So I installed an SSD in my MacBook Pro


Recommended Posts

I bought this 17" MacBook Pro in 2009 and it has served me great in that time not a single problem with any part of it. But I felt recently it was feeling a little sluggish. Especially when compared to my desktop hackintosh.

So I had a few SSD's laying around. None of them were big enough for all my data (Music, Images etc) but big enough for the operating system and my applications. So I bought one of these: http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280857760565?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&cbt=y

Basically it is an optical drive shell that lets you put a 2.5" hard drive in your laptop where the optical drive was. I never use my optical drive anyway and I do have a USB optical drive for my desktop so if I really needed one I could just use that.

So anyway the reason I'm making this thread is to share just how amazingly fast my laptop feels now. I reinstalled Lion on to the SSD (fresh install) and everything is just so fast. It boots in 1/6th the time. Apps open with not even a single bounce on the dock. On my old Hard Disk chrome would bounce 3-4 times before it opened now it opens instantly after clicking its icon.

I'm really impressed. Also if any of you are considering doing the same thing I have a few tips. You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links. What this means is for example I can go to my iTunes folder on my Hard Disk right click it, create an alias then move that to where the iTunes folder should be on my SSD. Then when I open iTunes it thinks its accessing my music from my SSD but instead it's using that alias and retrieving it from my hard disk.

By using this Alias feature I've been able to keep all my data (Video, Music, Pictures, Virtual Machine Disks etc) on my Hard Disk but seamlessly use them as if they were on my SSD without losing the fast boot times the SSD provides or the instant launching of all my Applications.

So have any of you guys done this kind of upgrade yourselves?

I know we're in the Mac section of Neowin and I don't own one, but I have to give you two thumbs up on the upgrade. From the day I installed my first SSD on my desktop PC I knew I couldn't use a computer without one.

It's one of the best upgrades you can make considering even pre-built systems come with at least 4GB of RAM and dual-core CPUs.

  • Like 2

Wow, thanks for the hot tip with the Alias feature.

I upgraded my 2011 model to a Vertex 3, and just laugh when I see other people opening up Photoshop or Avid. :rofl:

Its a great upgrade, although you naturally sacrifice space.

It's not really a problem for me though, I like to keep all the important stuff centrally organised on my NAS. :)

You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links.

Welcome to 2006 ;)

53rb5k.png

Enjoy your SSD, ive done the same thing on My PC and totally love it. I really don't know why i never got an SSD sooner!

POST screen to ready PC in around 12 seconds, still amazes me 8 months later.

Welcome to 2006 ;)

Enjoy your SSD, ive done the same thing on My PC and totally love it. I really don't know why i never got an SSD sooner!

POST screen to ready PC in around 12 seconds, still amazes me 8 months later.

Actually OS X has had this feature since Jaguar in 2002. I've been using it since Panther when I got my first OS X machine but I thought I'd mention it in this post because it was so relevant :)

I take it you've enabled TRIM support in Lion?

Yup!

Actually OS X has had this feature since Jaguar in 2002. I've been using it since Panther when I got my first OS X machine but I thought I'd mention it in this post because it was so relevant :)

Oh indeed i agree, its almost like it was created for people with SSD's. I can see more people using it in the future now SSD's are really taking off.

Windows does appear to be able to do it with folders outside the Documents folder, just with the command line so OSX has actually implemented it much better if you can do it anywhere with a click.

Oh indeed i agree, its almost like it was created for people with SSD's. I can see more people using it in the future now SSD's are really taking off.

Windows does appear to be able to do it with folders outside the Documents folder, just with the command line so OSX has actually implemented it much better if you can do it anywhere with a click.

Yes it can be done with the command line in Windows. However you can install this application: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html#download

To do it by right clicking folders / files the same way it can be done on OS X. I use this application on my Windows install to run certain steam games on my SSD even though my steam folder and the majority of my games are on a 2TB Hard Drive.

  • Like 1

Enabling TRIM on OS X actually hurts performance:

http://recoverymonke...d-without-trim/

Those tests were performed with Snow Leopard. I'm running Lion. I don't know if that affects anything but Lion has Trim built in and Snow Leopard didn't so the hacks for it back then were more intrusive than the little kernel modification that is done on Lion to enable it.

