Comments on: Putting It All Together: Tips for better SSD Usage.

By: Lightnin Bupkis

Lightnin Bupkis — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:42:49 +0000

What this blog post suggests is good, but very difficult for some Mac applications that insist on keeping their data files on the boot drive (usually somewhere in the Library in the user’s Home folder).

I believe this should be discouraged. Developers should afford users the ability to store their data files on other volumes.

By: OWC Michael

OWC Michael — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:06:12 +0000

RB, excellent question. Under Time Machine Options you have the ability to tell time machine which drives to back up and which not to. Your best bet would be to keep a clone of the SSD on one external HD partition and use a second partition of the same drive to use time machine. For example, let's say you have two NewerTech miniStack external storage solutions in addition to your MBP with a 64GB SSD installed. Further, let's say one is 250GB, the other is 500GB. You can set the 250GB miniStack up to be your primary storage drive to hold your iTunes library, iPhoto library, documents, etc. Then take the 500GB miniStack and use Disk Utility to setup two partitions: One that is 64GB in size, and the other can be the remaining volume. With a program such as Data Backup 3 (a copy is provided with all OWC storage solutions) you can setup a scheduled clone of the SSD. I'd suggest weekly, just to make sure all the programs and application updates are backed up in total to protect against an SSD failure. As the SSD is being setup to only have your applications and OS on it, not much is changing on that drive week to week unless you're an avid collector of new programs. Then use the larger partition and setup Time Machine to backup the 250GB ministack to the larger partition on your 500GB miniStack. Now you're covered if any single drive in your system fails.

By: RB

RB — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:49:00 +0000

What about back up? If I move my music and photos to external drive do I lose the time machine backup and have to come up with a different backup strategy for those files?

By: Mike Grace

Mike Grace — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:24:13 +0000

Thanks for the good article. I would love to have a SSD but I am a college student and I used all my spending money on getting my MBP. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I get a real job. ; )

By: OWC Michael

OWC Michael — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:13:33 +0000

Sounds like a great setup! Thanks for sharing.

By: Kurt Murray

Kurt Murray — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:48:07 +0000

I have a 120GB OCZ Vertex drive in my early ’09 Mac Mini along with 4GB of OWC RAM, and I have to say it’s a fantastic little workstation. I have my files on a 1TB HDD in a newer mini-stack, but it’s not actually hooked up to the mini, it’s hooked up to a G5 that was my prior workstation and is now my media server and NAS.

The performance benefits of SSD drives are pervasive throughout the entire computing experience. Every disk access is orders of magnitude faster, and while that might only mean the difference between tens of milliseconds as opposed to hundreds of milliseconds in some instances, it does add up. Al tasks are noticeably snappier, and some tasks are breathtakingly quick. I’m already to the point where I consider the price of the SSD as part of the cost of setting up a new mac.