Transferring applications and other data in OSX

[Torpedo]

Since it's possible this topic is helpful to someone else, I've decided to start a new thread, instead of posting the question at the venerable Mac thread.

 

I'm about upgrading a mid 2010 13"MBP adding more memory (actually changing both chips for larger ones), replacing the optic drive for a 256 SSD one, and changing the stock HDD for a WD 1TB unit.

 

This MB has become my main computer until I'm sure I really want/need a 27"iMac (mostly a 6 weeks delivery term sucks). Still I'm a OSX rookie and I can't find the folders which should be transferred from this old-to-be system HDD into the new system SSD drive. They're supposed to be in the root user directory but they're not.

I'd like to keep Mail accounts, messages and inboxes, most internet sites cookies, passwords, and a few applications configurations, such as uTorrent, Calibre, iTunes, OO, etc. I've looked into the Migration Utility, but it seems to be designed to transfer data from a working Mac into the new one. Unsure it can be used for this purpose.

I wouldn't like to just backup the current system and restoring it into the upgraded MB, I much prefer doing a clean install. The idea is using a SD card I keep with Mountain Lion as boot drive, so I can do a clean install into the SSD. Unsure it's a good idea configuring the SSD and the HDD as a Fusion Drive in the Disks Utility.

 

Any advice about proceedings, information to keep and transfer, tips and pitfalls will be very welcome.

[oogabooga]

Might I ask why you want to do a clean install? I would normally suggest that, if the contents of your current drive are less than 256 GB, to clone that over to the new SSD and be done with it. Unlike Windows, where I found a clean install every year helped speed things up for me, I've never really felt the need with my various Macs (the last time I did a clean install was 2006!, and the two times I upgraded computers I just cloned or moved the HD).

 

Carbon Copy Cloner is great for this, and I've used it numerous times.  Just plug the SSD into an external enclosure, run Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal HD to the SSD, then install the SSD and you are done. I've never used Migration Utility. 

 

Otherwise you'll find a lot of these settings in ~/Library

The library folder is normally hidden but if you choose the Go to Folder option from the Go menu in the finder you can manually enter ~/Library

 

Two side notes that come to mind (I'm not actually sure about the following so perhaps someone can set me straight):

- can you manually merge an SSD and an HDD as a fusion drive? I thought that was only for the actual Fusion Drives sold by Apple.

 

- an SD card as a boot drive would be slow, no? SD's are not as fast as SSDs, IIRC. However I've never actually done that myself so I'm just speculating.

[morphsci]

I am interested in this topic and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[agile_one]

Assuming you have an external drive large enough, this is what I would do (and have done on numerous occasions myself with zero issues).

 

1. Do a full system backup to external drive with Time Machine, Super Duper, or Carbon Copy.

2. Boot to your ML SD drive (I use thumb drive), then partition new ssd to 1 partition with Disk Utility and then install ML.

3. When ML installed on SSD, use Migration Assistant to bring over user data and Applications from backup.

 

"It just works"  

 

Antonio, you don't say, but I assume you will use your SSD as boot/system drive, and the 1tb in the optical bay for data?  I have no experience with making a Fusion drive manually, so can't comment.

[Torpedo]

I think I've misexplained, so I'll try to clarify.

 

Optical drive goes away, and will be converted into an external USB superdrive.

In the optical drive slot with an adapter, will go the SSD 256GB drive. The adapter and the case to convert the optical into an USB external is rather affordable and is sold as a kit.

The current HDD (320GB) will be replaced with a WD 1TB drive. It's a 5200rpm one, but I don't really need it to be fast, and this way it saves battery and get more space, the larger 7200 I've found is 750GB and is about 30% more power hungry.

 

The SD card (it's a class 10 one with about 32Mb/s transfer speed) will be  used only as the means to make the clean install. I think it's faster than the external USB superdrive. Moreover I don't have a ML DVD but the Snow Leopard DVD which came with the MBP. Funnily enough when I updated from SL to ML, I ended up using the DVD because ML in the SD card said the HDD had irrecuperable errors and wasn't able to delete or format it. I needed to use the DVD, then it was possible installing ML from the SD card.

 

My first thought was making a clone of the current HDD into the SSD before installing it into the laptop, but then I was concerned there could be problems due to different sizes involved and drivers required, so why not doing a clean install from scratch, then adding the required information.

