memory/Presario+CQ62+Series/Presario+CQ62-215DX-upgrades....
You can buy from 120Gb to 960Gb. I bought one Crucial 960Gb last week but from Amazon
Regards.
BH
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Solid State Drive (SSD) Questions for G4 "Sawtooth".

Below are some questions concerning using a Solid State Drive (SSD) in a G4 "Sawtooth".
Would a controller card need to be installed for an SSD to work in this machine?
Would the G4 be able to operate in Classic mode with the SSD?
Would the G4 be able to boot into OS 9 with the SSD?
Should the SSD be used only for booting and applications, with user data stored on another drive that does not use SSD technology (such as an ATA or SATA drive)?
Should only 50% of the drive space be used, in order to ensure optimized performance?
Would the G4 only be able to use the first 128 MB of drive space of an SSD that has a capacity greater than 128 MB? If so, would either of the below cards enable the G4 to read the entire drive?
[http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ACARD/AEC6280M>
[http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ACARD/AEC6880M>
-John

Would a controller card need to be installed for an SSD to work in this machine?
One like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/TSATA/
Would the G4 be able to operate in Classic mode with the SSD?
Yes.
Would the G4 be able to boot into OS 9 with the SSD?
Depends on the controller card, but with the linked card, it shouldn't be an issue.
Should the SSD be used only for booting and applications, with user data stored on another drive that does not use SSD technology (such as an ATA or SATA drive)?
Smaller capacity drives will limit file storage, and keeping OS and applications separate always improves performance, regardless of the drive type.
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F 598EA.html
Should only 50% of the drive space be used, in order to ensure optimized performance?
SSD's can be filled further, but should maintain 20GB or more for virtual memory.
Would the G4 only be able to use the first 128 MB of drive space of an SSD that has a capacity greater than 128 MB?
A controller card removes that limit.
If so, would either of the below cards enable the G4 to read the entire drive?
Those controllers will work for and allow use of large capacity ATA drives.

Can I use a solid state drive (SSD) with a G4 1 GHz powerbook? If so, how do I do it?

Hi:
Can I use a solid state drive (SSD) with a G4 1 GHz powerbook? If so, how do I do it? Thanks.
fromx001

fromx001 I believe you can use a SSD as internal drive, of course make sure to buy an ide/ata. There are all sorts of sizes up to 480 GB also in the ide/ata standard. You should however research carefully your purchase, as the performances of your SSD are going to have to rely on firmware "garbage collection", as the older operating systems haven't been written with SSD in mind.
Mac Man JW: some people depend on Classic as a brody said, other people need a phone modem from time to time, other people use the laptop in harsh environments, and at -15C and below, LCD screens easily crack and break; NOT the powerbook which has hot air towards the screen (and it's a machine that heats quite a lot). My alu Powerbook 12", which was *not* treated with velvet gloves, only once had a cracked screen: a cleaning lady had stepped over it (!!!!) no joke. And in normal / light use today, it is still pretty decent and usable.

My HP Pavilion Notebook can support a solid-state drive (SSD) (also known as a solid-state disk)

Hi,
Product Name dv6-6093ex
Product Number LM610EA
I don't know if my HP laptop can support a solid-state drive (SSD) (also known as a solid-state disk or not.

Thanks a lot,
I really checked out the prices of SSD at amazon.com
However, I found that the prices were relatively expensive.
120 GB
$88.49
250 GB
$132.00
500 GB
$231.99
1 TB
$439.95
Do you think it is worth purchasing SSD? Did you find any noticeable benefits since 439.95 dollars would let me purchase another laptop

Do I have to configure BIOS on solid state drive (SSD) on dm1z 3000 Laptop?

Do I have to configure BIOS on solid state drive (SSD) on dm1z 3000 Laptop? Want to make sure my SSD device runs 100% well.

Hi,
You will not have to make any changes in the Bios - by default, your HP bios will already be in AHCI mode.
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Solid State Drive (SSD) on MacBook Pro unibody (and fast hard drives)

I've reviewed the 80GB Intel X25-M solid state drive (SSD), along with the Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320, Seagate 320GB Momentus 7200.3, Western Digital 320GB Scorpio Black and Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue.
All of these are great drives for the MBP, but the X25-M really screams for anything with reads, and writes are quite respectable.
http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-SSD.html

German computer-magazine CT tested SSD drives recently, rating only Intel-SSD's as "faster and more energy-efficient under all circumstances". They are definitely not all the same...

