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- How to Replace Your MacBook's Optical Drive With an SSD
Just before the latest MacBook Pro updates were released, rumors swirled that the new models would adopt solid-state drives (SSD) in addition to hard disk drives (HDD) and drop internal optical DVD drives across the line. That sounded perfect to me. As I dove for the couch cushions in search of spare change to add to my computer upgrade fund, I considered that I didn’t really need a new computer. What I wanted was SSD. But SSD tech is expensive — really expensive if I wanted the same amount of storage offered by my MacBook Pro’s HDD. Luckily, there’s a way to have both. Inspired by others, I decided to remove my optical drive and install an SSD in its place and pair it with a large hard drive.
Advantages of Paired Storage
I love this setup. I have the blazing fast speed of the SSD (it really does feel like getting a new computer) and I have enough room for everything I need thanks to the spacious HDD. There are some other advantages that might not be obvious at first glance, too:
- You can install an alternate system on the HDD. I have Snow Leopard installed on the SSD for everyday work and I have Lion installed on the hard drive for testing.
- You can use Boot Camp to install Windows on the HDD because it is a true internal drive. Boot Camp won’t work with an external drive, but it works great with this setup and it doesn’t use any of the space on the precious SSD.
- I have lots of room for Virtual Machines on the 500GB HDD so I can create other testing setups as needed.
Yes, I have to connect an external optical drive every time I need to install something from disc, but once I was done with the initial setup I haven’t needed it that much. It really has proved to be the perfect arrangement for my needs. Here’s how you can do it with your own MacBook.
The tools. Click to enlgarge.
What to Order
- 115 GB SSD from Other World Computing (OWC) with mounting bracket and tools — $280
- Seagate 500 GB 7200RPM drive — about $70
- external USB enclosure for the slim optical drive — about $30
- external USB enclosure for the 2.5″-inch HDD — about $20
- blazing fast computer with lots of free space — PRICELESS!
Sizing Things Up
To get the space requirements for your SSD, select your drive and “Get Info” to see how much space is used (make sure to empty the trash first!). Now check how much space is being used by the User folder(s) on your computer. The difference between the two is all the system files and applications that you will want to put on the SSD. The Users folders themselves can go on the HDD.
As an example, I was using about 300 GB on my HDD. The Applications (including CS5 and Xcode), root Library and System folders take up about 53 GB of space. My Home folder takes up about 240 GB (and my iTunes Media is on a network share). I wanted enough room for my system files and applications on the SSD, and some room left over for a portion of my user files so that these frequently used files would benefit from the speed of the SSD.
Picking the Right SSD
Using my computer as an example, I could conceivably get by with a 60GB SSD (I have 53 GB of system and application files, as mentioned). But that’s cutting it too close for the system files (OS X needs 4-5 GB of free space just for temp files and such things). And it would mean that all user files would have to go on the HDD. On top of that, early reports indicate that SSDs benefit from extra free space to keep them running fast. In my case, that would mean at least 80 GB. I wanted to get a drive from the high-performing OWC Mercury Pro line, so I moved up to the next available size of 115GB. If you’re struggling with the decision, it’s always a good idea to buy as much storage as you can afford.
Removing the Optical Drive
I have held various certifications in Apple hardware repair starting back in 1994, but I honestly didn’t need any of that training to upgrade my mid-2009 MacBook Pro. Any uni-body MacBook or MacBook Pro is pretty easy to get into. iFixit.com is a great resource for a detailed photo walk-through of the steps to remove the optical drive from your Mac. I placed the optical drive in an external slim USB enclosure so I could continue to use it, and I also have an external Blu-ray drive for any DVDs or CDs that I might need.
I also removed my existing hard drive, placing it in an external enclosure, and installed a new 500 GB 7200RPM drive from Seagate in its place. You might choose to stick with your computer’s existing HDD, depending on your storage needs.
The bracket for your SSD. Click to enlarge.
Installing the SSD
The next step is to attach the SSD to the bracket, after which you can install the bracket itself where the optical drive used to be. As I mentioned above, I bought the SSD and the bracket in a bundle from OWC. They helpfully include the tools that you need and provide online video guides for the installation.
The inside of the MacBook with the SSD installed. Click to enlarge.
Configuring the System
Setting up your new drives in Disk Utility. Click to enlarge.
I decided to do a clean install of the system to the SSD and then copy over select files from my user folder. I booted from the OS X installation disc (I actually have an external FireWire 800 hard drive set up for this purpose – saves 20-30 minutes), formatted both drives with Disk Utility and ran the installer. When that was done, I booted to the SSD, ran the guided setup, Software Update, and installed my core applications.
