Yosemite + 3rd party drive + Trim enabler = Confused ... Help?

[7Holly]

I am sorry if my inquiry is redundant. My head is starting to spin a bit and I am hoping for a little bit of help.

This is my situation:
I have a MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.66 17" Mid-2010. I got home from a flight and the computer that worked the day before was suddenly not wanting to boot. It still boots, but takes a long time and every click leads to 15 minutes of the spinning wheel. I can also hear it get hitched up inside the case. I took my machine nto the apple store where they ran some tests and discovered bad sectors on my hard drive. I had purchased the 3 year warranty, but that has now expired.

Apple was going to charge me a good chunk of change to replace it with another hard drive, but would not transfer any data. I wanted the opportunity to recover some of the data that I don’t have backed up (I know.. dumb). The real kicker for me was that Apple will charge another $100 to get my old drive back… you know, the one that I already paid for, that belongs to me.

I then went to another authorized Mac retailer and found that my data is accessible with Target Disk Utility. They would charge me for another hard drive, and their services to move my data off of my old drive and onto my backup drive. They would then install a new hard drive with the OS set up.

I never had a pre-built compter before this MacBook. It was my first laptop and, prior to it, I custom built all of my previous PC’s. This means that I do have experience inside a computer, but have never fiddled around the interior of a laptop. Since my Apple warranty is now void, I decided to put my money into the hardware and get myself a new SSD instead of another hard drive, as well a few tools to do surgery on my buddy.

I now have a Yosemite boot drive that I made on an SD card and a Samsung 840 EVO. However, before I begin, I was reading through some different walkthroughs about drive swapping and Yosemite installation. I keep seeing things about using a “trim enabler” which is a term I’ve never heard before. It sounds like this 3rd party Samsung drive I purchased may not boot and that, if it does operate, it may run very poorly. This is not good news.

Is anybody able to break down this trim enabler issue with Yosemite for me? I feel perplexed and unsure of how to proceed. I’d be incredibly grateful for the assistance.

More details on my Macbook, in case it’s helpful:
2.66 GHz Core i7 (I7-620M)
Intro Date: April 13, 2010 Disc Date: February 24, 2011
Order No: BTO/CTO
Model No: A1297 (EMC 2352*)
Subfamily: Mid-2010 17”
Model ID: MacBookPro6,1
Std RAM: 4 GB Std
VRAM: 512 MB*
Std Storage: 500 GB (5400 RPM)
Std Optical: 8X DL "SuperDrive"

 

[MacInWin]

I have almost the same MBP. Mine is early 2011. I replaced the internal HD with an SSD and am running Yosemite just fine. So it's do-able.

Now as for the Samsung SSD, I think it will work, but you won't have TRIM. Apple doesn't support TRIM on anything but their own internal SSDs. There used to be third party software that would support TRIM, but it did that by adding a kext file to the system and Apple has now, in Yosemite, closed that path because kext files are a path for malware and worse to get into your system. Only "Apple signed" kext files are acceptable. Here is a link that explains it all Link

So, here are the options:

Get a different SSD, preferably one from OWC. Their drives don't need TRIM as they have their own internal garbage collection processes. That's the way I went. Your Samsung isn't a loss, however, as you can get OWCs Data Doubler kit and mount the Samsung in the Optical drive space to have two internal SSDs. That's my configuration, with an OWC boot drive and a Crucial drive in the optical bay. The only downside I have seen is that DVD Player thinks the optical drive is still there, doesn't find it and won't run with an external DVD player. (I took the Apple Superdrive out and put it in an enclosure I also got from OWC.) But VLC plays DVD's just fine from the external and the external will mount as a data drive just fine, it's only DVD Player that doesn't seem to understand.

Option two is to mount the SSD in the HD space and live without TRIM. That's not fatal, it just means that your drive will not be as efficient as it could be. The second drive in my system doesn't have TRIM and it seems to be cruising along just fine. If it slows down, I'll back it up, repartition and reformat and restore, which should sort out the TRIM issue pretty well. IF it gets bad enough I may just replace it with another OWC drive that has internal TRIM. But it's been in there a year now, working just fine as a data drive. Of course, as a data store and not the boot drive, there is a lot less "churn" on the drive so you may see the performance hit sooner if you put the Samsung in the boot drive.

Or you can get a drive from OWC, sell the Samsung (or return it if you can) and leave the optical bay alone.

So, there you go.

 

[7Holly]

Jake, I very much appreciate your prompt and thoughtful response. I apologize for my delay. It's very kind of you to take the time to present different options to me. I did consider replacing the optical drive, but I think that I will forgo that option for the time being.

I have just one question for you: Are OWC SSD's the only reliable option? Or, are there other vendors and other drives that one might consider as well?

I am comfortable getting a OWC 480GB Mercury Electra 6G SSD, so long as it is guaranteed to avoid this or future pitfalls that Apple might throw our way. I think that I can return the Samsung drive that I already have since I haven't opened it yet. I am no tech expert, so the only thing I don't quite understand is why OWC seems to be the only outfit to avoid this new Yosemite/trim issue altogether.

I ​did ​f​ind​ this Angelbird drive too. Is either drive a safe bet?​ Are there other drives beyond these two? I wonder which is the better option...?

I went back and found my order confirmation. The price tag on this machine was pretty nutty. With a Core i7 processor, 8 GB of memory and the 17" antiglare display, I think that this machine is still worth resurrecting.

MBP 17/CTO
$2,950.00
With the following configuration:

• PROCESSOR 065-0240 2.8GHZ INTEL CORE I7
• MEMORY 065-8570 8GB 1066MHZ DDR3 SDRM - 2X4GB
• HARD DRIVE 065-8572 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200
• OPTICAL DRIVE 065-8575 SuperDrive 8X DL
• Display 065-8577 MBP 17"HR Antiglare WS Display

It looks like the best MBP I could get right now would be​ ​this for​​ $2,699.00​:​

• 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L​ ​SDRAM
• 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory

I guess that laptop that is 3 years and nearly 10 months old is maybe considered prehistoric, but it was a good machine when I bought it and I am not displeased with it's performance now. If I really wanted a new Mac, that would be one thing. As it stands right now, I'd like to hold out and see if they don't reintroduce the 17" MacBook with retina display.

​J​ust as an aside, I ​don't feel like scrambling to throw money at Apple right now bcause I​ do​ feel let down. While I am very pleased with the quality of their products, I do find some of the manipulation, control and crazy prices to leave me wanting. I guess that there is no perfect solution to some dilemmas. If I enjoy Apple products, and I do, then I will continue to sell my soul, so to speak. Am I being too dramatic?

Maybe I should have went to the Apple Authorized Service Provider ​for the HD swap, and called it a day, eh? ;-)