Tips installing Lion on SSD?

[kirkbross]

I just bought a 120GB Vertex 2 and am downloading Lion now. Two questions:

1. Can I put the SSD in my early 2008 Mac Pro as a 5th drive -- connect it to one of the two extra SATA ports on the mobo AND get a SATA power connector off the main rail? (I have some molex>SATA converters I think).

2. Any tips for preparing an SSD for Lion?

 

[TA031]

It works exactly the same as a hard drive.

 

[smchan]

I'm trying to do a fresh install of Lion on a SSD RAID0. It appears it's not going to work. Lion is hanging on the "checking disks" dialog.

A little googling suggests SSD RAID is not supported - but I've yet to find an official statement from Apple.

Sam

 

[xgman]

can you install it to a single drive and then clone it over to your raid setup somehow?

 

[kirkbross]

It works exactly the same as a hard drive.

So I installed Lion on my Vertex 2... everything is fine. I'm just curious if there are any manual custom settings I should apply now to improve performance or longevity.

 

[smchan]

Lion does not like my 2x96G SSD RAID 0. After many attempts, it finally installed but has quirkiness in it's features that leave me feeling unsettled. For instance, AJA's disk I/O benchmarking tool can see my non-raid disk drives just fine but cannot work against my SSD RAID 0. It does work in SL. Apple's "About this computer" acts a bit funky when I try to look at the RAID array as well.

I'm keen to try Lion but given the difficulties in installing on a RAID 0 array (commonly reported by others, as well), I'm rolling back to SL 'til some of the issues are addressed. (I am running Lion without issue on my kids' vanilla iMac and on my 2008-vintage 17" MBP)

I think the issues I'm experiencing are problems with Lion's RAID 0 support and not related to SSDs.

Sam

 

[VirtualRain]

I have an SSD RAID0 array (previously created when installing SL) and had no problems... but I did an upgrade of my SL install. I wasn't even aware that Lion supported "fresh" installs. I thought the only way you could do it was via a SL upgrade. Maybe that's part of your problem?

If you're starting "fresh"... I would setup your RAID0 when installing SL, apply all patches and updates for SL, then upgrade to Lion. It should be fairly straight-forward.

Of course, Lion doesn't support the "Recovery Partition" when installing on RAID arrays, but this shouldn't impact your ability to upgrade to Lion on a RAID0 boot volume... http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649

 

[petere001]

was searching the forums and this is pretty much the closest forum i can find regarding ssd drives...

what are peoples opinion on external ssd drives?

good? bad?

Pete

 

[j-banana]

@ pete

external ssd ? they are cute but impractical considering cost and storage capacity.

 

[dndlnx]

Since Lion is supporting TRIM now, I'm hoping it will also take care of "partition alignment" when you install to an SSD.

I had to figure out how to do it by hand, for my laptop. It was a pain in the ***.

 

[mrdma]

Since Lion is supporting TRIM now, I'm hoping it will also take care of "partition alignment" when you install to an SSD.

I had to figure out how to do it by hand, for my laptop. It was a pain in the ***.

ASFAIK, TRIM is only supported on APPLE SSD's, not all SSD's. And partitioning isn't required unless you are dealing with WINXP and lower. Linux and OSX both partition correctly.

 

[smchan]

I have an SSD RAID0 array (previously created when installing SL) and had no problems... but I did an upgrade of my SL install. I wasn't even aware that Lion supported "fresh" installs. I thought the only way you could do it was via a SL upgrade. Maybe that's part of your problem?

I tried a fresh install and as a SL upgrade and it failed in both instances. I *think* the problem was that I had a non-Apple GTX285 in my Mac Pro and was using the NVidia injector to load the drivers. Not being very patient, I changed several things at one time - including removal of the GTX285 - and Lion finally installed. Note that I can do a fresh install using the 10.5.x disc no problem.

