Who has put a SSD in the Optical Drive Bay ??

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Crimson first came to my thoughts, but mate, didn't you replace the HDD with a SSD ??

But just after some thoughts. I don't use the optical drive AT ALL, and i last inserted a Win 8 DVD not long agao, so I'm happy and have Win8 via BootCamp. Ill make a DVD Bootable Win8 USB before i do any of this for future us.

But what do others think. You reckon i should take out the Optical Drive and replace it with a SSD and have the OS and all my Apps on it, then use the HDD which will give me 650GB to play with as i have a 100GB Bootcamp Partition?? OR
Should i rip out the HDD and just replace that with a Bigger SSD ?? I wanted to buy a 256GB for the Optical bay, but thought i would need at least 512Gb if i was to replace the HDD.

Im really thinking going the Optical Drive way, and putting a SSD into that position. Has anyone done this? And if so any tip or pointers ?? I have the iFixit Breakdown, but it mentions their Optical Bay Drive Enclosures . . . I think i had a mans look on OWC but didn't see this part :( will look again, but at the end of the day, do you all think this is the way to go ? Or make it easy and take out the HDD and put a bigger SSD in that spot?

Any/all suggestion are most welcome

Cheers
 
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Just make sure the drive you get will run on that sata head...

For instance, a 2011 mbp can't take a 6gbs sata drive in the optical bay

Other than that,works great.
 
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There's a bottom tray on that one. I have a owc data doubler, and a year older mbp m
 
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There's a bottom tray on that one. I have a owc data doubler, and a year older mbp m

I also went with the Data Doubler :)

Now the fun begins Tinker Tinker and if you don't see me for some time, then i made a boo boo somewhere lol

9AJVvcb.jpg
 
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Good luck, its not too hard. I've done it twice with my MBP now. Had to replace the original SSD I installed as it failed about a year after I got it.
 
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Good luck, its not too hard. I've done it twice with my MBP now. Had to replace the original SSD I installed as it failed about a year after I got it.

Cool thanks for the vote of confidence Stretch :)

Question ? Formatting SSD once its in, and then putting 10.8 on it is it the same as holding Option Down, boot to that drive use DU to Format and so on ??
Any tips much appreciated, as I'm just going through all documentation i have for installation before i hit it.
I want to make it the Boot Drive with ALL my Apps on it, then use the other for saving everything to, but will save Adobe projects to the SSD for quickness in rendering and what not ? Sound like a plan ??
 
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Correct. I have my SSD set up as like a normal drive, and the HDD gets all media libraries and games. The majority of it is pretty easy to set up that way, most apps have settings that will allow you to do that. I know with Steam I had to set up a symbolic link to have to put the files on the HDD while still seeing them "stored" on the SSD.
 
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Correct. I have my SSD set up as like a normal drive, and the HDD gets all media libraries and games. The majority of it is pretty easy to set up that way, most apps have settings that will allow you to do that. I know with Steam I had to set up a symbolic link to have to put the files on the HDD while still seeing them "stored" on the SSD.

Ahhh very nice and the additional symbolic link. That is like in iTunes Pref where you put your path as to where all your media is, but good to know with Steam as i have games from them too.
Well i suppose its time, and ill see you'll on the other side
Cheers Stretch
 

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Cool thanks for the vote of confidence Stretch :)

Any tips much appreciated, as I'm just going through all documentation i have for installation before i hit it.

Don't you know the rule? Documentation (Guides, read me files, etc) are merely the manufacturer's suggestion for how things should be installed.
 
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Don't you know the rule? Documentation (Guides, read me files, etc) are merely the manufacturer's suggestion for how things should be installed.


HAHA :p

My documentation and i gathered bits and pieces from places, and found a shortcut. I #$%^ up big time and stuffed my Righthand Subwoofer cable and could not for the life of me, get it back in, then i gave it to it, and now its **buggered** haha so i don't have Stereo any more, but thats not a biggie.
Rang sent email and photo to Service Centre and they are getting back with a quote, but ill prob not worry as i use external speakers. Installing the OS on it now :)
 

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Are you sure we're not twins? As a result of my little "rule" I discovered an excellent way to "bork" up a perfectly good Apple IIGS motherboard:

1. Remove the existing 1 MB IIGS memory board and replace it with the 4 MB upgrade.
2. Insert old memory board into one of the open peripheral card slots. Goal is to use this board as a ram disk.
3. Power on computer.
4. Call repair shop to enquire about purchase of a replacement motherboard. Unfortunately I had forgotten that this particular procedure requires an adapter board that I did not have.
 
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Just make sure the drive you get will run on that sata head...

For instance, a 2011 mbp can't take a 6gbs sata drive in the optical bay

Other than that,works great.

I also have a 2011 MBP. Explain why 6 gbs won't work?
 
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I also have a 2011 MBP. Explain why 6 gbs won't work?

Because it won't (at least the early 2011 ones won't). You can check OWC's site, they documented this in 2011.

BTW, I've tried.. it won't even format a new 6gbs disk.
 
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Are you sure we're not twins? As a result of my little "rule" I discovered an excellent way to "bork" up a perfectly good Apple IIGS motherboard:

1. Remove the existing 1 MB IIGS memory board and replace it with the 4 MB upgrade.
2. Insert old memory board into one of the open peripheral card slots. Goal is to use this board as a ram disk.
3. Power on computer.
4. Call repair shop to enquire about purchase of a replacement motherboard. Unfortunately I had forgotten that this particular procedure requires an adapter board that I did not have.


