2011 MM 2.3 drive swap ?

[larryposh]

I am hoping that you vets will be able to help out the 'new guy'
have ordered an OCZ vertex 3 /120 today and when it arrives I want to
replace the stock HD internally with it ....
eventually I will add a couple of FW storage drives externally as well

a number of questions appear :

can I use the cable that comes w/ the stock drive ...or do I need a special one ? ( I have gleaned that adding another HD to the stock one needs the extra cable )

can I mirror the stock drive which is brand new nothing on it other than the OS as it came from the refurb center ...or what is the best way to transfer that ?

and any other tips muchly appreciated !
gracias

 

[Hede]

If you only want to swap drives you use the stock cable.
If you want to clone the drive you can use carbon copy cloner or u can do a clean install with lion recovery.
When i installed my ssd and hard drive i used the lion recovery tool.
Both are easy to do.

 

[shortcut3d]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Restart and hold Option to get the EFI boot menu. Select the Recovery partition. Use Disk Utilities to format the OCZ Vertex 3 as GUID Partition HFS format (default options). Then using Disk Utilities, Restore the factory hard drive to the OCZ Vertex 3. This copies the recovery partition, etc. You will need either cables to internally install a second drive or an external FireWire, USB, or Thunderbolt enclosure.

 

[Ice Dragon]

Shouldn't I first use a SATA to USB cable to format an SSD to Mac OS Journaled before putting it in the Mini?

 

[larryposh]

big thanks for all good info ...
perhaps I should get the external drive bay sorted out so as to mount the stock HD to do the swap , it may be easier than finding the extra cable

so that brings me to the above drive bay / enclosure I am thinking of a couple of 700+ gb HDs , I didn't pay much attention to the form factor previously
however 2.5" being what I need for the transfer , points me to that size for the new HDs ....is that what you guys use ?

coming from mainly PC big boxes I have always thought of 'reliable ' drives as being the larger type but this is not so anymore ?

a bit off topic : the other day I saw a webcast from re: hybrid Momentus XT 750 gb drives (2.5 ) they were presenting it as the greatest thing since sliced bread ...but then I read a few reviews and there seem to be a lot of issues with it ...anyone with experiences ?

and any other recommendations about HD's for external use ?
cheers

 

[Hede]

Shouldn't I first use a SATA to USB cable to format an SSD to Mac OS Journaled before putting it in the Mini?

I did not do that. I used Disk Utilities to format my ssd and hard drive after it was installed.

 

[philipma1957]

big thanks for all good info ...
perhaps I should get the external drive bay sorted out so as to mount the stock HD to do the swap , it may be easier than finding the extra cable

so that brings me to the above drive bay / enclosure I am thinking of a couple of 700+ gb HDs , I didn't pay much attention to the form factor previously
however 2.5" being what I need for the transfer , points me to that size for the new HDs ....is that what you guys use ?

coming from mainly PC big boxes I have always thought of 'reliable ' drives as being the larger type but this is not so anymore ?

a bit off topic : the other day I saw a webcast from re: hybrid Momentus XT 750 gb drives (2.5 ) they were presenting it as the greatest thing since sliced bread ...but then I read a few reviews and there seem to be a lot of issues with it ...anyone with experiences ?

and any other recommendations about HD's for external use ?
cheers

right now there is a worldwide hdd storage due to the flooding in asia. The plant that builds the motor that spins the hdd platter was under 15 feet of water. This plant supplies almost every hdd builder on the planet. So buying a laptop hdd will cost more today then it did on nov 1st. If the drive was cheap I would tell you to buy this one

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0053YLTBC/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

since there is only one real seller of it on amazon oyen digital and they want 156 maybe you can wait.

here is one at a better price from a real seller

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291&Tpk=samsung 1tb 2.5 inch


this drive will fit but it is tight



I love this drive below but the price has doubled since the flood

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835

 

[shortcut3d]

right now there is a worldwide hdd storage due to the flooding in asia. The plant that builds the motor that spins the hdd platter was under 15 feet of water. This plant supplies almost every hdd builder on the planet. So buying a laptop hdd will cost more today then it did on nov 1st. If the drive was cheap I would tell you to buy this one

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0053YLTBC/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

since there is only one real seller of it on amazon oyen digital and they want 156 maybe you can wait.

here is one at a better price from a real seller

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291&Tpk=samsung 1tb 2.5 inch


this drive will fit but it is tight



I love this drive below but the price has doubled since the flood

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835

The 750GB WD Scorpio Black is an awesome drive. I use one as a HTPC recording drive in Windows 7 64-bit for Media Center. Even though it has a five year warrantly, I keep spares because of the abuse. I should probably sell one or two because I initially picked them up for $99 ea.

 

[larryposh]

do you think that the WD scorpio blacks will ever return to the hundred dollar range ..?

 

[paulrbeers]

do you think that the WD scorpio blacks will ever return to the hundred dollar range ..?

Yes. Most "experts" expect by Q2 of next year, we should start to see the prices drop and hopefully by the end of Q2 or early Q3 we should see things "back to normal"....

The "experts" have been known to be wrong before though (and no I do not consider myself an expert, just passing on what I've read).

 

[philipma1957]

do you think that the WD scorpio blacks will ever return to the hundred dollar range ..?

I suppose they will. to me they are pretty much in a class by them selves for 2.5 inch ssds... although I do like 1tb slim samsungs. I sold off a lot of my hdd stock due to the price rise. Really came in nice for the holidays.