I've learned how to find that damn hidden ~/Library folder, I didn't know the "goto" trick. As I said, I'm a complete ignorant about OSX despite having this MBP for almost 3 years Now with this clearer, I think I should be able to backup and replace the important configuration and data folders into the new install.

 

Now the critic part, which folders should I keep if I do the backup manually? For your comments looks like the Migration Tool should be able to keep all the stuff I need, so I'll have to give it further investigation too.

 

Thanks for the attention

 

PS: I've read elsewhere that there's an option in the Disk Utility in ML which lets us convert two drives into a single fusion one, more or less in the same way we can create a RAID. No need of an hybrid SSD/HDD disk. I haven't investigated that yet, but if it exists, it could be a way to optimize the performance once the OS and most used stuff is moved by ML into the SSD faster drive.

Edited February 24, 2013 by Torpedo

[Salt Peanuts]

FYI, 13" MBP optical bay doesn't support 6g speed (and some reports that it doesn't work properly when 6g drives are installed there).  YMMV.

[Torpedo]

It's a Crucial M4 which supposedly is SATA-60 and SATA-300 compatible. Its bus is 3G I think, but its speeds don't seem to use all that pipe. I've got it from Amazon.es and there're some comments of people having used it on a mid 2010 13" MBP. Hopefully it's true. Thanks for the heads up, I'd still be able to cancel the order

[Salt Peanuts]

Problems supposeldy only arise with trying to stick a 6g ssd or hd (though it should be backward compatible) into the optical bay. Why not stick ssd in main bay and hd in the optical bay? IIRC, there are ways to configure the drives so you can have data (e.g., documents, music, movies, downloads, etc) be located in hd while having system files and apps on ssd seemelssly.

[Torpedo]

You have a point. A good one indeed. Placing the HDD in the optical drive bay would also favor its heat dissipation --just guessing-- for the discs groove next to it. I'll look at it when I receive the stuff, hopefully the HDD is compatible with the mounting chassis too.

[Torpedo]

FYI two links where it's explained how to make a SSD+HDD combination into a Fusion drive: Hrdwrk they sell SSD mounting kits. Macsales blog. These say you need a 2012 Macmini to get the disk utility version with the command to make the Fusion Drive. The other guys don't mention that. I have installed in this MBP 10.8.2. Hopefully creating the boot/install disk here is enough to get the thing done.

This other article by Tom Nelson seems to confirm that just any 10.8.2 command line diskutil should work.

 

OTOH I'm not sure, for the kind of use I give to this computer, a FD is going to be an improvement over the classical SSD for the OS and applications, HDD for the files. Opinions?

Edited February 25, 2013 by Torpedo

[agile_one]

Antonio ... yes, I strongly second Haj's recommendation to put the SSD in place of the original system drive, and the 1tb into the optical bay.  This is what I was assuming you would do.  No need to manually figure which files/folders to backup and restore - migration assistant is smart enough to bring back only what you need from a full backup.

[grawk]

I'd personally leave the original drive where it is and put the SSD in the optical bay.  That way you're touching as little of the hardware as possible.  Then migrate to the new drive with migration assistant.

[The Monkey]

I've never gone near Migration assistant.  I've always just manually copied the files and stuff I need to an external HD, then put them on the new HD.  What does Migration Assistant do that is better? Not arguing here, just trying to figure out what I'm missing.

[Torpedo]

I'd personally leave the original drive where it is and put the SSD in the optical bay.  That way you're touching as little of the hardware as possible.  Then migrate to the new drive with migration assistant.

Sounds like a plan. However I'd need to open the poor MBP twice, once to install the SSD, closing to start it and running the migration assistant, then open again to replace the HDD. Apple warns against running the machine with the guts open, however if you think it's safe, I'd give it a go.

I've checked the SD and now I understand why the clean install I tried from it last time didn't work. Now I think it will work, but unsure it has the command option to create a Fusion Drive.

I'll backup the drive as an image which I could restore, also the information sensitive files and folders, but will try the Migration Tool. I think I'm going to be well covered in the case something goes wrong. After all nothing really important is in this drive, and what's important is already backed up.

I still would appreciate some advice about which folders in the ~/Library directory are the most important to keep most of the information (passwords in Chrome, iTunes library, contacts, mail accounts, etc.).

[grawk]

no I was suggesting leaving the original drive in there, and adding the ssd to the optical bay.

[Torpedo]

no I was suggesting leaving the original drive in there, and adding the ssd to the optical bay.

