SSD Advice

[Going Bald]

Just make sure you connect the SSD to an SATA III port provided by the Intel chipset and not sth like Marvel…

You can clone your installation to the SSD, maybe you need to reinstall the "drivers" with Multibeast.

Install TRIM support from Multibeast.

Cloning a HDD to a SSD is not a good idea - the system doesn't know it needs trim. A clean install to the SSD is the best way to make sure trim is enabled in OS X. There are also other differences that a clean install helps with and cloning from HDD to SSD has some stability issues due to the different ways the drives work.

 

[nobodynose]

Cloning a HDD to a SSD is not a good idea - the system doesn't know it needs trim. A clean install to the SSD is the best way to make sure trim is enabled in OS X. There are also other differences that a clean install helps with and cloning from HDD to SSD has some stability issues due to the different ways the drives work.

I second the clean install idea.

As far as installing apps on another drive; it can be done with a lot of apps, you just drag them to wherever you want them to go then make shortcuts in the /Applications folder (though some apps that use installers don't even give you the option), but that defeats one of the big advantages of having an SSD - faster application start times.

 

[maaxk]

Alright i'll update then. Gives me an excuse to finally install mountain lion. Is migration assistant worth a shot? My only concern is with library files and other hidden parts of applications since i only want my main few on the ssd. Also, whats the best way to store documents on the hdd? Symbolic links? If so, anybody have a guide?

 

[nobodynose]

Alright i'll update then. Gives me an excuse to finally install mountain lion. Is migration assistant worth a shot? My only concern is with library files and other hidden parts of applications since i only want my main few on the ssd. Also, whats the best way to store documents on the hdd? Symbolic links? If so, anybody have a guide?

I've never used Migration Assistant, because I've always had a clone of my drive before I did the reinstall that I could just copy my files directly from.

Any application that has an installer (as opposed to just dragging the app from a DMG image to /Applications) is going to be more tricky to install in an alternate location.

I'm not sure what you're asking. If you mean have your user documents on HDD while your system and apps are on SSD, there are several ways of doing so. Lnx2Mac wrote a good tutorial on his blog on what I think is the best way; making your HDD hold the user documents and mounting it directly (as opposed to symlinking it) as /Users. This is exactly my setup - I boot from (and have all my apps on) an SSD. My home directory is on an HDD (in this case an SSD/HDD hybrid), which is mounted as /Users.

 

[maaxk]

Do you mean you just moved the users folder using the settings tab? That would be easiest for me, but i thought i read somewhere that that caused issues with solid state drives. If you can just do that my preferred setup would be like yours with boot and almost all applications on the ssd and everything else on the hdd. If this is the case can i move the users folder on my current setup and reuse it when i install mountain lion on my new setup? Also i think i can follow this to move necessary application files. http://lifehacker.com/5652685/how-can-i-move-single-applications-and-their-settings-to-another-mac

 

[nobodynose]

Do you mean you just moved the users folder using the settings tab? That would be easiest for me, but i thought i read somewhere that that caused issues with solid state drives. If you can just do that my preferred setup would be like yours with boot and almost all applications on the ssd and everything else on the hdd. If this is the case can i move the users folder on my current setup and reuse it when i install mountain lion on my new setup? Also i think i can follow this to move necessary application files. http://lifehacker.com/5652685/how-can-i-move-single-applications-and-their-settings-to-another-mac

No, I mean I followed Lnx2Mac's tutorial (which I linked to in my post) to actually mount the HDD as /Users.

 

[maaxk]

No, I mean I followed Lnx2Mac's tutorial (which I linked to in my post) to actually mount the HDD as /Users.

Thanks, I was able to get it up and running perfectly! My only question is if and what i need to do for trim?

 

[nobodynose]

Thanks, I was able to get it up and running perfectly! My only question is if and what i need to do for trim?

TRIM is a topic that is greatly debated. Some SSD controllers have their own garbage collection, and some people say those don't need TRIM. Others say it can't hurt. Personally I side with the latter, so I have TRIM enabled on all my hacks. I just used the TRIM enabler in MultiBeast.