Macbook Pro SSD/HDD upgrade AND optibay

I don't think this is quite OT, since I consider my MBP to be part of my DJ gear and I'm thinking about modding it! I have a mid 2009 13" MBP unibody with a 250GB HDD.

Does anyone have experience of swapping out the HDD for an SSD? I'm sure I could handle the installation, but I'd like to hear from others who have done it; How did you move your data across? Are there any software licence issues which arise? which drive did you use? What capacity? Has it made a big difference?

Also, has anyone used the Optibay system to install a second HDD instead of the standard superdrive? I really don't use mine very often and I'm sure i could handle using an external when the time came.

Sorry I've asked SO many questions, don't feel you have to answer every one!

I haven't installed an SSD yet, but I have upgraded my hard drive a couple of times. So an SSD shouldn't be any different.

The basic instructions are;

1. Put your new drive in a USB or firewire enclosure. Then clone your current drive to this new drive. A lot of people recommend you use a free app called Carbon copy cloner, but I just tend to use Apple's disk utility following the attached instructions.

2. Remove the underside of your MacBook. There's some useful instructions on apples website about this, as you're supposed to remove the screws in a specific order;

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/..._Drive_DIY.pdf


3. Remove old hard drive, & replace with new hard drive.

4. Re-assemble.

5. Re-start your machine. It should appear to be identical to how it was before. ....but with your new drive instead of the old one.

...& that's all there is to it! :)

And there are no issues with software licences? That's awesome! I read that you don't even have to clone the drive first, you can just use time machine and restore from your backup to the new drive. Has anyone done that?

that will work as well, but restoring from a time machine back up may take longer.

Not an SSD, but the steps are the same.

http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...ght=hard+drive

I have installed an Optibay, into my 15" MBP, it was the best thing I ever did. But removing out your optical drive will void your warranty. I did it to mine since I didnt have a warranty because I bought the machine used. It nice having the extra storage. You just need to buy an external optical drive, which could be a hassle if you forgot it at home when you needed it.

it is still under warranty, but I currently have less than 4GB free on my HDD and I'm buying new music all the time!

Got any mixes you've downloaded from Soundcloud? I cleared 6 months worth out this morning and reclaimed 20 gigs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fullenglishpint

it is still under warranty, but I currently have less than 4GB free on my HDD and I'm buying new music all the time!

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I suggest buying a bigger drive, copy everything over and get a external drive to keep less important misc files on.

IMO, dont go bigger than 500Mb, I have had bad experiences with larger drives internally, but also there's only so many gigs you can fit on to tiny 2.5 hard drive platters. And also, dont get caught up in the hype about 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm especially for 2.5" drives, I have have 7200 rpm drives fail faster and the speed wasnt any different. What you need to do is max out your ram for faster smoother system.

I currently have a 13" MBP with 500Gb drive and roughly about 200 of that is just music, but I also have my other mac to keep other files such as older photos and such. And I have a few external drives for more file management.

This has been really interesting, as i'm in the same boat. I was going to get a 1TB 5400 drive for my mid 2010 MBP, only problem is they are 12.5mm height - i have heard some people have fitted them in fine and others warn against it.

So i think i'm going to go with a 750gb 7200 drive.

However, i also looked at SSD, but i think i'm not going to get one purely because if HDD's were a problem for people when they DJ then i think we would have seen a lot of posts on various forums saying 'vibrations make the drive crash' etc etc, but i have hardly seen anyone say that.

I would get a SSD, it's obvious they're better, but the price for a 750gb SSD is rediculous.

What i would like to know, and forgive my lame questions, are -

when you guys talk about replacing the optical drive for a 2nd hard drive, do you mean replacing the cd/dvd drive for a hard drive? Is that what the dvd/cd drive on the MBP is called, an opti drive?

And, if i did do this, would it be ok to keep all your music on the HDD but install traktor on the SSD? ( i would have thought the music files and traktor would have to be kept on the SSD)

Thanks for any help and advice, i've just got my MBP 15", i5, 500gb, mid 2010 model, and i just want to get it to the best/reliable setup that i can get it.

Thanks

Tom

I'm speaking to you from my newly super powered Macbook Pro.

I upgraded my RAM to 8GB, then swapped out the original HDD for a 240gb OCZ Vertex 2 SSD using time machine to restore the system. It worked perfectly, to the extent that when i opened my browser (rockmelt) it asked me if I wanted to restore my session. Overall time to restore the full system was about 4 hours.

The next day I installed my optibay caddy (bought from newmodeUS.com and not an official MCE one, but fits perfectly) and in it I fitted a 750gb 5400rpm Western Digital Scorpio Blue HDD. I then copied my Home folder over to the HDD, and the only issue I encountered was the permissions not being written correctly which was easily fixed by a batch change to the whole folder using the 'apply to enclosed items' option in the 'get info' pane.

Everything's now super fast, programs launch a hell of a lot faster and it runs cooler because I took the opportunity to clear out as much of the dust as possible! I'm currently only using 74gb of the SSD and less than 300gb of the HDD so I've got tons of space to play with.

There's been no noticeable negative effect on battery life.

If anyone as any questions, feel free to ask!

Nice, may I ask why you got a 5400rpm and not a 7200?

Also, I guess you keep Traktor installed on the SSD and all your music on the HDD? If this is the case, what's Traktor like at loading tracks? I imagine it loads Traktor faster but what about the actual music?

I'm putting a 1tb drive in my MBP 15", I've seen loads of videos on YouTube of people putting them in, even though apple recommends 9.5mm height drives and not 12.5mm ones.

The only down side is that all 1tb internal drives for a Mbp are 5400, however, am I reading too much into the Rpm speed?

Also - maybe 5400 is better for me as the drive won't vibrate as much when I'm DJ'ing compared to a faster 7200?

Went for the 5400rpm because I've heard that 7200s can affect battery life.

Slight extra problem I've found is that Traktor seems to have the named drive paths written in its directory settings as opposed to mac shortcuts. That is to say, when I moved my home folder, iTunes picked up where the music was because I had reassigned my home folder, but Traktor was still looking for the old drive. I had to delete the settings plist to open TP2, then reassign all directories and check consistency

Yes i've heard that about battery life, but also seen some that say it's fine, typical lol

How is traktor at getting your music off the 750 5400 drive? I imagine its just as normal, i think i'm making too much of a big deal about 7200 and 5400 speed drives, there can't be THAT much difference?

Everything loads faster than ever off the 750. Probably because I used to have my HDD so full that it slowed things down.

Cool thanks, i think i'm nearing my decision.