Swapping optical drive for SSD - How to set it up?

I'm going to purchase a Crucial M4 128GB SSD for my Late 2011 13" i7 Macbook Pro. I don't use my optical drive at all, so I figure I may as well swap that out for my current 750GB HDD, and put the SSD in the main harddrive bay. I know full well how to physically install the respective drives, but my confusion comes when cloning the current HD onto the SSD, then moving all your media files (music, movies, documents etc) over to the HD, while keeping your system files and applications on the SSD.
So what I really need, is a PROPER in depth guide from the start of the setup process (First boot after installation of physical drives) detailing how to copy my system files and applications over to the SSD so I can boot from it, while keeping my data & media files on the HD and being able to access them all as I normally would through finder.
Any and all responses are appreciated - I need all the advice i can get!

If you use a cloning software program it will move, actually copy, everything from your original drive to the SSD.
No need to anything after that to get the SSD to boot and have all your programs and data.

Similar Messages

  • Swapping OPtical Drive for SSD

    I am going to swap my optical drive for an SSD to make everything far more faster. My computer is out of warranty so it won't be affected. I was just wondering what will happen to my existing hard drive when I clone the old hard drive and copy it on to the SSD? Obviously I will make it so my computer boots       my SSD, does my old hard drive act in the same way an external hard drive does? Will I be able to save things on there just as easily as before?
    Thanks

    Go talk to Bmer over here
    http://macosg.com/
    What he did was move the hard drive to the optical bay and then replaced the boot drive with a SSD with a kit, he can walk you though it all as he's good with SSD's and all it's headaches. The kit also makes the Superdrive a external optical drive.
    SSD's make good boot and program drives, but not a good file drive, use the hard drive for that instead.
    One of the drawbacks is you can't boot from the OS X install disks or Windows disk or even perhaps not even Linux disks on a external optical drive.
    So you'll have to learn all about Carbon Copy Cloner and option bootable clones too.
    Download the free MacTracker and find out your SATA, as that can limit your SSD speed and could save you money as you buy the slower older SATA SSD's to match your hardware instead of the higher more expensive ones you can't use anyway.
    Good Luck.

  • Swapping out optical drive for SSD

    Early 2011, 15" Macbook Pro with Mavericks 9.1
    So basically, I want to replace my optical drive with an SSD. Seen a few discussions on it, know basically how it works, am aware of the warranty voiding issue, and also aware of how people at apple who made my computer are 12034725801x smarter than me and I shouldn't do it. I'm gonna do it anyway.
    What are the best brands for the superdrive slot to hold the second drive, and should I leave the HDD in the primary slot or move it to the secondary?
    The first one is the main question. I've read that only the primary can boot, and if that's true, then it would have to be the SSD for sure. Confirmation would be nice.

    Get the OWC DataDoubler bracket for your model. The SSD should replace the HDD. The HDD goes where the optical drive is located. What you need to do:
    How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
    Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive.  Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure.  You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
    Step Three: Boot from the external drive.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears.  Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
      1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
      2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the
          mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of
          the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive
          is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  Otherwise, click on the
          Partition tab in the DU main window.
      3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
          the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
          (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
          GUID  then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and
          wait until the process has completed.
      4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
          drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main
          window.
      5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the
          Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to
          return to the Erase window.
      6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
          hours depending upon the drive size.
    Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
      1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
      2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
      3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
      4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
      5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
          Destination entry field.
      6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
          Source entry field.
      7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
    Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume.  Click on the Restart button.  You should boot from the new drive.  Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.
    If you wish to use your Home folder on the HDD instead of on the SSD:
    How to use an SSD with your HDD
    If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do.
    After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume.
    Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu.
    You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed.
    When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD.
    Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently.
    Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it.

  • Swap optical drive with SSD for 4k video editing?

    I've already swapped the original HD with an SSD 500gb and replaced the optical drive with the original HD as a secondary drive. That has worked nicely for a couple years. But now that I'm doing intense 4k video editing, I want to replace the HD in the optical bay with a 1tb SSD.
    My question to you: Will the SSD perform at the same speed in the optical bay as it would in the main bay as a secondary drive? Or is there a speed limitation on the optical bay periphery and as such it's not worth putting a fast drive in there?
    What alternative options would you suggest for video editing? My late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.5ghz core i7 with 16gb ram stalls when editing 4k footage off a firewire g-raid. I figured an internal SSD would perform faster and as a double benefit make my files portable without need for an external drive.

