0
3
I'm about to purchase a nice 120gb SSD for my Macbook Pro laptop. While installing the new drive is simple enough (physically), I've never installed Mac OSX on a bare drive. Are there any caveats or issues that I should know about before starting this process?
I've debated on cloning the drive and for the most part, I'd rather not (I think). It'd be easier to probably start over but I could be convinced otherwise. I have backups of all the software, VM images and files so that shouldn't be a problem, but I've never installed OSX from scratch. Upgrading has been pretty easy for me in the past.
Assuming I have to format the SSD as HFS+ before I can install Mac OSX, are there two SATA connectors inside a Macbook Pro so that I can boot into MacOSX and format it? I've never cracked open a Macbook other than installing addition RAM (which is pretty damn easy). I'm presuming that there's a SATA connection for the HDD and one for the CD/DVD drive.
Thanks for the link. I'm specifically looking at a SandForce controller drive (OCZ Vertex 2) so I don't think TRIM is an issue. Why do I have to format the drive before installing MacOSX as HFS+? Can't the installation DVD just format the disk before installing the OS (like Windows or Linux)? – osij2is – 2010-09-22T15:48:56.467
2OK I researched the same SSD on the other thread. The installer only offers formatted disks / partitions as installation target, so the list will be empty. (remembered I once had a disk replaced by AppleCare, had to format myself as described and only then could select as target). – Daniel Beck – 2010-09-22T15:58:32.820
osij2is: added a bit on your installation options. In my opinion, starting from scratch is not worth the time you invest in restoring you keychains, application settings, printers, etc. For this reason I also store my applications in
~/Applications
. This makes my user profile mostly self-contained (with the exception of iLife, iTunes, and VMware Fusion), easy to backup, and easy to restore. – Daniel Beck – 2010-09-22T16:13:35.587I didn't think of all the keychains, apps settings so that's a pretty compelling argument for cloning. I may try it out first. Can you recommend any cloning programs? – osij2is – 2010-09-22T17:04:05.920
Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are well-known, but I have no experience with either (don't have that spare disk for a bootable backup). As I said, I use TM's backup restoration mechanism during Mac OS X setup and it works like a charm. – Daniel Beck – 2010-09-22T17:36:19.603
This topic is about cloning Mac OS X disks. – Daniel Beck – 2010-09-22T17:40:18.760
osij2is: Added bit about disk replacement. The manual should answer your connector questions. – Daniel Beck – 2010-09-22T18:08:09.687