Upgrade to SSD = Fail

QLD.Andy · Feb 23, 2012

I decided it was time to give my mid 2010 MBP a birthday gift, so I went out and got a OCZ SSD and some RAM.
I installed the RAM and booted to the old HDD and all was good.
So then I connected the SSD via USB and partitioned.
I then used disk utility to clone the drive.
Then I installed the SSD in place of the HDD and booted but nothing happened, apple and spinning gear was all I could get.
A quick google told me that the OCZ was a bad choice so I went out and got a Kingston SSD and followed the above steps.
The Kingston does the same thing but, if the Kingston is hooked up via USB (with HDD removed) the MBP will boot nice and fast.
What and where have I gone wrong??
Edit to add: Running Snow Leopard and if I have posted this in the wrong section, sorry.

quin · Feb 23, 2012

Not sure how you clone with disk utility. I just installed my OCZ Vertex Plus a couple weeks ago. Been running fine. Format and reinstalled OSX Lion since all my files from the original HDD was more than the 120GB SSD. Did a migration assistant of applications and some files. The OCZ SSD had no problem. I have the same 2010 Macbook Pro.

harryb2448 · Feb 23, 2012

Pop the SSD in the MBP, boot from your install disc and erase and format Mac OS Extended and do a clean install. Then as quirk says duse Migration Assistant. You may have to re-activate MS Office and one or two others using the key code.

Cloning a platter drive to an SSD is not recommended by OWC technicians and they are mac specialists.

QLD.Andy · Feb 23, 2012

harryb2448 said:
Pop the SSD in the MBP, boot from your install disc and erase and format Mac OS Extended and do a clean install.

That was the first thing I tried to do but neither of the SSD couldnt be seen by disc utilty, thats the reason for doing the USB thing.

harryb2448 · Feb 23, 2012

Well try and format the SSD when connected via USB, Mac OS Extended (Journalled) go into Partition and select as a single partition, choose Options and make sure GUID is selected. If it formats, check Disk utility on the internal drive to see if the external is mountable, and if so, pop in the MBP and try clean install.

QLD.Andy · Feb 23, 2012

harryb2448 said:
Well try and format the SSD when connected via USB, Mac OS Extended (Journalled) go into Partition and select as a single partition, choose Options and make sure GUID is selected. If it formats, check Disk utility on the internal drive to see if the external is mountable, and if so, pop in the MBP and try clean install.

I said in my first post, the new SSD works when connected by USB but when installed into the MBP it wont boot, apple logo on grey screen and spinning gear.

Shootist · Feb 25, 2012

Does the SSD have the same name as the original internal drive.

When you install the SSD, and you know it has a bootable OS on it hold down the Option key. A screen will come up to select the boot disk. Select the SSD drive. Then if it boots go into Startup Disk make sure the SSD is selected as the startup disk, Restart.

cwa107 · Feb 25, 2012

Another tip - it's generally a good idea to flash the drive with the latest firmware before you do anything else. I'm not sure about OCZ, but many SSD manufacturers supply the firmware on an ISO that you can create a boot disc with.

I would do that before anything else. OCZ is well known for half-baked firmware and OS X compatibility issues. They update frequently.

armchair · Feb 29, 2012

ssd = bus going over a cliff

take the advice of someone whos installed a fair number of ssds and had every single one of them fail spectacularly in less than 6 months. take that new shiny adorable ssd you just bought, yes ? and just throw it in the garbage and save yourself a world of pain in a few months time ....

Shootist · Feb 29, 2012

armchair said:
take the advice of someone whos installed a fair number of ssds and had every single one of them fail spectacularly in less than 6 months. take that new shiny adorable ssd you just bought, yes ? and just throw it in the garbage and save yourself a world of pain in a few months time ....

Well that is fairly foolish. The manufacturers have at least a 2 year warranty on SSDs so you just have to send it back to get a replacement.

I've got 2 Intel 320 series running, one about a year old and the other about 2 months old and both are doing just fine. But they are in Win PCs. I had a Kingston SSDNow V200 in my Macbook Pro but removed it cause I needed more space.

McYukon · Feb 29, 2012

armchair said:
take the advice of someone whos installed a fair number of ssds and had every single one of them fail spectacularly in less than 6 months. take that new shiny adorable ssd you just bought, yes ? and just throw it in the garbage and save yourself a world of pain in a few months time ....

Geeez, what a happy person you are!
For your information, there are plenty of people out there that have been using SSDs for months/years without problems.

cwa107 · Feb 29, 2012

McYukon said:
Geeez, what a happy person you are!
For your information, there are plenty of people out there that have been using SSDs for months/years without problems.

I think part of the problem is that SSDs are still relatively immature and it's taking a long time to weed the bugs out of the different firmware/controller combinations. And yet, they're rushing newer, faster models out to the market all the time.

Generally speaking, if you stick with the well-established vendors that have a track record of stable drives (definitely read all the reviews for a given model before you part with your hard-earned cash), you should be fine.

armchair · Feb 29, 2012

ssd = super speedy disaster

McYukon said:
Geeez, what a happy person you are!
For your information, there are plenty of people out there that have been using SSDs for months/years without problems.

im happy now i replaced all my ssds with mechanical harddisks as i know they will go on for decades rather than weeks ! nb., ive read umpteen reviews on the net, and none of them give any indication of endurance. ive only seen one single review of endurance with regards to ssds, and that was an admission by intel regarding their industrial range of ssds - and they stated the drive has an endurance of about 4tb, which indicates to me that once ive written 4tb to that drive, its scrap. If thats what their industrial range is good for, how bad are their mainstream drives ? and intel are one of the better players in the industry which i guess explains why my experience of ssd is that they all keel over after a few writes.

ycl1688 · Feb 29, 2012

I was thinking of installing ssd drive in my mbp, after all I would be waiting for companies to build a better mouse trap, lucky someone from this forum back out from selling me the owc ssd drive. what a relief. thanks to armchair, you are the savior.

