MBP Mid-2012 Samsung SSD Upgrade - Cloning

[Andyfm]

Hi - Right now, I'm waiting for my mid-2012 MacBook Pro's hard drive to clone onto a Samsung 850 EVO SSD (using Carbon Copy Cloner). A couple questions:

Can someone elaborate a little bit for me on TRIM (specifically, do I need it? From what I've read so far, it sounds almost essential to preserve the space and speed of the SSD)?

If so, should that be the next thing I do (install TRIM right after cloning operation is complete)?

Finally, regardless of the above answers, is the next major step to use Disk Utility to switch the boot-up disk to the SSD, then shut everything down, make the actual hardware switch, and simply power back on?

First time hard driver switcher here, so just trying to make sure I'm understanding things as I go. Thank you.

 

[ZapNZs]

I have several 850 PROs. With the 850 Pro, over months of usage and about 50 TB of writes, my write speeds slowed substantially. I was perplexed by this because my SSDs with Marvell controllers never had TRIM enabled, and these controllers alone could keep the SSD running consistent. I enabled TRIM for the 850 Pro, and several hours later the write speeds returned to normal and have stayed the same since. If the Evo controller is the same as the Pro, you may want to enable TRIM as the drive's controller/firmware alone was not enough for me to maintain high write speeds, and since then I have used TRIM with my Samsung SSDs without any issue. I can't speak for whether or not others have had similar experiences.

On older MBPs, when I've used the clone method I have just cloned the drive (using programs/settings that allow the drive to be bootable), removed the old drive, installed the new drive, and then booted normally. If you plan to install this alongside a second bootable drive (such as in the DVD bay), depending where you place the main drive, you may need to hold 'option' at startup to get to the startup manager, select the new drive (which will then boot it), and then go to Settings-->Startup Disk to tell the computer which disk you wish to default to. However, I have not done this in a while (since like the Mountain Lion days) as I personally tend to favor a clean install using a USB installer for a fresh copy of OS X.

 

[CoastalOR]

There are many opinions on the need for using TRIM. My opinion is that it is beneficial and I have it enabled for the SSD in my 2011 MBP running Yosemite with no problems.

How you enable TRIM will depend on which OS you will be using. Yosemite 10.10.4 or greater), El Capitan and Sierra have it built in using the trimforce command.
https://www.howtogeek.com/222077/how-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-on-mac-os-x/

 

[jerryk]

I did the same thing as ZapNV. No need to tell it which drive to boot since it boots off the primary, now SSD, drive. I also favor a clean install since it is a chance to start without files left over from previously uninstalled programs, etc.

Enjoy your new speedy system!

 

[Andyfm]

I have several 850 PROs. With the 850 Pro, over months of usage and about 50 TB of writes, my write speeds slowed substantially. I was perplexed by this because my SSDs with Marvell controllers never had TRIM enabled, and these controllers alone could keep the SSD running consistent. I enabled TRIM for the 850 Pro, and several hours later the write speeds returned to normal and have stayed the same since. If the Evo controller is the same as the Pro, you may want to enable TRIM as the drive's controller/firmware alone was not enough for me to maintain high write speeds, and since then I have used TRIM with my Samsung SSDs without any issue. I can't speak for whether or not others have had similar experiences.

On older MBPs, when I've used the clone method I have just cloned the drive (using programs/settings that allow the drive to be bootable), removed the old drive, installed the new drive, and then booted normally. If you plan to install this alongside a second bootable drive (such as in the DVD bay), depending where you place the main drive, you may need to hold 'option' at startup to get to the startup manager, select the new drive (which will then boot it), and then go to Settings-->Startup Disk to tell the computer which disk you wish to default to. However, I have not done this in a while (since like the Mountain Lion days) as I personally tend to favor a clean install using a USB installer for a fresh copy of OS X.

Thanks for sharing! I realized as I was watching random email files and iPhone backups get cloned that I should have just done what was necessary to make it bootable as the main drive. First time doing this, so I think I was nervous about not having everything exactly the way it was, but I know that's an irrational position to take.