MacBook :: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD With Bootcamp & Windows 7
Mar 8, 2009
Added latest scores for Firmware 1199. Check out the xbench scores Woo hoo ! Just got my Vertex 120GB yesterday. Inside is a plain black box. Looks like OCZ is learning from Apple. Kinda reminds me of the iPhone packaging. The drive itself: This replaces the current WD Scorpio Blue 320GB in my Macbook 2.0 GHz Installing the Vertex couldn't be easier, but one has to use the 4 Torx screws so that the drive fits into the bay And that's what it looks like ... fitting snugly inside. I think I like the sleek black Anyways, enough of pics. Onto install notes, benchmarks and impressions. I partitioned the drive in Apple's DiskUtility. And installed OS X 10.5.5 and then updated with the 10.5.6 combo update. I then installed Office 2008 and VMWare Fusion. If you are concerned with alignment, don't be ... at least under OS X. That is because Apple's utilities do alignment on 4K (4096) byte boundaries. It's not perfect but it is better than nothing. If you figure out how to do the alignment yourself and still keep the GUID partition table with the protective MBR and 200MB EFI partition - please post it so that we can experiment with it. In the meantime let's look at the partition table. Running " sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk0 " in Terminal gives us the following output:...............
I have an early 2009 Mac mini and the 120GB hard drive is starting to get a little cramped. Especially since I'm now keen to get Windows installed on there as well. So I was hoping to upgrade myself. I've already opened the mini and added memory so I'm confident enough with that. I just need to know what I need to be aware of when upgrading. For example, will ant 2.5" SATA disk do the trick? I was thinking of this one:[URL:...]
Used migration assistant to move my Blackbook apps and settings to the Air using a Time Machine backup from my Time Capsule - wirelessly. Two hours later (not terrible) and I'm using my Air with all my apps and setting - fantastic.
Question: My Blackbook also has a Bootcamp partition running Windows - is there a way to take that image and migrate it to my MB Air? I'd rather not have to purchase the Superdrive and re-install/setup the Windows OS on my Air....
I recently bought a used MBA, I always want one when it first came out, finally wait until now because of the big price drop My first mod to my MBA is to upgrade the hard drive. I wasn't pay much attention when I purchase this replacement hard disk, didn't notice the MBA only takes 5mm height, as most 1.8" in the market are 8mm. But since it's in my hand right now, I decided to put it on see if the MBA recognizes it. Not too much surprise, leopard installation went very smoothly. After the installation, the available space is about 95gb. And because of the 5400rpm, it feels faster.
Too bad the bottom won't close because of the height of this drive. But at least this gives me an idea, and I know there's a Toshiba 1.8" 120gb 4200rpm 5mm out there, and it should fits perfectly in MBA. Anyway, I'm still debating myself rather getting this Toshiba drive or a Samsung 32gb SSD(Same drive as used in the Rev.A SSD version, but different capacity) As the price of these two drives are pretty much the same (around $150 range) I have another computer for my main work, so I'm toward getting a 32gb SSD
How can I get rid of 'others' its taking up 64gb out of 120gb, Ihave downloaded omnidisksweeper but i am not sure what isn't important to delete, i have deleted all my documents and photos...
Recently the screen goes to sleep, then when i move my mouse it comes back on black with my mouse visible only ...
On ifixit pages seems that the samsung hs12yha (120gb) could be put inside a mba first gen. I had asked ifixit support confirmation, and they told me it will work, but from the specs page the block size il 4k and not 512.. (the reason why the 5th gen ipod hd does not work in the air).
I occasionally get the BSOD sometimes on the Windows XP side of things in Boot Camp. I always use a mouse on the Windows side, as the trackpad is very glitchy and buggy. Sometimes, when I use the mouse for a prolonged period of time, I accidently touch the trackpad forgetting all of the sudden that i had the mouse (or i use it to scroll down) and the whole thing blue screens on me. It has happened 8 times already, each time blue screening after touching the mouse. I don't know why, but I find out that the mouse drivers are the one that is messing up my Windows XP SP3.
I have a Macbook Pro 15" , C2D 2.33ghz. I have the 7100 version of Windows 7 and everything worked perfectly except for the sound.
No matter which bootcamp driver I try or even Realtek's own vista one nothing works.
I downloaded the bootcamp 2.1 drivers and everything installed correctly , including the realtek ones. All the hardware looks fine in device manager but I dont hear anything out.
Should the default be speakers? It seems that it keeps the driver as microsofts own and it doesnt say anything about realtek. Could that be the problem?
I did not try the microphone jack yet but will in a few minutes.
Even if there is a hack , Im willing to try it. What is the exact audio chipset on this model of macbook pro?
I have today received a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, and am looking forward to installing it on my MacBook (early unibody version with Core 2 Duo processor, recently upgraded to Snow Leopard - version MacBook 5,1 - with 2.4GHz Processor and 4GB RAM).
The question is simple, but I am utterly confused when searching for the answer...!
Should I install the 32bit or the 64bit version of windows? (both the disks are in the box). I would like a smooth installation, and realise that 32bit should work no problem. However if all the drivers are available for 64bit windows, and it works then I see no reason not to install that version. I am confused because there is reference on the Apple website of this version of the MacBook not being supported for 64bit despite having a 64bit processor (??) Also the vast majority of the information on the Apple website seems to refer to Vista 64bit. I imagine that this will be quite confusing for many users, as it has been for me!