    I've already swapped the original HD with an SSD 500gb and replaced the optical drive with the original HD as a secondary drive. That has worked nicely for a couple years. But now that I'm doing intense 4k video editing, I want to replace the HD in the optical bay with a 1tb SSD.
    My question to you: Will the SSD perform at the same speed in the optical bay as it would in the main bay as a secondary drive? Or is there a speed limitation on the optical bay periphery and as such it's not worth putting a fast drive in there?
    What alternative options would you suggest for video editing? My late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.5ghz core i7 with 16gb ram stalls when editing 4k footage off a firewire g-raid. I figured an internal SSD would perform faster and as a double benefit make my files portable without need for an external drive.

  • What size SSD? Swapping Optical Drive for gen. storage.

    I'm planning on buying a smaller SSD and was looking for suggestions on the best size to buy. I have a 13" Late 2011 Macbook Pro, i5. 8gb RAM. 500gb HDD.
    What I'm doing is replacing my 500gb HDD and moving that to my optical bay just for general storage. I'm going to set up my new SSD as the boot drive. I want to boost my performance for as little money as possible. I know that I can put 16gb RAM in and get significant improvement, but really want to get rid of the HDD as the boot drive. I'm leaning toward getting either the 44gb or 60gb Mercury Electra 6G SSD.
    Any suggestions on what size would be best for what I want or any other suggestions are welcome.

    I suggest that you get at least a 240 GB SSD. SATA3, of course!
    Larger SSDs are generally much faster, and the price is now dropping (to the point that I have just purchased an 1Tb Crucial M500 SSD for less than 400 €). The price difference between a 64 GB SSD and a 240 GB SSD is now minimal, and you will enjoy more space!
    Two years ago, as soon as I purchased my late-2011 MBP, I immediately did the same, moving the original 750Gb HD to the optical bay, and installing a 240Gb Vertex-2 SSD in the main bay as system disk.
    The space was just enough, as I have Bootcamp and Windows 7, too, so I divided it half-and-half, and a 128Gb storage is just barely enough for either OSX and Wndows-7 64 bits Pro...
    You could survive with a 128 GB SSD if you do not need Bootcamp. Indeed, I always recommend to install Bootcamp and Windows 7 to all Mac owners, so you get the best of the two worlds. I love OSX, but for certain tasks Windows is still vastly superior (using Autocad, for example)...
    Curiously, instead, I prefer OSX for Office...

  • Thinkpad Edge S430 - Swapping out optical drive for HDD?

    Hi There
    I just ordered myself an S430 with a 128gb SSD HDD included. I didn't see an option to replace the optical drive with a secondary HDD (e.g. a 500gb) so have the optical drive in as standard. Now, I would have rather changed this out for a secondary HDD or for a Blu-Ray drive, thinking I could do this myself once bought...Looking at other posts it looks like you can swap out the optical drive for a Blu-Ray drive, although I would preferably get a secondary drive over the Blu-Ray, but I'm hesitant over a few things:
    Is this possible to do myself (swapping out for either secondary HDD or blu-ray drive) without voiding the warranty? (I got it with 2 year warranty)
    Is it actually possible to do at all? (swapping out for a secondary HDD)
    Thanks
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Unfortunately, I have found no hard drives that are compatible for your optical bay.  I do believe the reason you can change out your optical drive is to change to a blue-ray or CD, or DVD, maybe a player or burner. But like I said, I have found no hard drive that can fit in your optical drive.  You may be able to find what I could not but I have been looking all over the web. 
    I know how you feel, my computer at home can not have any hard drives in the optical bay as well.
    Best regards,
    Alex
    Was this or another post on the forum helpful? Click the star on the left side of the screen to give kudos! Did someone solve the problem you encountered? Click Solution Provided to let us know!
    What we Do in Life will Echo through Eternity. -Maximus Aurelius

  • Best HDD for replacing optical drive? (+SSD)

    Hello!
    Ill be buying a regular macbook pro and replacing the optical drive for an HDD.
    Now, I know that when you have only one drive, you should go for a 7200 rpm one. But in my case, since the OS wil be stored in the SSD, should I go with a 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm HDD?
    Obviously Ill be storing data there, but even though, wouldnt I benefit in any way from going with a faster drive?
    Ive also heard that 7200 rpm generates more heat, but would that happen if it's not the main drive?
    What do you guys think?