Solid State Drive (SSD) on Recent Mac Book Pro

I bought a non-retina 15 inch MacBook Pro in late August / early September, with a 1 TB hard drive. Originally my intent was for the largest hard drive so I could keep my itunes music libarary (Approximatley 60 GB) on there. I've only used about 115 GB (xcode and a few macstore apps, and a lot of ios apps).
Recently, I've been getting paranoid about hard drive crashes due to it being a traditional drive rather than a Solid State Drive (SSD), (Thank you very much Phil Schiller), because I expect my storage level to stay at its existing level for sometime, I was considering swapping it out my existing 1 TB for a SSD. I'm assuming this can be done on a MBP, right?
Is it even worth the effort, or am I needlessly worrying?
Like I said, I bought it in late August / early September at the earliest, so the warranty is still in effect. I'm assuming swapping the drives would void the warranty. What if I took it into an apple store, and had them do the swap? Would it still void the warranty, or would it remain in effect.
Any thoughts?
Anybody from Apple or AppleCare have any thoughts or insight?
-Jeff

Apologies. I probably should have checked the link I sent you. I narrowed it down to 3 choices (Direct links below)
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT512M4SSD2
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT512M4SSD2BAA
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT512M4SSD2CCA
I didn't see anything about a transfer kit (or external drive dock) from your original post, or anything 3.5 inch adapter bracket. So your last post helps clarify things.
I'm assuming because I don't have an external drive dock, I should just go with the transfer kit, RIght?
At this point, due to the level of complexity, I'm thinking it may be easier to just take it in to the apple store and have them do it.
Do you know if they do this?
I'm sure if they do, they charge a premium, but even if its only $100 + cost of the drive, it would be worth it, not to have to deal with it myself.
Thanks,
Jeff

Should I install a Solid State Drive..?

Hello I am editing and rendering HD 1080p and sometimes 4k video from an XD Cam in Final Cut Pro 7 running on a 17" 2011 MacBook pro i7 2.2ghz, 8GB DDR3 1333mhz RAM with 720GB 5400rpm Hard Drive. the video is captured on an external 2TB Hard Drive connected via Fire Wire 800. What I would like to know will it be worth me installing a OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SATA 3 Solid State Drive inside my computer and putting 16 GB of RAM in. will it make a difference in the performance of quality, rendering times and other functions on my software and video I output to Blu-Ray..? remembering that the video is coming from the fire wire 800 drive and going back on there until I burn it to blu-ray. Would I need to set my scratch disk to my SSD to see any benefits of having a SSD instead of a normal HDD. Cheers Danny.

Why not use a Thunderbolt drive? Adding ram isn't going to help but won't hurt. FCP 7 address only a max of 4 GIGs of ram. Your weakest link is the 5400 rpm drive.
I'm thinking about getting 2 Thunderbolt drives. One for the System OS and the other for media storage.

Satellite Pro S300 EZ1514 - Cannot initialize Solid State Drive (SSD)

I have a Satellite Pro S300 EZ1514.
Recently I purchased a SATA II Cavalry 64GB SSD to replace the current hard drive. First I tried to install XP with SATA drivers streamlined in.
The install process recognized the SSD and did the initial file copy to it, but when it restarted to continue the install process the system would not boot from the drive.
Then I tried installing Vista Business 64 from the recovery disk that came with the laptop.
After initiating the recovery disk, the install process said the hard drive was not Initialized and to click OK to initialize now.
After clicking OK to initialize the system restarted only to end up on the same screen telling me to initialize the hard drive.
Then I tried to initialize the drive manually off of my desktop.
Plugged it into my desktop, initialized it and formatted it to NTFS. Plugged it back into the laptop to try Vista recovery again. And yet again the same screen shows up. Plugged the SSD back into the desktop only to find that the drive was no longer initialized and had to be initialized again.
Then I gave up and installed the SSD to my desktop as primary boot and it installed perfectly fine with XP. For testing purposes I then put the ssd with the pre-installed XP back into the laptop to see what happens. To my dismay the laptop would not boot and on top of that when I put the SSD back into the desktop only to find that the drive was no longer initialized and I had to reinstall XP again.
Conclusion:
It seems that the Satellite Pro S300 series is not SSD friendly and just the post it self de-initializes the Solid State Drives.
This seems like the logical conclusion as the SSD works perfectly fine on my desktop and the laptop is fine now with the old spinning hard drive back in.
Anyone else have this problem or a solution?
I would still like to put the SSD into my laptop for power saving.

Im using AHCI mode, but for testing I tried both and neither one worked. My bios is already up to the latest version and unfortunately the Cavalry site does not have any firmware updates yet. Again I don't think the drive is bad cuz it works perfectly fine on a desktop that had the same intel chip set and SATA controller. I think it's the custom boot agent that Toshiba uses at boot. Anyone know how to disable that agent and the intel boot agent as well? I read somewhere that the agents are not needed for the boot process and that in some cases they do cause issues like mine.
Message was edited by: RanChanGT

Toshiba Q Series HDTS225XZSTA 256GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Hello everyone,
New here and was trying to find the link to download the free NTI clone software to clone my old mechanical drive to my new SSD. Could you please post the link here.
Thanks

These should help.
   How to install and use your Toshiba SSD PC Upgrade kit.
   TOSHIBA Solid-State Drive PC Upgrade Kit installation video
   Toshiba Solid-State Drive PC Upgrade Kit User's Manual
download the free NTI clone software
The NTI Echo program is on the CD that comes with your kit.
It is also available from NTI here (NTI Echo 3 for Toshiba),
NTI Echo is a smart cloning software for your Toshiba SSD. The software enables you to easily make a copy of, or migrate from, your computer's original drive (HDD) to your new Toshiba SSD. By your purchase of Toshiba SSD, this software, with an MSRP value of $29.99, is FREE.
-Jerry

W510 Solid State Drive (SSD) Gets Stuck Causing BSoD. Why?