I will only install windows once, and would obviously like to install the potentially faster OS if it will be straightforward, and everything will work as it should (have read about problems with the iSight/backlit keyboard etc. - but these may now be fixed).
I want to try out Windows 7. During this process though I deleted my winXP partition. When I went to create a new BootCamp partition in The BootCamp SetUp Assisstant, it failed to create the partition on my harddrive.
I was greeted with the error, "BootCamp SetUp assistant failed to yada yada yada, please backup and reformat your harddrive."
So my question is do I really have to reinstall Mac OS X? (I backup with TimeMachine so it won't be a big deal but still thats a very long process.) Do you guys have any tips or anything to get Mac OS X to partition my main HDD?
After I purchased my 2.66GHz Core i7 yesterday, the first order of business was to open it up and remove the 500GB factory drive and replace it with my OCZ Vertex 128GB SSD drive. I was hoping I could simply drop in the Vertex (which had been in use in my previous MacBook) and boot away. But, as I suspected might happen, the OS X already on the Vertex didn't have the necessary support for the new model/CPU. I had to format the Vertex, install a fresh copy of OS X from the DVD supplied with the Core i7, and then use Migration Assistant to move over my data from a backup drive. No biggie.
Anyway, this baby SMOKES with that SSD drive in there! Check out these boot times:
From the moment I press the power button to a fully loaded Finder/Desktop: 19 seconds
From the moment I hear the startup bong to a fully loaded Finder/Desktop: 13 seconds
From the moment the spinning wheel first appears below the Apple logo (the beginning of drive access) to a fully loaded Finder/Desktop: 7 seconds
Shutdown time is awesome as well:
From the moment I confirm shutdown by clicking "OK" (pressing Enter) to a fully shut down computer: Less than 3 seconds!
The 19 second figure is roughly equivalent to what I was getting with my previous MacBook Pro. However, on that older model, the time between pressing the power button and hearing the startup bong was about 3 seconds. The new MacBook Pro takes 6 seconds for that part of the boot process. So, the boot process from the startup bong is actually 3 seconds faster with the Core i7 model.
SSD bandwagon, and have a question. I bought a 2.5" Vertex 2 60GB, which seems to be doing very well in all the benchmarks. I know OSX has no TRIMM support yet, and there is a lot of rumbling about using the right firmware in order to increase the SSD's lifespan. I read I'll probably have to use Windows in order to update the firmware in OCZ SSD's. Can anyone tell me, how I can check the firmware version of the SSD using OSX ? Can it be done, or do you need Windows for this as well ?? I have no idea what firmware it runs, so there is no way to know if it needs updating.
I am waiting on delivery of a Vertex drive for my Macbook Pro. While waiting on delivery I have been following some posts on OCZ's support forums
Now I am curious. Does this product have major issues in the Macbook, or do the problems described in the OCZ forum represent a small percentage of Mac users? Let's see what the numbers are for users in this forum.
From what I have seen the Vertex 120 gb ( for less than 400 USD ) and the intel x-25 80 gb are my options.80 too small for my taste , I have read a lot about this drives, but is the difference between them that high ?Btw, are there other options that I should look at ?
Maybe I'm just over thinking this, but Apple never posted a KB article about how to upgrade an existing bootcamp partition with the new snow leopard bootcamp 3.0 drivers. I'm assuming if you already have bootcamp 2.1 you boot up in boot camp and then insert the snow leopard disc in order to upgrade the drivers to 3.0 correct? Or do I have to erase my stupid bootcamp partition and reinstall it all over again using the new leopard boot camp assistant in order to get to 3.0?
I am thinking of buy a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 (E) SSD for my 13" MBP, when I was doing research, I found in OCZ's technology forum that people complaining its lifespan drops a percent for every 3-4 days, so I am worried that if this is true, then it can last only a little bit more than a year, although I can get replacement under 3-years warranty, the time spend for re-installing system and migrate all my files is another problem. Also, I do programming, VM and Photoshop, plus web surfing and music, so there is lots of "writes" involved, I'm afraid it won't last a year.
Furthermore, keep watching its health status while using it is a painful experience as you see it dying slowly, similar to checking Load_Cycle_Count of HDD which is the reason I want to switch to SSD.
Anyone using OCZ SSD or other brands, can you share your experience and advice?
I'm going to install either a 160GB Intel X25-M or 120GB OCZ Vertex in my 17'' 2.8Ghz MBP that I use for digital audio production and live performances. Any thoughts on which to choose?
Just bought a new 15" 2.5 A/G and want to install a Vertex 3 SSD to replace the HDD. Despite reading & watching the "how to's", I'm not exactly clear if I simply insert the included restore disc after I do the upgrade or do I need a data transfer kit? I plan to migrate data from my old MBP w/SL(10.6.8), after the upgrade?
It seems that going by the OCZ site the drive can only be reflashed with the latest firmware from a windows based machine. Is that correct?Haven't plugged it in yet but I hope mine comes with v1.24.
I was planning on getting the Intel X25M SSD but then thought the OCZ Vertex 128GB would be more practical. However, reading some posts here and a lot over at the OCZ forum it looks like the Vertex is problematic in the 2009 MPBs in regard to install and sleeping.
So I'm wondering if these issues are pervasive or if the people w/ these problems are random, maybe having to do w/ something specific to their machine.