HAHA too funny, and we could well be twins, as i went a little further and thought i would check the iSight, and Photo Booth came up as *No Camera* lol so i took it apart and there was 1 wire loose, (**** they are really really really really small wires and connections) and i go it in and with the tiniest piece of Blu Tack (Is like chewing gum, but used for posters on walls, those in the US might call it something else) and stuck it to it, and reconnected the wire and its working for now.
I got word back from the Service centre and they wont even attempt to Solder it back on, they want to change out my Logic Board, and for the sake of stereo speakers, i can live without.
I have Airport Expresses in nearly every room with speakers, so i dont need them on my Mac, but i do get excited hearing the **Swooosh** sound mail gives off when email is sent, but i still have my left speaker for that.

Now on the SSD. WOW WOW WOW is all i can say. I have nearly instant Startup, Apps dont bounce when opening and i just love it. Im glad i made the purchase. I have iTunes pointed at my old HD and thats where ill keep all media. I nearly didnt because it looked like i was running out of space, because i only had 180gb left on a 650gb HD (i Have a 100gb Bootcamp partition). I opened Daisy Disk and did a scan, and in the hidden files i found a mobile backups.backups file that was HUGE and doing online reading it says not to empty it, and some say do, do i did and got all my space back.
Its a Folder where TM puts data if the TM Backup is interrupted, and it went fine and did another back up.
Now im mega happy.
 
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Because it won't (at least the early 2011 ones won't). You can check OWC's site, they documented this in 2011.

BTW, I've tried.. it won't even format a new 6gbs disk.

I had to get a replacement SSD as I needed a working computer ASAP and couldn't wait for the warranty turnaround. I ordered a 6G SSD completely forgetting that it wouldn't work properly with my MBP. Got it installed and everything running like it was before, then the random hangs and crashes started. Took me a few days until I realized it was because of the new SSD. Swapped the HDD and SSD around and its been fine since.
 
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Now on the SSD. WOW WOW WOW is all i can say. I have nearly instant Startup, Apps dont bounce when opening and i just love it. Im glad i made the purchase. I have iTunes pointed at my old HD and thats where ill keep all media. I nearly didnt because it looked like i was running out of space, because i only had 180gb left on a 650gb HD (i Have a 100gb Bootcamp partition). I opened Daisy Disk and did a scan, and in the hidden files i found a mobile backups.backups file that was HUGE and doing online reading it says not to empty it, and some say do, do i did and got all my space back.
Its a Folder where TM puts data if the TM Backup is interrupted, and it went fine and did another back up.
Now im mega happy.

I did the Data Doubler on my 2010 iMac last year and yes... WOW WOW WOW! I'll never go back to HDD-only configs.

A word about your mobile backups... those are the backup files for your iDevices. What I did to manage this was create a partition on my HDD called "User Data" and made subfolders for each user account. Then I moved select folders that took up a lot of space (iTunes media folders and mobile sync, for example) to the HDD partition and created symbolic links to them. That way, iTunes and everything else thinks they are still in their proper places on the SSD but I'm not wasting valuable space for files that aren't frequently accessed.
 
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I had to get a replacement SSD as I needed a working computer ASAP and couldn't wait for the warranty turnaround. I ordered a 6G SSD completely forgetting that it wouldn't work properly with my MBP. Got it installed and everything running like it was before, then the random hangs and crashes started. Took me a few days until I realized it was because of the new SSD. Swapped the HDD and SSD around and its been fine since.

Yea, I had a disk crash on that SATA head, swapped in a disk that I ordered as 3G and had massive issues. Swapped that disk to the primary head and it turned out to be a 6G disk. Swapped in an older 3G disk I had lying around and bango! All was good.

So, even if you order a 3G.. check it. Some manufacturers have replaced their 3G stock with 6G.
 
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I did the Data Doubler on my 2010 iMac last year and yes... WOW WOW WOW! I'll never go back to HDD-only configs.

A word about your mobile backups... those are the backup files for your iDevices. What I did to manage this was create a partition on my HDD called "User Data" and made subfolders for each user account. Then I moved select folders that took up a lot of space (iTunes media folders and mobile sync, for example) to the HDD partition and created symbolic links to them. That way, iTunes and everything else thinks they are still in their proper places on the SSD but I'm not wasting valuable space for files that aren't frequently accessed.

Never worked with symbolic links before, care to explain please ?? I think it was Dysfunction that said he created one for his Steam games.
And on this sort of thing, how to i point my Time Capsule at my old HD that was my primary HDD for my MBP to start backing up like usual ? The other day i noticed it started, so i had a peak, and it was backing up Old HDD again from the Start saying 1.8gb done of 330gb ??? My Old HDD iss 33o Used so for some reason its starting to backup that again :( when it already has a backup from this already .....
A d then to make things double tricky, how can i have TM Backup both drives as seperate backups ??
Thanks in advance :)
 
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Never worked with symbolic links before, care to explain please ?? I think it was Dysfunction that said he created one for his Steam games.

Basically, a symbolic link is much like an alias. They look and act the same in Finder, and Finder even thinks a symlink is an alias. But the BSD subsystem doesn't know how to use an alias. Here's what appears to be a good breakdown of the differences between an alias, a symlink, and a hard link:
What Are Aliases, Symbolic Links, and Hard Links in Mac OS X?

As for making a symlink... here's an older post of mine:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...mac-ssd-iphones-ipads-backup.html#post1234677
 

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