Moving OS and programs to a SSD on a MacPro (early 2009)

I have a SSD installed in my MacPro and need to move the operating system and programs files to it for faster processing and less "beach ball". Thank you.

phickson said:

I have a SSD installed in my MacPro and need to move the operating system and programs files to it for faster processing and less "beach ball". Thank you.

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Hello and welcome to the forum!

You really need to provide more information: 1) What MBPro (model/year) do you own & what is the size of your HD (for more information check the Every Mac Website); 2) How much storage is left on the original HD; 3) What is the size of the SSD; and 4) Do you have a current backup (e.g. Time Machine) and/or a cloned backup (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner)?

Answers to these questions will likely provide more specific advice. Dave

Addl't Info

Thank you RadDave for the advice to the newbie.

Our son moved the OS and the program files to the newly installed SSD (I think) but those files also remain on the original SATA drive as well.

The problem is RAW photo processing takes a long time - lots of beach ball viewing.

MacPro (early 2009)
Back up is done through Time Machine on a SATA drive we installed.

Back Up:

Available: 209.6 GB (209,601,994,752 bytes)
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Mount Point: /Volumes/Back Up
File System: Journaled HFS+
Writable: Yes
Ignore Ownership: No
BSD Name: disk2s2
Volume UUID: 198CA11F-4142-36B4-A576-27FB6C290B5E
Physical Drive:
Media Name: WDC WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 Media
Medium Type: Rotational
Protocol: SATA
Internal: Yes
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

Old SATA Drive:

Available: 450.91 GB (450,912,489,472 bytes)
Capacity: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)
Mount Point: /Volumes/Karen
File System: Journaled HFS+
Writable: Yes
Ignore Ownership: No
BSD Name: disk1s2
Volume UUID: 281A435D-03D9-3AD3-AF59-92272CF00F6B
Physical Drive:
Media Name: WDC WD1001FALS-41K1B0 Media
Medium Type: Rotational
Protocol: SATA
Internal: Yes
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified


SSD:

Available: 330.32 GB (330,315,145,216 bytes)
Capacity: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)
Mount Point: /
File System: Journaled HFS+
Writable: Yes
Ignore Ownership: No
BSD Name: disk0s2
Volume UUID: 331904EF-308C-3125-A81B-96C14910BE16
Physical Drive:
Media Name: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1TB Media
Medium Type: SSD
Protocol: SATA
Internal: Yes
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

Not really sure what the status of your drives is, but the best IMO way to do this is:

1) Make sure you have a good backup of all your files
2) Clone the system HD to your new drive (in this case your SSD) using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) or Super Duper.
3) Boot from and test your new System Drive (SSD)
4) Format your old drive and use it for data files.

Honestly, though, I would personally deviate from step 4 above. What I would really do is squirrel away my old HD for a second backup and buy, format and install a new data drive in its place.

Another thought. Install the operating system on the Mac Pro, suggest a fresh download of Mavericks, then use Migration Assistant to transfer things over. You may run into a problem where the operating system on a MacBook Pro may be missing some elements, or have additionals, to a Mac Pro. For example was using a Mac Pro and purchased a new iMac just after OS X.8 Mountain Lion was released, and entitled to a free upgrade. The OS X.8 download was for the iMac only and not installable on the Mac Pro.

Also, how much RAM does this machine have, and how full is the current boot drive? Just installing an SSD does not magically make beachballs go away if you don't have enough RAM or enough storage space left free to work with.