    So I'm going to resurrect this thread because of an issue I am having with my current setup that is exactly like what the OP was lookign to use:
    I currently have a HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III HDD in the HDD bay of my late 2011 15-inch Macbook Pro, and a Crucial M4 128GB SSD in the Optical drive bay inside an Optibay. Since upgrading to this setup, my machine has been extremely glitchy, and I have had pinwheels popping up like crazy.
    My previous setup however still had the same SSD, but the SSD was in the HDD bay, and I had the stock 500GB 5400 RPM drive in the optical bay. That worked just fine, with no glitches or anything. When I tried just putting the larger HDD drive where the previous one was (in the optical bay) it would not even get recognized by my Mac. It would show up in Disk Utility, but not initialize, not erase, not partition, or anything. But once I swapped the SSD and new HDD, it recognized just fine.
    SSD is the System Drive, HDD is the storage drive.
    Any thoughts? Thanks!

  • Swapping optical drives

    Hope this is the right spot. I have a ever-falling-further-into-disrepair 867 Mhz 12" g4 Alubook. I recently got a great deal, on a used, in pieces, 1.5 ghz model with broken optical drive. I thought...sweet I'll swap drives and have a killer, newer, faster laptop without buying a macbook (which I'd love).
    So I did it, and just put my old HD in (doh!) It didn't recognize any disks when I put them in because the hardware profile was for the 867. I figured okay, I have another HD so I'll put the 867 mhz back together and do a target disk install of leopard on the new laptop and call it good. But now, with the 867 back together it won't recognize any sort of disk put into the computer. In disk utility it will mount and say **gb MATCHITACD (** being whatever size the disk is), but the disk won't actually mount in the Finder.
    Did I somehow kill my optical drive, and how?
    I could buy a new optical drive for the 1.5, but I'm wondering if it will give me the same problem (ie not recognize disks because of the hardware profile screw up, and if so how can I boot from the drive to install an OS)
    Please help. I ordered a new combo drive. It will be a few days. I'm stuck. Can't install OS because I have two PPC's with non working drives and my iMac is Intel so no dice installing onto a APM formatted drive...
    Thanks

    okay, an update. I finally got around to sticking an audio disc in and Lo and Behold it reads CD's. Then I noticed something I skipped before in System Profiler
    MATSHITACD
    RW:
    Model: MATSHITACD
    RW
    Revision: BA1
    Detachable Drive: No
    Protocol: ATAPI
    Unit Number: 0
    Socket Type: Internal
    Low Power Polling: No
    Power Off: No
    Basically the powerbook sees this the cw 8122 combo drive as a CD-RW drive only rather than a CD-RW plus DVD-ROM drive.
    How did this happen? is it a partial hardware failure? Is there any way to reinstall the firmware/driver. I have alread archived and installed, and then completely wiped and reinstalled via firewire.
    This should be seeen as the combo drive now.
    Anyone have any ideas?

  • I need information on how Adobe Drive works and how to set it up

    Hey folks,
    believe it or not, but I have been searching a lot on the web already on how to find information how Adobe Drive works and how to set it up.
    Most information that I found is old and seems to be valid only for older versions of Creative suite. Here in the company we use CS5.5 and will switch to CS6 soon.
    I already downloaded Adobe Drive 3 and installed it on my Mac. Unfortunately I don't know what to do next? Do I need Adobe CQ to make it work? Or can I use it with an existing SVN infrastructure, that we have here? Actually I would like to access the SVN via Adobe Bridge. But after the installation of Adobe Drive my Bridge CS5.5 is crashing while starting up, and I didn't find out how to fix this again.
    Actually I just found the manual for Adobe Drive 3 and read it. Seems to be easy in case its working. But it's not in my case, as mentioned above.
    Any idea what could be the problem?

    Thanks,
    in the meantime I managed to re-setup Adobe Drive 3 again. Bridge CS5.1 is still crashing (i have a log-file with a detailed error-report, if somebody knows how to extract information from this.
    At least now I can start Drive as a standalone application.
    So now my main question is how to connect Drive 3 to our subversion infrastructure in the company. Does anybody have information on this?

  • What is the best and reasonably priced external cd/dvd optical drive for an Imac 21.5 inches from late 2009?

    What is the best and reasonably priced external cd/dvd optical drive for an Imac 21.5 inches from late 2009?