I've not noticed any speed differences after I enabled it.

  • 3 weeks later...

Is there any guide to follow after installing an SSD in a mbp? I know that when you install it in a PC you have to make several changes so it doesn't affect performance and drive life.

There shouldn't be any changes you have to make if you are using Windows 7. It automatically disables disk defragmenting, and that's really the only thing you have to worry about. I personally disable the paging file since it doesn't affect anything and it's a waste of space on a SSD, but that's just me.

Vice: you do know that instead of alias use the home folder location under users > right click on user and advance settings.

I've done this for 3 MacBook pros I own. 2007/2008/2010

Works great. I always felt the alias wasn't the real way to do it. For me it's changing each registry value to your data drive which is annoying. They need a true "user location" during windows setup so then your boot drive strictly the ssd. And data drive user and application folder. l

Vice: you do know that instead of alias use the home folder location under users > right click on user and advance settings.

I've done this for 3 MacBook pros I own. 2007/2008/2010

Works great. I always felt the alias wasn't the real way to do it. For me it's changing each registry value to your data drive which is annoying. They need a true "user location" during windows setup so then your boot drive strictly the ssd. And data drive user and application folder. l

I don't want everything running from my old home directory on my hard disk. Only my music, pictures and stuff.

I much prefer the Alias way otherwise I would have done it the way you said as I'm aware of it.

Oh I'm glad your away of it! Only think I wanna let you know is that the home directory is only the users. Which is music movies data etc.

Applications will always look for your HD with Mac system files on it.

But now we both know. I never knew aliases would work in the way you wanted.

I bought this 17" MacBook Pro in 2009 and it has served me great in that time not a single problem with any part of it. But I felt recently it was feeling a little sluggish. Especially when compared to my desktop hackintosh.

So I had a few SSD's laying around. None of them were big enough for all my data (Music, Images etc) but big enough for the operating system and my applications. So I bought one of these: http://compare.ebay....&var=sbar&cbt=y

Basically it is an optical drive shell that lets you put a 2.5" hard drive in your laptop where the optical drive was. I never use my optical drive anyway and I do have a USB optical drive for my desktop so if I really needed one I could just use that.

So anyway the reason I'm making this thread is to share just how amazingly fast my laptop feels now. I reinstalled Lion on to the SSD (fresh install) and everything is just so fast. It boots in 1/6th the time. Apps open with not even a single bounce on the dock. On my old Hard Disk chrome would bounce 3-4 times before it opened now it opens instantly after clicking its icon.

I'm really impressed. Also if any of you are considering doing the same thing I have a few tips. You know the OS X Alias system? Where by you right click a file or folder and select "Create Alias" these aliases are not just dumb shortcuts like on Windows. These aliases are recognized by the operating system as symbolic links. What this means is for example I can go to my iTunes folder on my Hard Disk right click it, create an alias then move that to where the iTunes folder should be on my SSD. Then when I open iTunes it thinks its accessing my music from my SSD but instead it's using that alias and retrieving it from my hard disk.

By using this Alias feature I've been able to keep all my data (Video, Music, Pictures, Virtual Machine Disks etc) on my Hard Disk but seamlessly use them as if they were on my SSD without losing the fast boot times the SSD provides or the instant launching of all my Applications.

So have any of you guys done this kind of upgrade yourselves?

Yes, this is the setup I'm using. I've had some flakiness with my optical drive bay adapter and the HDD that is currently connected to it. I think I need to pop my MBP open and reconnect everything...or it could just be that my HDD is going bad. I don't know. Occasionally the HDD will just disappear from the system until i do a reboot. It doesn't happen but maybe once a week or so, but when I had my user accounts on the HDD it caused all kinds of issues when it flaked out on me so I had to move those to my SSD drive.

In all honesty, I wasn't very pleased with my performance while my user accounts were on the HDD. So now my setup is to have them all on the SSD and I have moved my major media off my user home folder and onto the HDD. I've also forwarded my iOS backups to the HDD using a symlink.

My Mid 2012 15" MBP arrived today and after using a SSD in my old Mid 2010 15" I decided to try something a little different. Since the SATA port for the optical drive is more reliable in the newer models, with a OWC Data Doubler I've managed to setup a Stripe RAID with two Corsair Force GT 120GBs (one in optical drive bay and one in standard hard drive bay).

