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To Do`s & Not To Do`s.....SSD

S

stickman.walks

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 28, 2011
9
0
After all the back and forth with reading reviews and asking for opinions, I feel strongly that I`ll go with an Intel 320 Series SSD (300GB).

That aside, I feel rather confused by all the information out there about what you should and shouldn`t do to the drive as far as writing data to it or how the drive writes data to different sections or how the trash/deleted files affect performance, etc.

I am fairly computer literate, but I don`t ever recall doing much thinking when it comes to HDD`s. I buy a new drive, I put it into Bay 3, I run Disk Utility format the drive (say via Secure Erase), I partition the drive and then I go about my business saving files, folders, music, photos, docs, etc (and renaming them from time to time or deleting them, too).

But with the SSD`s, I feel like there is a long list of no-no`s that I need to know before even opening the box.

Is there a general run down of these no-no`s or can I do as normal, like with an HDD?

I want to use an SSD for the main drive (boot). I need to format the drive still, correct? But I shouldn`t use Secure Erase (writing zeros)? And I am ok with just having 1 partition?

I want to keep the OS X and related files, applications and such on the SSD. But then keep all my music, photos, videos and documents on the Bay 2 WD BLK CAV 2TB HDD.

Just don`t want to do anything ''stupid'' to the drive right out of the gate. Seems different in terms of how it writes/rewrites data - say for example installing Snow Leopard on it, and then sometime in the Summer upgrading to Lion. Seems trickier than an HDD.

Or am I over thinking it?
 
stickman.walks said:
I am fairly computer literate, but I don`t ever recall doing much thinking when it comes to HDD`s.
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And that is exactly what you should do with SSDs. Just use the drive! Besides overwriting the while with zeros every single day, there is nothing you can do wrong. ;)
 
As you can see it's not since he's using quite a lot of apostrophes. Mind you, not everybody on this forum comes from the UK. Some are from non-English speaking countries where it can be normal to use the apostrophe for plurals. One of them is the country I come from: the Netherlands. Please keep that in mind and respond a bit nicer next time ;)

@topicstarter: use the ssd as if it were a hdd. Just put it in and don't think of it any more. There are some people who are mental about the ssd and protect it like there's no tomorrow (that's where those lists come from, 90% on those lists is nonsense as it does not do what they expect it to do). If you're someone like that you've bought the wrong product. Buy an ssd for its speed and use it. Don't try tricks to use it less. The only thing you need to do is check whether the ssd will work properly in your Mac or if it has problems (certain newer Intel ssds seem to be causing problems in MBPs).
 
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JesterJJZ said:
nos and dos just looks stupid. Sometimes it's better to be "wrong".
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If by "stupid" you mean "correct", then yes, it does look pretty stupid. An apostrophe is not meant to show plural and what looks pretty to you is not an excuse to bastardise the English language and endorse illiteracy. :cool:
 
theSeb said:
If by "stupid" you mean "correct", then yes, it does look pretty stupid. An apostrophe is not meant to show plural and what looks pretty to you is not an excuse to bastardize the English language and endorse illiteracy. :cool:
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But you can't discount the fact that in today's world it looks "wrong". Writing "nos" and "dos" today makes it look and sound like some sort of acronym or initialism. DOS is already a real thing and nos is can easily be assimilated with something like a NAS or SAN and similarly pronounced.

And don't tell me I'm bastardizing the language when each year crap like LOL and OMG gets added to the dictionary.

Oh...and you spelled "bastardize" incorrectly.

PS...lighten up I'm just pulling your leg. ;)
 
JesterJJZ said:
But you can't discount the fact that in today's world it looks "wrong". Writing "nos" and "dos" today makes it look and sound like some sort of acronym or initialism. DOS is already a real thing and nos is can easily be assimilated with something like a NAS or SAN and similarly pronounced.

And don't tell me I'm bastardizing the language when each year crap like LOL and OMG gets added to the dictionary.

Oh...and you spelled "bastardize" incorrectly.

PS...lighten up I'm just pulling your leg. ;)
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:D My sarcasm does not come through clearly on this thing. I was not as serious as my post may have seemed.

P.S. You spelt PS (sic) incorrectly. :p

P.P.S. Both "bastardise" and "bastardize" are correct. :p
 
theSeb said:
:D My sarcasm does not come through clearly on this thing. I was not as serious as my post may have seemed.

P.S. You spelt PS (sic) incorrectly. :p

P.P.S. Both "bastardise" and "bastardize" are correct. :p
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Your last two emoticons didn't display...FAIL! :D LOL!
 
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