    A lot of people have a Mac where the superdrive has been taken out to be replaced with a harddisk. Try to find a friend who has done that, give him a beer and take the superdrive, then buy a superdrive container from OWC or another for  afew dollars and put it in there. This slimdrive container has a USB connector. There you go.

  • What is the best 3rd party optical drive for my mac?

    What is the best 3rd party optical drive for my mac?

    I really like this drive, it reads/writes DVD's and CD's just fine on my mac and on my PC aswell also it has only 1 USB so it will only take up one of your 4 USB's
    Amazon UK link
    Amazon US link

  • How to set custmer master block for posting & how to set the status .....

    < MODERATOR:  Message locked.  Please read the [Rules of Engagement|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/wiki?path=/display/home/rulesofEngagement] before posting next time. Use an appropriate subject in your message thread. >
    Hi ...
    How to set custmer master blocked for posting & how to set the status has deleted. please provide the steps for the above two actions.
    thanks

    Hi,
    U can use T-code FD05 for Blocking the customer and
    T-code FD06 in order to set for deletion,
    Assign Points if useful,
    Regards,

  • Question - What is the best external optical drive for an imac W8******5PE ?

    Question - What is the best external optical drive for an imac W8****5PE ?
    <Edited by Host>

    Try http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
    Allan

  • Optical Drive for MBP Retina Display

    I am trying to find an external optical drive for my new MBP with Retina Display late-2013. I would prefer a Blu-Ray dual-layer slim burner due to its acceptance of large storage media (for backup purposes). I am using Toast 10 Pro as a burning software. It would be a bonus if I could also play DVDs or Blu-rays from it (using XBMC or VLC media players). What would you recommend? Thank you.

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/MacBook_Pro_15

  • Very simple step-by-step guide for Optical Drive to SSD swap?

    When my MacBook Pro comes out of warranty I'd like to remove the optical drive and put in an SSD, to hold my apps and OS.  I have a 13" MBP, early 2011, with a 500GB SATA HDD (5400 RPM). 
    I'm generally handy with tech stuff, but having looked into this, am a bit uncertain on the best way forward, so am hoping to get advice from more experienced types on this forum.  Issues and questions so far are...
    1) Stage 1 - determining specs and approach
    The first issue for me is to determine...
    - Whether it's better to house the SSD in the HDD bay and move the latter into the optical drive bay, or whether I should leave the HDD where it is and put the SSD in the optical bay.  Given my MBP model, which is best?
    - What SSD is best?  I’m currently looking at this, which includes a data transfer kit.  Crucial's M4s seem to be pretty good for this sort of thing:
    http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=B9BCBF75A5CA7304
    - What cables, adapters, bays, software etc are appropriate for my model?  I’m based in Australia and will likely order much of the kit from abroad, so if I miss anything, it’s likely to be a (frustrating!) wait. 
    - I’m also keen to put a case around the formerly-internal optical drive so need to figure out cables and cases for that.
    2) Stage 2 - Doing the swap
    Seems that the best thing is to find a super-simple how-to video. 
    As there are quite a few out there, any opinions on ones that are great (and ones that are to be avoided!) would be welcome.
    3) Advice for use once installed.
    Assuming I’ve gone through the process correctly, I'll put my OS and apps on the SSD.  Then...
    - Can I simply delete the OS residing on the HDD?  Understandably I want to avoid any bad-or-irreversible-without-great-pain mojo.
    - Ditto for apps.  Is there anything required to ensure any settings and preferences don’t get lost?

    Okay - I'm getting closer to doing this.
    I'm leaning toward getting this bay for the HDD and this enclosure for the optical drive, to make it an external.  Fortunately it's available from an Aussie retailer. For me it's a little hard to figure out from the description whether this only works to shift the HDD to the optical drive bay and whether that means I'd need a separate bay/adapter to mount the SSD in the boot drive location, so any advice would be wonderful.
    This is the SSD I'm looking to get: 256GB Crucial m4 2.5" SSD with Data Transfer Kit.
    And I'd get CCC.  Is there anything else I'd need (cables, bays)?
    And a last question: I have a number of apps that are registered/authorised to my current machine - Kindle, iTunes and Final Draft.  Do I need to de-authorise them, before loading them on my SSD, or will the applications see them as still being part of the current machine?
    Thanks again for any help!
    GG

Maybe you are looking for