Yeah, I understood that, but I want to put a larger HDD, the current one is rather small. This has the advantage that if at some point the SSD fails, just putting the current HDD in the optical bay I could possibly get the machine running again pretty quickly, as long as I don't convert SSD+HDD into a Fusion Drive. More food for thought 

[agile_one]

No reason you can't install the SSD and bigger HD at the same time.  You are going to boot from ML SD card, so no worries - just boot to card, then run Disk Utility from the ML Install menu.

[oogabooga]

Now the critic part, which folders should I keep if I do the backup manually? For your comments looks like the Migration Tool should be able to keep all the stuff I need, so I'll have to give it further investigation too.

 

I would recommend that you not re-format the 'old' hard drive for a few months, in case you miss a folder during migration or something. 

[Torpedo]

I would recommend that you not re-format the 'old' hard drive for a few months, in case you miss a folder during migration or something. 

Yes, thanks, I'm keeping it "as is" just in case the SDD keeping the system files and apps goes fubar.

 

Now everything is done. SSD drive went on the old HDD sATA slot. New 1TB HDD is placed on the old optical superdrive slot. The optical drive is now external and could be used by USB. The case is not bad, more plasticky than I expected, but for the price, I can't complain. The good mount is used to hold the new HDD inside the MBP.

Changing the RAM and swapping the HDD for the SSD was silly easy. Replacing the optical was a bit more complicated, mostly for the screws having little room to be put in place, but nothing that with a good light, steady pulse, and some patience can't be done.

 

Transition went flawlessly. Install from the SD card was fast, less than 5 minutes. Then transferring the old data from an external USB HDD, which keeps a time machine backup, needed almost 30'. Looks like everything is fine, Mail works, Google keeps configs and passwords, uTorrent looks as if nothing happened... I'm quite happy, the extra memory is a bless and the SSD is awesome, apps open in seconds. I haven't configured the system to work as a Fusion Drive. The SSD is the system disk, so in case it dies the old HDD can replace it in no time. The big one will keep pictures, books, music, etc.

 

Now time to see if the slowness I was noticing on certain tasks is gone. If this machine only had a few more USB slots, and they were USB 3, I think I could live like this for "some time" Using a hub on a 2.0 USB slot is awful, speed goes down from 4xx MB/s to 12MB/s, which is enough for the DAC even playing 24/96, but boring slow for anything else.

 

Thanks for all the input and suggestions, they've proved to be very helpful, guys

[Torpedo]

I've just discovered that the VM on Virtual Box (running a Windows 7) didn't work. It needs special drivers installed to boot from the SSD. I've reinstalled VB, but now that the optical is USB, there's no way the damn thing sees it as a boot device to run the Windows install disc. I've configured it to "get" the port, and have installed the extension pack which adds USB compatibility. VB seems to see the "generic USB" and the disc spins, but it says it can't read the bootable.

If mounted on OSX, the disc shows perfectly all its contents. Moreover this is the very same disc I used to install W7 over VB in this very same MB before the upgrades.

I've even tried a different external DVD-RW unit, with the same lack of success. Any suggestions? I've considered trying to make a bootable pen or SD card with W7, but I can't on OSX, nor know how to extract a CD/DVD to create an .iso or other image into a HDD on OSX. Not that I think that would work, but perhaps worth trying.

I still may try Parallels or the other VM software, but for my purposes, VB worked very well and it's free

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm not familiar with Virtual Box, but the solution with VMWare would be to recreate the VM -- that's not as bad as it sounds, just start up the VM creation process, and when you get to the part about a boot disk, instead of saying "create a new one", say "use an existing one", then select the one you have.  VMWare is smart enough to just use it after that.  The drivers are all virtual on the hosted OS, so it's only VMWare that needs access to the "new" (different) drivers, then the software does the translation.

 

You may want to look and see if VB has the same sort of thing.  Of course, I'd use a copy rather than the actual .VMDK file (it'll be the biggest one), just in case it erases it, thinking that's what you meant.

[Torpedo]

Thanks for the suggestion. VBox has this option too, but unfortunately, when installing it back again for its not working after the transition (no kernel loading) I deleted the old VM, so couldn't try a direct load. Fortunately I keep the old HDD and I have this device my brother in law loaned me, which allows to plug IDE or SATA drives thru USB. I'm recovering that VM and after I reinstall VBox, I can try if it works.

What I find puzzling is that the VBox software can't detect and read the bootable Windows disc from an external USB drive. This could be a problem on many other new Macs don't having IDE/SATA optical drives.