However, I still had problems. The Aja disk benchmarking tool no longer works on my SSD RAID0 whereas it still works with spinning disks. The "About this Mac..." also refuses to show storage utilization when I select the SSD RAID. Between the install issues and the funky runtime behavior, my confidence is wavering, so I reloaded SL.

I am running Lion on my MBP and my kids' iMac but will stick to SL on my Mac Pro 'til I'm feeling better about the issues I experienced. I also need to double check my business applications to make sure everything still works in Lion. (So far, my VPN client isn't happy on my MBP.)

Sam

 

[VirtualRain]

I tried a fresh install and as a SL upgrade and it failed in both instances. I *think* the problem was that I had a non-Apple GTX285 in my Mac Pro and was using the NVidia injector to load the drivers.

Sam

What exactly do you mean by a "fresh install"? How do you do that with Lion?

As for your non-standard GPU... That's certainly an issue... people around here are constantly posting about new updates breaking their hacked drivers.

Does AJA work on a non RAID Lion install or is it incompatible with Lion overall?

It's definitely strange that your "Get Info" is unable to report capacity... that's bizarre.

 

[davs]

I tried a fresh install and as a SL upgrade and it failed in both instances. I *think* the problem was that I had a non-Apple GTX285 in my Mac Pro and was using the NVidia injector to load the drivers. Not being very patient, I changed several things at one time - including removal of the GTX285 - and Lion finally installed. Note that I can do a fresh install using the 10.5.x disc no problem.
Sam

Hi Sam, Can you tell me how did you get GTX to work. I am as you doing a clean install of Lion - I tried everything with upgrading from SL and just could not get GTX to work - same setup as you MACPRO 1.1 and flashed GTX285.

So now i thought i'l try fresh clean and again card would not work.
I have 7700 as helper in slot 1 and GTX in slot 4 it all works great in SnowLeopard.

Any help - tips ... Appreciated thanks

 

[VirtualRain]

So I did some more poking around on my RAID SSD set today... while it is working fine and reports the capacity and available disk space correctly, it is not fully compatible with disk utility. While Disk Utility sees is just fine, I can't get any of the first aid options to run... Verify or repair permissions.

Edit: It seems this is a common issue... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3193537?start=0&tstart=0 - The DiskUtil command line works fine however.

 

[smchan]

What exactly do you mean by a "fresh install"? How do you do that with Lion?

When I installed Lion on my kids' iMac, I found the download directory (in Applications, I think) which contains the disc image. The disc image is named InstallESD.dmg. Find it, burn it to a DVD using Disk Utility, and you'll be able to do a fresh install of Lion by booting the DVD - just as you would with SL.

Hit up google and you'll find more specific instructions.

Does AJA work on a non RAID Lion install or is it incompatible with Lion overall?

Yes. Here are the scenarios I tested:
- AJA on SL against SSD RAID 0 - works
- AJA on SL against non-RAID hard drive - works
- AJA on Lion against SSD RAID 0 - does NOT work
- AJA on Lion against non-RAID hard drive - works

Sam

 

[smchan]

Hi Sam, Can you tell me how did you get GTX to work. I am as you doing a clean install of Lion - I tried everything with upgrading from SL and just could not get GTX to work - same setup as you MACPRO 1.1 and flashed GTX285.

Sorry for the confusion. I was not able to get the GTX285 to work in Lion - and I never really tried due to the SSD RAID 0 issues. I have a pair of non-standard cards: a flashed GT8800 (my helper card) and a standard GTX285 with a driver injector.

The GT8800 works fine in Lion. For the brief moment I was successfully running Lion, I never bothered to re-install the GTX285. The GTX285 is back in now that I've reverted to SL.

Sam

 

[smchan]

For what it's worth, I noticed this morning that EVGA is selling b-stock Mac edition GTX 285's for $129. I ordered one to replace my PC edition GTX 285 in my Mac Pro.

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20

Sam
PS I have no connection to EVGA at all. Just happy to get a real Mac edition GTX 285 for a decent price to use with my Adobe apps.