Installing an additional ssd and moving/cloning os to it

[Sarinaddaf]

Hey everyone, first time posting

I have mid 2012 macbook pro with a 500 GB hdd, I need more space and I want to run the os on a ssd to make it faster and smoother. I have a 120 GB ssd and I want to install it in the place of the optical drive (so i will have both hdd and ssd inside the computer), move the os from the hdd to th ssd and run it from there, while keeping most of the large files like the iphoto library amd itunes backups on the hdd.

So my question is how do I do this? How do I install the os on the new ssd and remove it from the hdd, while keeping all the applications and large data on the hdd?

Thanks in advance

 

[MacUser2525]

Unless you have massive sized Applications you will install then keeping them separate makes no sense they will benefit from the faster access of the SSD the most. To do what you want you simply install the OS onto the SSD let migration assistant copy over only your user account and applications. Or something like Carbon Copy Cloner will take your existing install and copy it to the new drive. You have option in it to copy/clone all files or just the ones you select, it has 30 free trial after which you must purchase it to continue its use. Getting the OS off the old would be manually process of deleting the directories you will not need anymore unless you have another drive to copy the files you want kept to formatting the old then copy back.

 

[jerryk]

You would really be better off getting a larger SSD. Small SSDs are slower because they have fewer storage modules to read and write from in parallel, so you might not get as much speed improvement as you expect with a small drive.
Check out the Samsung Evo 850 or Crucial MX300. They are around $125 and $110 for 500 GB or so.

If you do want to keep two drives you will need to get a drive tray that replaces the CD drive. These are around $15 or so. You stick the HDD or SDD in the tray and install the tray where you CD drive was.

 

[npreq]

What you're planning on doing is the perfect setup for a fusion drive. As for cloning? Easy peasy - make a timemachine backup onto a external HDD, then restore it via booting recovery. If you're confused say so, I'll try to find links on the stuff you need to do