Handling Users and Home Folders
There are a couple of choices here. I could move my entire user folder to the HDD, but I wanted the benefits of the SSD for some frequently used files from the Home folder. I decided on a mixed solution where I could keep some user folders on the SSD (~/Applications, ~/Desktop, ~/Library in particular) and the folders with hefty storage requirements (Documents, Downloads, Movies, and Pictures) on the HDD. I kept the ~/Music folder on the SSD so that iTunes would be able to quickly load the iTunes Library file, which is the index to all of the media files and the associated metadata like ratings and play count. I had previously set the preferences in iTunes to point the iTunes Media Folder location to a network share, so all of my media files are actually on a network share. I suspect that most people would want to keep their ~/Music folder on the SSD and use the advanced preferences tab in iTunes to move the iTunes Media Folder to the hard drive.
I copied the old Documents, Downloads, Pictures and Movies folders from my original HDD (now installed in an external enclosure) to their new home on the big internal hard drive. Once I had them in place, I was ready to fix up my Home folder.
Symlinks
The trick to splitting up your Home folder so that some stays on the SSD and some points to the HDD is to use symlinks. Symlinks are a function of the UNIX underpinnings of OS X to create something like an alias, but at a low-level in the filesystem. I created links to point certain directories in my Home folder to locations on the HDD. After creating the links, those folders appear to be in the “normal” spot in my Home folder, but they don’t use any room on the SSD as they act like an alias that points to the HDD. Even thought the image below shows “Alias” as the kind for these link files, don’t make the mistake of creating an alias in the Finder. You will need to use the command line to create a symlink.
Bottom Line
This new setup has everything I need. Incredible boot times, fast application launching, and overall snappy performance. I have a triple-boot system with Snow Leopard, the developer preview of Lion, and Windows 7, with room for a few Virtual Machines too. Now that the Mac App Store is taking off, I don’t even have to hook up the optical drive very often. It’s beautiful.
If you’ve done something similar, I would love to hear about it. If you want to try this setup and have questions, I’ll try to answer in the comments below.
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Переслать - The April Fools of iPad Predictions
While Apple announcing Flash for iOS or a 7-inch iPad might make for humorous copy on April Fools’ Day, truth can be just as entertaining. The truth for the iPad 2 is that a month after its release in the U.S., supplies continue to be extremely constrained, and the international launch saw inventory sold out in a day. At the same time, supplies of the original iPad have dwindled to nearly nothing. Despite this incredible demand, 11 of 35 analysts queried by Fortune predict the iPad will sell 5.5 million or fewer units this quarter, down from 7.1 million the previous quarter. Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank is on record for Apple selling just 5 million iPads. How foolish is that?
Not as foolish as Gianfranco Lanci, former CEO of Acer must be feeling. Lanci just resigned as CEO, purportedly because of differences of opinion with the board of directors. However, sources suggested to DigiTimes that the iPad has “significantly impacted” netbook sales, hurting Acer’s bottom line because Acer has been slow to respond with its own tablet. In an interview with AllThingsDigital, Lanci talked about delaying Acer’s tablet response to the iPad until this year with Honeycomb. Nonetheless, the ex-CEO is also on record asserting that Acer would quickly achieve 10 to 20 percent market share of the tablet market “and become the market leader in 2-3 years."
Tell that to Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft. From the Sydney Morning Herald, Mundie, at an economic conference in Australia, defined the near future as being “mobile” and “portable, suggesting the smartphone would be become the “most personal computer,” and laptops would become the “portable desk.” He said tablets “live in the space in between,” and doesn’t know “whether that space will be a persistent one or not.” Well, at least that explains Microsoft’s foolish tablet strategy to date.
Also looking foolish in Australia was Andy Lark, VP at Dell, who was reportedly down on the iPad Down Under. According to CIO, Lark said the iPad is “great if you've got a lot of money and live on an island.” Lark clarified what he meant by that snark on his blog, but it comes down to the iPad not being suited for real work in the enterprise because of cost and IT integration issues. Of course, those assertions are at odds with rates of adoption for the iPad at Fortune 100 companies as high as 80 percent, and let’s not forget the “lot of money” cost of the Dell Streak with its meager 5-inch display at $549.
Finally, what would April Fools’ Day be without cognitive dissonance: the uncomfortable feeling that arises when attempting to reconcile paradoxical thoughts in one’s head, like the popularity of the iPad despite its many “failings.” Katherine Noyes of PCWorld recently listed seven reasons the iPad 2 left her “cold.” They include the usual rationalizations: specs, walled garden, app censorship, “humdrum” OS, lack of Flash, security, and, of course, that old canard, “it’s all marketing.” April Fools’ Day seems to have been more of a March-long event this year, if you ask me.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req'd):
- Hot Topic: Tablets
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Переслать - Apple Turns 35: Where Does It Go From Here?