It was a lot easier than I thought and it's unbelievably quick. I too set up my actual user account on my SSD on my previous MBP and just stored media files on the HDD.

I'm currently searching for a decent USB 3.0 External Drive for storage with my current setup (any suggestions?)

Also, does anyone have any particularly good benchmarking tools for SSDs they use?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • TeraCopy 4.0 Build 28 by Razvan Serea TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, also providing you with a lot of features. Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives. Pause and resume transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click. Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer. Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files. Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual. TeraCopy is free for non-commercial use only. For commercial use you need to buy a license. The paid version of the program includes the following features: Copy/move to your favorite folders. Save reports as HTML and CSV files. Select files with the same extension/folder. Remove the selected files from the copy queue. Features added since version 3.17: Enhanced speed graph. New multi-threaded copy engine. Support for copying to multiple targets. Queue system for managing multiple copy operations. Support for receiving files via the LocalSend protocol. TeraCopy entry in the modern Windows Explorer context menu. Integrated toolbar in the title bar. Why receive LocalSend transfers with TeraCopy? Handle file conflicts: Skip, overwrite, or rename files when a file with the same name already exists. LocalSend always creates another copy, which can waste time and disk space, especially when resuming an interrupted transfer. Filter unwanted files: Apply ignore lists or remove files manually before accepting a transfer, so unnecessary files are not downloaded. Better performance on fast networks: In tests over a 10 Gbps connection, TeraCopy received files several times faster than the standard LocalSend app on Windows. TeraCopy 4.0 Build 28 changelog: Fixed a bug where Overwrite behaved as Overwrite All during same-drive move operations. AdvancedInstaller fixed the installer’s security vulnerability: EXE Bootstrapper resolved the %appdata% location incorrectly for the System account. Download: TeraCopy 4.0 Build 28 | 14.6 MB (Freeware, paid upgrade available) View: TeraCopy Website | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • First exciting thing to come to Windows in a long time ! This is the kind of things they should focus on, instead of cramming as much AI as they can in everything.
    • New AMD graphics driver fixes install issues and FSR 4.1 crashes on RX 7000 GPUs by Taras Buria AMD is rolling out yet another graphics driver. Version 26.6.4 is now available for download, bringing two important fixes. One is for those still using Windows 10 and having trouble installing driver 26.6.2. In fact, this patch is coming from the recently released hotfix, so it is not new if you are already running version 26.6.3. The second fix is for RX 7000 owners. AMD recently brought FSR 4.1 support to the previous-gen graphics cards, but there was a bug with certain games crashing when using FSR 4.1. I experienced this issue with Forza Horizon 6, so today's driver should take care of that. Here is the official changelog: Intermittent install issue seen when installing AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.6.2 on Windows® 10 systems for Radeon™ RX 7000 series and above graphics products. Intermittent application crash may be observed in some games with AMD FSR Upscaling 4.1 enabled on Radeon™ RX 7000 series graphics products. Known issues include the following: Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Battlefield™ 6 on AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. AMD is actively working on a resolution with the developer to be released as soon as possible. Texture flickering or corruption may appear while playing Battlefield™ 6 with AMD Record and Stream on some AMD graphics products. AMD FSR Upscaling and AMD FSR Frame Generation may show as inactive in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition while playing Battlefield™ 6 when enabled on Radeon™ RX 9000 series graphics products. Failure to install may be observed while installing AI Bundle components in some regions with limited access to HuggingFace and GitHub. Model flickering or rendering failure may be observed in Maxon Cinema 4D and Blender on Radeon™ RX 7000 series and above graphics products. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to install AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.3.1. Intermittent application crash may be observed on some models while running Blender on Radeon™ RX 7000 series and above graphics products. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to install AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.3.1. You can download the AMD Radeon driver 26.6.4 from the official website here. Full release notes are available on the same page.
