Simple question: I just bought an SSD to replace my current HD, and I want to start real clean. (I've not upgraded from Snow Leopard since I bought the Mac 3 yrs ago, so I'm sure there's plenty of junk on the HD.)
Can I simply download the installer to my HD, run it to install Mavericks on the (temporarily external) SSD, copy data and install fresh versions of my apps on the SSD, then swap the two drives?
MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Do the following:
Install the SSD in your computer. Put it in the same location where the HDD is now located. You may need to do a firmware upgrade: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery.
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should allow you to install Mavericks.
How to use an SSD with your HDD If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do. After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume. Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu. You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed. When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD. Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently. Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it. |
Do the following:
Install the SSD in your computer. Put it in the same location where the HDD is now located. You may need to do a firmware upgrade: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery.
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should allow you to install Mavericks.
How to use an SSD with your HDD If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do. After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume. Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu. You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed. When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD. Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently. Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it. |
Wow, it's really that involved? I thought/hoped it would be dead simple. Anyway, I'm on Snow Leopard, not Lion/Mtn Lion.
If you have Snow Leopard installed on the SSD, then just upgrade it to Mavericks. That will be much easier. But if the SSD is fresh, then it's a bit more complicated.
Yeah, it's a fresh SSD. So you're saying I first need a firmware upgrade, then Internet Recovery. Does that work with Snow Leopard?
You should be able to download Mavericks via the App Store on Snow Leopard, just quit when it gets to the Install part.
The Installer will be in Applications -> "Install OS X Mavericks".
Make a copy (make several 🙂).
Hopefully, you have a bootable external disk. Boot from the external, and run the "Install OS X Mavericks". When it asks for the disk, point it at the SSD.
After the install is complete, you can decide on what data you are going to move from your original harddrive to the SSD. You can use Applications -> Utilities -> Migratation Assistant if you want it all, or most of it.
It is also possible to create a bootable Mac OS X Mavericks installer on a USB Thumbdrive using DiskMakerX
With respect to firmware upgrades, I have not played with adding an SSD to any of my equipment, so I do not know what may or may not be needed.
gyandev wrote:
Simple question: I just bought an SSD to replace my current HD, and I want to start real clean. (I've not upgraded from Snow Leopard since I bought the Mac 3 yrs ago, so I'm sure there's plenty of junk on the HD.)
Over 12 years, I've installed the OS from 10.2 up to 10.9 "on top" of an existing OS and migrated that data across five Macs. I even cloned one drive from a 2009 MacBook (originally with 10.5, upgraded step by step to 10.9) to a 2012 MBP.
There may well be "junk" on the HD, but it's likely to a few MB at most, and is unlikely to do anything except sit on the drive, not being read.
Time spent on a clean install (plus reinstalling apps, entering serials, updating; migrating data, reconfiguring preferences, etc, etc) is not worth it IMO unless you actually have a problem.
Even then, it's better to delete a few things than delete everything and then put most of it back.
Thanks, Bob & Ben & Kappy, for your helpful replies. I now feel a lot clearer on how to proceed.
The reason I have been thinking super-clean was that I have quite a number of apps that need to be updated (e.g., FCPX, Compressor), superceded (e.g., install Adobe CS6 instead of my current CS3), deleted altogether, or reinstalled because they're having problems that seem related to deterioration in the OS/app interface. I may also have too much Virgo. But I certainly understand Ben's comment about it not being worth the time: I haven't been looking forward to this process.
Anyway, I figured that worst case is I could install OS 10.6.8 on the (temporarily external) SSD using my old install DVDs, then do the special download for installing Mavericks on top of that, then install Mavericks. Just looking for the fewest possible steps in this, and Bob's suggestion is almost as short as my pipe-dream idea.
And yes, Bob, I do have a bootable external drive. (Well, Carbon Copy Cloner said it's bootable; I haven't yet tested its bootability.)
And yes, Bob, I do have a bootable external drive. (Well, Carbon Copy Cloner said it's bootable; I haven't yet tested its bootability.)
CCC is a good cloning utility. You should not have any problems, unless you Mac does not boot from USB drives.
SuperDuper is another good cloning utlity. I use them both.
I can boot from an external Firewire 800 drive, so no problem.
BTW, Bob, can you tell me the reason why I need that external bootable drive that you suggested? Why won't my original idea work: connect the SSD as an external drive and run the Mavericks installer from my internal drive to put Mavericks on the SSD?
That will work too. I mistakenly assumed you were removing the internal and putting in an SSD.
If the SSD is external, you can install Mavericks booted from the internal and point the install towards the external SSD.
OK, thanks. I do plan to swap out my internal HD in favor of the SSD, but only after I've put Mavericks on the SSD and verified that my crucial apps work with Mavericks, because I can't afford productivity downtime just now.
OK, done. It was as easy as it should have been. It's just that I'd read about complicating factors, so I was hesitant to try what I thought should work. Now for the grunt work of installing everything else. Fortunately, not much downtime should be involved, as I'll keep it as an external drive until everything is ready for the great drive switcheroo (thanks to iFixit).
Thanks, everyone, for all your help.
As for your "switcharroo", here are excellent how to videos:
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbookpro_13_unibody_early11_hd/
I've used these myself and they worked a treat.
I Also have this question, what I wanted to know was, do I need to format my ssd first? or will the install guide ask me to do that as I install Mavericks to the new ssd?
i Plan on making a USB boot drive for Mavericks, then installing my new ssd into my MacBook Pro 2011 13"
thanks
You should partition your new SSD, 1 partition is fine, but on the partition tab, you get to use "Options" and set the partition type as GUID, which you will need to boot from the SSD.
You should do this before you install. This can be done from a fully booted OS X system or from the Recovery partition of your current Mac, or if running 10.6 or earlier, from the original installation DVD.
Install Mavericks on new SSD
