My drive on my mackbook pro went bang today - terrible timing! Won’t boot and disk utility reports a disk error it can’t recover from! Still at least time machine and GitHub have my back 
Anyone got any recommendations for where to get a good deal on SSD drives (UK)
I first had an OCZ Technologiy SSD which was very fast but lasted less than one year.
Since I november 2012 I have an Intel SSD which is a little slower but in my opinion more reliable and stable. With the OCZ regularly the laptop crashed. With the Intel no more crashes. However the Intel was 120 euro more expensive than the OCZ. Anyway also the intel is lightning fast.
To give you an idea, I use the laptop in Belgium where it can freeze -10°C but also in Botswana with temperatures above 40°C. The SSD and laptop never broke down.
One thing you may never do … defragmentating your SSD. Doing that shorten the life of your SSD considerably.
Hope this helps.
While you’re dismantling the macbook pro case, consider removing your CD/DVD and put in an HDD in that space. Best move I’ve ever made. I grabbed a case to put the CD/DVD in and use it externally on those super rare occasions that come up. The OS and apps are on the SSD and the files/movies/etc are on the HDD. This gives you a lot of bang for the buck because SSD’s are expensive. I went with a 180gb SSD and a 500gb HDD. Works swimmingly.
I should note that one behavior you’ll have to get used to is dragging from the desktop to the documents folder (for example) won’t delete the desktop file. You’re just copying. That takes getting used to. And if such a behavior bothers you then this may not be a satisfactory solution.
Unless you hold down the Command key while dragging, this will move instead of copy
Thanks all.
Cracking idea Joseph!!
Now toying with buying a Mac mini and stick with a cheap sata drive for the MBP. decisions, decisions!
Joseph, I did the same using parts for Other World Computing, but I used the Disk Utility cli to format it as one large volume. It’s self-optimizing so I don’t have to worry about what’s where.
Not a link to a deal, but to a necessary utility if you buy a SSD not supported by Apple : Trim Enabler
If you check Serial-ATA from System Information, and there ‘TRIM Support’, you may find out that it says NO. With the utility above you can switch it on and the SSD might live longer.
If you do not trust the utility, then you can do this all by yourself:
TRIM can be enabled by using the following Terminal commands. Copy these commands and run them in Terminal:
Backup the file that youre about to patch:
sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage /IOAHCIBlockStorage.original
Patch the file to enable TRIM support:
sudo perl -pi -e s|(\\x52\\x6F\\x74\\x61\\x74\\x69\\x6F\\x6E\\x61\\x6C\\x00).{9}(\\x00\\x51)|$1\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00\\x00$2|sg /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorageClear the kext caches:
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel sudo kextcache -system-cachesImportant: reboot your Mac!
To disable TRIM support in the future:
sudo perl -pi -e s|(\\x52\\x6F\\x74\\x61\\x74\\x69\\x6F\\x6E\\x61\\x6C\\x00).{9}(\\x00\\x51)|$1\\x41\\x50\\x50\\x4C\\x45\\x20\\x53\\x53\\x44$2|sg /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorageFinally, if this does not work as expected, or if something goes wrong, simply restore the backup:
sudo cp /IOAHCIBlockStorage.original /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorageThis patch simply edits a file called IOAHCIBlockStoage, removing a string that makes TRIM work for only Apple SSDs.
I had no idea that was an option. To do list.
Buy a Mercury Extreme from OWC. Extremely high quality drives, great warranty, and outstanding customer support. Check if your MBP supports SATA3 or just SATA2. If it only supports SATA2, you can save a few bucks and buy one of their SATA2 drives. Of course, you can do that even if you have a SATA3 capable computer, but you’ll get more speed from a SATA3 drive in that case.
Next, buy a Data Doubler from them, and a Western Digital 1TB traditional hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236496
You’ll replace your optical drive with a hard drive. You can use an external mount from OWC to create an external optical drive. OWC has instructional videos for swapping your optical drive with a hard drive, it’s really simple. Geoff and I did all this during the 2012 conference. Lastly, when reinstalling your data, setup your two drives as a fusion drive: http://jollyjinx.tumblr.com/post/34638496292/fusion-drive-on-older-macs-yes-since-apple-has
What you’ll get is the best of both worlds. You’ll have a high capacity storage, much faster computer, and not have to worry about aliases or symlinking or whatever trick. The OWC drives have their own garbage collection, so there is no need to enable TRIM support or any of that mess.
I’m absolutely confident you’ll love this setup. I did for my last MacBook, Geoff loves it, my brother loves it, and a number of users on this forum have done similar upgrades. I think anybody who has done this will swear by it for life.
Of course, if you can afford it, grabbing a massive SSD is also an option. I’d still recommend the OWC Mercury line in that case.
Also, NEVER use “Secure Delete” with an SSD. SSD’s don’t have the same imprinting problem traditional drives do, so all a secure delete does is consume your limited number of read/writes.
Be sure to check with the drive manufacturer before enabling TRIM support. As I mentioned previously, the OWC drives (for example) have their own garbage collection. If you enable TRIM support on those drives, your computer will randomly lock up for a few seconds at a time every few minutes.
Yup. It lets you create your own Fusion drive, but you have to do it through Terminal while booted from an external drive. See the diskutil man page, specifically under “CoreStorage”, and see the instructions here.
I haven’t used this one yet, but have it on my wish list: Crucial SSD. The 960 GB version is under $600! I have used older Crucial SSDs before and they have worked fine.
Just ordered a 480GB crucial SSD drive.
After thinking about it - my on board storage needs are quite modest so all these fusion ideas are a bit beyond my requirements (cool though!).
BTW - Apple Stores are appalling places!!!
980 GB here
Btw, latest Crucials do not need any TRIM Software…
Packet says 960gb Tomas - your going to be disappointed 
Have you already installed it? How does the computer run now? Particularly, what kind of improvement do you get starting Xojo and loading projects, especially large projects?
I can highly recommend the OWC SSDs. Very fast reading and writing and I never had any issues with them.
This is a good site with good prices and great service.
http://macupgrade.eu/catalog/ssd-c-124.html
[quote=30950:@Patrick Delaney]Just ordered a 480GB crucial SSD drive.
After thinking about it - my on board storage needs are quite modest so all these fusion ideas are a bit beyond my requirements (cool though!).
BTW - Apple Stores are appalling places!!![/quote]
Oeps didn’t read you already bought one.
But … in the latest CT magazine (tech mag) they say Crucial are bad SSDs (unreliable etc…)