I.M.O.G. · Feb 29, 2012

I've had 6 SSDs, 1 OCZ vertex 60GB and 5 vertex 3 maxiops. 2 of them needed to be RMA'd, and both failed within the first year. I'm probably one of the worst on SSDs however - I benchmark intensely, run custom frequencies, and do all other sorts of stuff that is generally bad for any computer part. (not the recommended operating conditions)

I only use them for OS and apps, so when they die I don't lose anything - its cheaper to use rotational drives for data storage. I use drive imaging software to backup and restore OS and apps, so there's really very little time lost if something dies. Pays to be prepared... I would never rely on any drive, SSD or othewise, to not fail. Stuff just breaks, it happens.

That said, an SSD upgrade for OS usage is like upgrading from 128MB to 1GB of ram was years ago - it is a day and night difference. In my opinion, the best upgrade you can make currently.

robduckyworth · Feb 29, 2012

The corsair F60 in my PC has been running solid for about 6 months now. Not the fastest, but its working perfectly fine.

To the OP - just because "armchair" has had a bad experience with SSDs, it doesn't mean you will. There are plenty on this forum and other forums who have had a painless experience with these types of drives.

armchair · Mar 3, 2012

ssd = bus going over a cliff

robduckyworth said:
The corsair F60 in my PC has been running solid for about 6 months now. Not the fastest, but its working perfectly fine.

To the OP - just because "armchair" has had a bad experience with SSDs, it doesn't mean you will. There are plenty on this forum and other forums who have had a painless experience with these types of drives.

McYukon said:
Geeez, what a happy person you are!
For your information, there are plenty of people out there that have been using SSDs for months/years without problems.

so who are these people that use ssd reliably and what drives are they using ? as i said before, i have yet to experience a ssd that lasts longer than 11 months - and thats one that gets relatively little use - usage is windows xpsp2, microsoft visual studio 2008, vb.net development, a few database builds and then kebam, after 11 months i boot up and the drive not detected and ocz give me ( another ) rma number.

Shootist · Mar 3, 2012

armchair said:
so who are these people that use ssd reliably and what drives are they using ? as i said before, i have yet to experience a ssd that lasts longer than 11 months - and thats one that gets relatively little use - usage is windows xpsp2, microsoft visual studio 2008, vb.net development, a few database builds and then kebam, after 11 months i boot up and the drive not detected and ocz give me ( another ) rma number.

Well there is your problem and your lack of knowledge.

All SSDs need some type of garbage collection. That is where files that are deleted from the drive are properly removed. Along with files that are changed need to be moved to a area of the drive that has not been used before or used less then other areas and the area that they were in be wiped and made ready to accept new data. It is referred to as wear leveling. This is done with TRIM in modern operating systems, and can also be done to some degree with the built in firmware of the specific drive.
It does this so the same area of the drive is not used over and over again and again which will wear the drive out.

Windows XP, any SP, does not support TRIM. If you had done any research on the subject of SSDs, TRIM and OSs you would of found that out. So what happens is the same area of the drive is constantly being changed, rewritten to over and over.

So it is no wonder you have had bad experiences with SSDs. ,You are using the WRONG Operating System and don't know it or what you are doing.

ragu · Mar 3, 2012

armchair said:
take the advice of someone whos installed a fair number of ssds and had every single one of them fail spectacularly in less than 6 months. take that new shiny adorable ssd you just bought, yes ? and just throw it in the garbage and save yourself a world of pain in a few months time ....

I have put a 480 gig ssd (OCZ)in my mbp and been running fine never a hiccup....Ragu

armchair · Mar 4, 2012

TRIM wont stop drive controllers failing

Shootist said:
Well there is your problem and your lack of knowledge.

All SSDs need some type of garbage collection. That is where files that are deleted from the drive are properly removed. Along with files that are changed need to be moved to a area of the drive that has not been used before or used less then other areas and the area that they were in be wiped and made ready to accept new data. It is referred to as wear leveling. This is done with TRIM in modern operating systems, and can also be done to some degree with the built in firmware of the specific drive.
It does this so the same area of the drive is not used over and over again and again which will wear the drive out.

Windows XP, any SP, does not support TRIM. If you had done any research on the subject of SSDs, TRIM and OSs you would of found that out. So what happens is the same area of the drive is constantly being changed, rewritten to over and over.

So it is no wonder you have had bad experiences with SSDs. ,You are using the WRONG Operating System and don't know it or what you are doing.

The problem i have is not due to excessive wear on the flash - that would result in my drives capacity dropping which is something i could handle. My problem is drive controllers failing - so no amount of TRIM would help that. Additionally OCZ have never mentioned that SSDs are incompatible with windows XP. But thanks for the advice - i will try a TRIM supporting operating system on the next RMA'd drive i receive and see what happens after a few database builds.

Upgrade to SSD = Fail

QLD.Andy

quin

harryb2448

QLD.Andy

harryb2448

QLD.Andy

Shootist

cwa107

armchair

Shootist

McYukon

cwa107

armchair

ycl1688

I.M.O.G.

Well-known member

robduckyworth

armchair

Shootist

ragu

armchair

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