Hey guys, this has been a problem for a while now, and it is really mind boggling ... I have a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 laptop with a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD drive. Ever so randomly the drive just hangs, the LED light that the drive is trying to load something stays "ON" for up to 5 minutes or so before it finally goes into a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). Once it goes into BSoD the laptop reboots and it gets stuck on the ThinkPad motherboard logo, eventually it will display "ERROR 2100: HDD0 (Hard Disk Drive) initialization error (X)" Where X is usually 1 or 2, sometimes 3 but rarely. It will not function again until I physically turn it off and back on using the power button.
A little bit of background about the problem, this is my 3rd Crucial 256GB M4 SSD, Crucial has been very helpful and they went as far as replacing the drive twice, i am starting to highly doubt its a drive issue, I think it could be something from the laptop itself. To be more clear, my laptop has also been serviced back in March (Motherboard was swapped as well as keyboard), parts failure. It was all done in very timely manner and everything was OK after the swap.
A representative from Crucial told me that this is a classical problem with the SATA controller driver handling TRIM, he said the drive is getting stuck in an infinite TRIM state which causes the BSoD, after that the drive goes into some sort of a "panic" mode to protect itself and doesn't function again until a full power cycle. (thus the need to turn off and then on the laptop) he also added it could be fixed by installing the correct SATA controller driver.
I have tried to use the default windows SATA controller driver, and I have tried to use the Intel one too, and it seems to happen less often with the windows drivers, but overall, it happens at least once a day. It is really frustrating and I am not able to get anywhere with it.
Any help or advice is highly appreciated. I am considering getting rid of the Crucial SSD altogether and just using Intel SSD instead, but I am really doubtful that it is the SSD's fault especially that its the 3rd one I use. I also know a couple of friends who own ThinkPads with Crucial M4 SSD inside them, and they seem to be working very well for them.
Thanks in advance,
Al.

Hi again,
Ok so I have applied the fix you have mentioned above, and it did improve (lower) the frequency of the problem happening. It really improved a lot significantly when I uninstalled the Intel drivers and used the Windows 7 built in SATA controller drivers.
However, ... it still happens ... less frequent, but it still takes place, my SSD still gets stuck at least once in 3 days now, or once in 2 days (after severe testing) and the same scenario happens. I am really stuck at this point, and not sure which direction to take.
Any help would really be appreciated, if you have / know any method to debug the BSoD's I get and a way to locate the source of the problem I am willing to go through it 1 by 1 and solve this problem before deciding to finally just giving up on the drive altogether.
Sincerely,
Al.

Can I use a Solid State Drive (SSD) as a startup disk

My System Drive just crashed. So I need a new unit. I would like to get away from a mechanical unit so I was thinking that a SSD would be nice.
Will my Powermac G4 (867 mhz) running Mac OS 9.2.2 let me install and run the SSD as a startup drive?
Gary

I have never used a SSD but I do have G4s with SATA cards - they work well but do not support booting.
My advice is to ensure that you buy a SSD which will work in your G4 and allow booting. This will probably involve an IDE or SATA SSD controller specified as allowing booting.

MTron Pro 7000 64gb Solid State Drive (SSD) in my Mac Pro: Am I the first?

All -
Just purchased the MTron Pro 7000 64gb 3.5" SATA SSD drive a couple of days ago and popped it into Bay 1 of my Mac Pro (2.66ghz Quad - 4gb Ram).
Installed Leopard on it -- unbelievable! Boots in about 6-8 seconds! (I don't even see the swirling wheel appear under the apple symbol!).
Used bootcamp to partition it evenly (32gb/32gb) and installed Vista Ultimate and it is working nicely as well.
Under Vista, I've run into the Intel speed "Cap" and the drive tops out at about 75-78MBps (almost 10MBps slower than the Raptor it replaced) -- but with such low latency (.1 ms) it definately seems snappier than the Raptor was. I hope Intel issues a driver fix for this.
Under Leopard however, using XBench, I am seeing sequential reads in the 99-100MBps range!!! This is why I think the problem under Windows is an Intel driver issue.
Anyway -- just wanted to share my findings with you guys -- happy camper here!
Aaron
Message was edited by: NYCubby

Here's Xbench results for my RAID 0 SSD drives using a Mac Pro RAID card:
Results 379.72
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.2 (9C31)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacPro3,1
Drive Type APPLE RAID Card
Disk Test 379.72
Sequential 267.53
Uncached Write 431.98 265.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 385.73 218.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 121.23 35.48 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 557.09 279.99 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 653.98
Uncached Write 710.63 75.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 329.15 105.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2581.19 18.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 779.03 144.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Installing a Solid State Drive (SSD)

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