    • Amazon may use OpenAI and Nova models after Anthropic reportedly raises costs by Karthik Mudaliar Amazon is reportedly considering to use OpenAI models and even its own Nova family of AI models after Anthropic raised the cost of using Claude inside Amazon services. According to a report from The Information, Amazon is weighing its options to reduce costs under a new arrangement with Anthropic. But back in April, Amazon said it would invest $5 billion more in Anthropic, with the possibility of adding up to another $20 billion if certain commercial milestones are met. That investment actually came on top of another $8 billion Amazon had already put into the Claude maker. Anthropic, meanwhile, committed to spend more than $100 billion over 10 years on AWS technologies, including Amazon’s Trainium chips. Amazon isn't just a customer of Anthropic but also one of the most important backers and cloud partners. This is why it makes it interesting that Amazon is considering other alternatives to handle its internal workloads. Although Amazon has been building its own options for a while now. Its Nova family of AI models was announced in late 2024 for Amazon Bedrock, with models aimed at text, image, and video tasks. Amazon pitched the model around cost and latency at that time. With that said, OpenAI has also become a more realistic option recently for AWS customers as well as for Amazon itself. Earlier this year, OpenAI brought its latest models and Codex coding agent to Amazon Bedrock, after changes to its previously more restrictive Microsoft cloud arrangement. This allowed AWS to serve even those customers who wanted other alternatives from Claude, without having to move workloads out of Amazon's cloud. Evaluating alternatives could also be due to commercial pressure and not necessarily a sign of a damaged partnership between Amazon and Anthropic. Whether or not Amazon is actually considering switching entirely to OpenAI's models or its own Nova models remains unknown at this moment.
    • Samsung introduces new AI classroom tools and interactive displays at ISTELive 2026 by Fiza Ali Samsung has announced several new education-focused software features and interactive displays for schools during ISTELive 2026, taking place in Orlando, Florida, from 28 June to 1 July. The focus of these updates is on making shared classroom displays easier to use for teachers while giving IT administrators more control over managing devices. One of the key additions is the Samsung Account Management Solution (AMS). In many schools, multiple teachers share the same interactive display throughout the day, which means signing in and setting everything up can become repetitive. With AMS, teachers can log in by scanning a QR code or tapping an NFC-enabled ID card. Once signed in, their personalised workspace, including wallpapers, bookmarks, app shortcuts, and files, can be instantly accessed through Home Personalisation. Samsung has also included a screen lock feature, allowing teachers to lock the display if they need to step away briefly. Furthermore, the company is also updating its Education Portal with new tools designed for school IT administrators. The portal will allow IT administrators to register teachers, enrol devices, and manage user access from a central dashboard. Administrators can also link NFC cards to teacher accounts, making sign-ins quicker across shared displays. Another addition is a Tags feature that lets schools organise displays by building or classroom. Those tags can also be used to send emergency notifications to selected Samsung Interactive Displays through compatible platforms such as InformaCast and Raptor. Moreover, the tech giant's AI Assistant is gaining several new features aimed at supporting everyday classroom tasks such as lesson planning and classroom engagement. One of the features is Circle to Search, which lets teachers circle text or images on the display to quickly find related information, videos, or web results without interrupting the lesson. The content can then be brought into Samsung Whiteboard. Another feature, Live Transcript, converts spoken lessons into real-time captions, which could be useful for students with hearing impairments or those in multilingual classrooms. The AI Assistant also introduces AI Summary and AI Quiz. The summary tool creates summaries of recorded lessons, while AI Quiz generates questions based on lesson content so teachers can quickly check how well students are following along. Teachers signed in through Samsung AMS can also return to their previous AI-generated lesson materials without logging in again. Alongside the software updates, Samsung has expanded its Android-based Interactive Display range with three new models: the WAF-S, WAFX-PS, and WAHX-M. The WAF-S and WAFX-PS ship with Android 16, bringing updates to security, accessibility, and overall usability while maintaining compatibility with Google's education services including Google Classroom and Google Drive through EDLA certification. Meanwhile, the new WAHX-M is the biggest addition to the lineup, introducing a 98-inch display for larger spaces such as lecture halls and conference rooms. It will also be available in 65-inch, 75-inch and 86-inch sizes. Samsung says the WAHX-M further includes on-device AI features such as voice commands, text-to-speech, and an AI calculator, alongside support for Samsung AMS and AI Assistant. Samsung AI Assistant has been available since April, while Samsung AMS and the updated Education Portal will begin rolling out in July.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      536
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      97
    5. 5
      macoman
      61
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!