April 1 marks the 35th birthday of Apple Computer, Inc., and though the name has changed (it dropped “Computer” in 2007), the company has undergone major organizational upheaval, and Apple isn’t doing the same kind of business it was in 1977, the company is still a leader when it comes to innovation. Can we expect that to continue for another 35 years?
Apple Made the PC; Apple Killed the PC
When News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch launched The Daily, the iPad-specific daily newspaper, he said in an interview that Steve Jobs was responsible for the invention of the personal computer, then the laptop, and now the ongoing destruction of both. Murdoch may not be entirely right about the specifics here (no doubt Steve Wozniak would argue that he should at least share credit for the “invention” of the PC, though the MITS Altair and Tandy tape-based computers predated any Apple efforts), but he’s right that Apple was instrumental in the early popularization and spread of personal computing. And he’s also correct that Apple’s iPhone and iPad are strong catalysts in how the very notion of computing is being re-shaped right now.
Post-PC (Sooner or Later)
Steve Jobs recently coined a term that describes the new phase of computing ushered in by smartphones, tablets and other connected devices: post-PC. The use of the term spawned countless debates about whether or not we can claim to be actually living in a post-PC era yet, or about whether Jobs can use that term to describe the use of devices that are still, in many ways, very dependent on PCs for syncing and media management. But whatever your opinion on whether we’re or not we’re truly entering the post-PC era, it’s clearly the direction in which we’re headed, judging by the iPad’s continued success, the ongoing worldwide growth of smartphones, and efforts by all of Apple’s competitors to successfully break into the tablet market.
The Cloud: Apple’s Biggest Challenge
As the post-PC market evolves, Apple faces possibly its greatest challenge yet: deploying strong cloud-based service offerings. Amazon just this week introduced its Cloud Player and Cloud Drive, beating Apple to the punch with a cloud-based music “locker” type offering that the Mac-maker has apparently been trying to negotiate with record labels. Google is also ahead of Apple in terms of cloud services, thanks to its free Google sync services including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader and many others. These provide single sign-in setup for Android device owners, whereas iPhone and iPad owners currently have to pay for MobileMe to get many of the same features on their devices.
Apple also has yet to reveal any firm plans or intentions to offer any kind of streaming subscription for music or other media, despite many reports of the company’s attempts to set up partnerships that would make such services a reality. Streaming media services are on the rise, both in terms of number and subscribers, and Apple risks being left behind as major players like Amazon and Google begin moving in that direction.
The Revolution Co.
Apple throws the word “revolutionary” around quite a bit (almost as much as PR folks, in fact), but it would be a mistake to dismiss this as mere marketing hyperbole. The company has consistently introduced products that change the face of the consumer electronics industry, and few, if any, could’ve predicted their arrival beforehand. That means that, to some degree, trying to pin down Apple’s future plans will always be a slippery task.
Of course, it’s almost impossible to discount the role of Steve Jobs, who, no matter what your personal opinion regarding his medical prognosis, cannot lead the company forever. Will Apple lose the ability to be a motivating force for market upheaval when he’s gone? I say no, because Apple has a corporate culture based, from the top-down, on fostering innovation and creativity. Maintaining that at such a high rate of success for 35 years is not something any one person can manage through force of will alone. Apple’s executive team works together to do this, and will continue to do so.
What do you think Apple’s next 35 years have in store?
Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req'd):
- Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
- The Future of Workplaces
- Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
Переслать - Screen Sharing in OS X Lion Allows Multi-User Sessions
A new feature of Mac OS X Lion unearthed by AppleInsider allows remote users to log in to a Mac using a separate user account from the one currently being used on that computer, and to see their own separate desktop and computing environment.
In the version of Screen Sharing that currently ships with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (1.1.1), users can log in to a remote system, but will only see the screen that’s currently active on the target computer. Mouse or keyboard is shared between the remote computer, and the computer using Screen Sharing to remotely access it, so if a user was actively interacting with each, only one could effectively use the target computer at one time. In Lion, however, a local user can go about their business uninterrupted, while a remote users enjoys their own separate graphical session.
Screen Sharing also gets some additional tools borrowed from Apple Remote Desktop (ARD), which is the professional remote management and distribution client Apple sells, aimed mostly at business and enterprise users. Screen Sharing lifts an Observe mode (viewing, but no control), a Control mode, and a Screen Capture tool from ARD.
Screen Sharing’s new multiple user login support and ARD features should make it a fairly capable tool for managing small, Mac-based offices, or for managing a home network of Macs. It will, for instance, be possible to remote into another computer using an admin account and change software installations or perform remote upgrades while the local user works away uninterrupted. Apple seems keen on breaking down the barrier between consumer and professional software (Lion Server will be integrated free in the regular shipping version of Mac OS X Lion, for example); this Screen Sharing redesign is another step in that direction, and one which small businesses will relish.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req'd):
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