{"id":16518,"date":"2013-01-14T10:27:30","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T16:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=16518"},"modified":"2014-05-22T13:26:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:26:41","slug":"my-first-two-days-with-data-doubler-mercury-ssd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/16518-my-first-two-days-with-data-doubler-mercury-ssd\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Two Days With Data Doubler, Mercury SSD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Aaron Sumner, Guest Blogger<\/p>\n

I just replaced my MacBook Pro\u2019s original 350 GB hard drive with a 240 GB solid state drive from Other World Computing, installed with the Data Doubler bracket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While I was at it I figured I\u2019d go ahead and install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion on the new drive (upgrading from Lion on the old drive). I\u2019m almost two days into the upgrade and wanted to share my experiences so far.<\/p>\n

First off, some rationale: Why upgrade my drive instead of my computer, and why go with a Data Doubler instead of just swapping the drives?<\/strong> First off, while I admittedly covet the 13-inch Retina Display, I was hoping to get at least another year out of my old Core 2 Duo-based model. I\u2019ve had the RAM maxed out since the day I bought it, so the next feasible update was a faster and\/or larger hard drive. I\u2019d initially thought about swapping the stock drive with a solid state drive and putting the stock into an external enclosure, but realized that would mean having to tote an external drive around whenever I wanted access to my photos or music. Not ideal. I also thought about just dropping as large of a hard drive as I could buy into the laptop, but figured that wouldn\u2019t get me anywhere in terms of speed.<\/p>\n

The Data Doubler, coupled with an external optical drive enclosure, turned out to be ideal<\/strong>. I\u2019ve now got 590 GB of total space. My operating system, apps, and day-to-day files are on a fast SSD, and my media have plenty of room on a drive that\u2019s now media-only.<\/p>\n

One more note on justification: I went with OWC\u2019s base-level Mercury Electra 3G line<\/a> of SSDs, for two reasons: First, the optical bay in my laptop won\u2019t support faster speeds (read the fine print on the OWC site); and second, I didn\u2019t want to throw too<\/em> much money into an aging Apple device. I am, though, fine with spending around $300 to boost both speed and overall storage, while keeping an optical option in the process. As a longtime fan of Other World Computing (they did help me keep a Sawtooth-based G4 tower going well beyond its prime, after all), I trust them to have quality products designed to work with Macs out of the box. This experience has been no exception.<\/p>\n

Installation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hardware installation was smooth<\/strong> \u2013 in under 30 minutes I had my optical drive removed, replaced with the Data Doubler bracket and a 240 GB solid state drive, and said optical drive installed in an external case. That said, if you\u2019ve never cracked open a computer before this probably isn\u2019t the best way to get your feet wet \u2013 I would recommend getting some help. If you\u2019ve ever swapped out a hard drive before, though, this is in your wheelhouse. The package itself includes a detailed, step-by-step guide. I also found it helpful to watch the video<\/a> provided by OWC.<\/p>\n

Mountain Lion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So far the only issue I\u2019ve had has nothing to do with the hardware but with how the Mac App Store saw my new configuration. Since I hadn\u2019t yet erased the old hard drive while I was getting up and running, the App Store thought I\u2019d already had my purchased apps installed. To work around this I had to add the old drive to Spotlight\u2019s privacy settings (System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy<\/em>), reboot, and unmount the drive. After I did that and fired the Mac App Store back up I was able to install my apps fresh.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0have to say it was nice having my old data on a drive already mounted and in the actual laptop<\/strong>\u2013it was simple to grab the data I needed and move it over to the new drive.<\/p>\n

Media disk<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m now using my factory-installed drive as a media disk. It houses my iTunes library, my iPhoto library, a few disk images I want to hold onto and videos I intend to watch someday. (Note: To tell iTunes and iPhoto where your media files are located, hold down the option<\/em> key as you open them.)<\/p>\n

While these files along with my system and regular document and code-like files were crowding the drive, when the non-media have been moved over to another drive I\u2019ve got room to spare. This is the real beauty of the Data Doubler, in my opinion \u2013 I\u2019ve got my media, and I\u2019ve got it right here. <\/em><\/strong>No regretting that I didn\u2019t bring that external drive along when I want to listen to a certain album or show off some certain photos. And yeah, I\u2019ve got hundreds of CDs yet to rip\u2013but thanks to the optical drive enclosure<\/a> I added to my order it\u2019s just a matter of plugging in the drive.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll admit to running a speed test app, but it didn\u2019t tell me a whole lot \u2013 and I\u2019m more interested in real-world results, anyway. So here are a few:<\/p>\n