[nerdlord20]

Hey!
So just a few quick questions...

I'm currently perfecting my 10v snow leopard setup, as it is going to be my main machine for a while, and was looking to upgrade my hard drive to a SSD.

SO

1) If I were to do this, should I go with a 128 GB or a 256 GB?

2) COULD I reformat the SSD to Mac OSX Extended (Journaled) using disk utility and the included USB to Hard drive cable, and then simply reinstall snow leopard via a USB thumb drive and (during the install) restore from a time machine backup of my old hard drive (the one I originally hackintoshed)

3) ASSUMING that ^ goes well, could I then reformat and install Windows 7 on my new 160 GB hard drive and essentially have a SSD Mac and a Windows 7 Netbook that boots from the external drive?

Thanks in Advance!!!

---------- Post added at 03:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 AM ----------

OH and I have the 2GB RAM upgrade coming in the mail, so consider it a 2GB machine

[holmes4]

For SSDs, bigger is always better as they are faster. But also more expensive. How much space do you think you'll need?

Otherwise, an SSD acts like a normal rotating disk drive, so anything you could do with a rotating disk you can do with an SSD. I didn't fully understand all of what you wanted to do, but will note that Windows doesn't like to run from removable drives - I'm not sure if you were asking about that.

[nerdlord20]

sorry lol

what i mean to do is REPLACE my 160 GB HD with a SSD.

In order to transfer my Hackintosh Setup, would I just reformat the SSD and then either (A) Do a fresh install and simply restore from my old time machine backup or (B) Use Carbon Copy Cloner to completely transfer my HD to the new SSD? If I did the second one, would I have to run NBI or modify anything, or would CCC take care of everything?

and as for space I have roughly 80 GB left on the 160 GB Hard Drive


Point taken on the whole Windows thing. Could I just partition the SSD? In which case I'll definitely get the 256 GB. I could still use my old HD though, assuming I had the cable?

[holmes4]

Whatever you could do to a hard disk you could do to an SSD. Using CCC to make the copy seems like the most straightforward approach to me. You should not have to redo anything.

As for partitioning, sure - lots of threads on that in the Dual Boot section. My own experience was that I needed to install OS X first, leaving some unformatted space for Windows, then installing Windows into the unformatted space. I never got it to work the other way around.

[nerdlord20]

Cool thanks for all the help!
Do you think the final setup would be a workable main machine for a while? I'm going to college next year and really just need the windows portion for some smaller apps that I can't get on OSX.

[holmes4]

Only you can decide if it's "workable". It will certainly work, as in operate reasonably. I ran my Mini 9 this way for a while.

[nerdlord20]

Good point lol

Well thanks and ill post back when this is all said and done. Lastly, are SSDs reliable? I've heard rumors of people on 10vs losing their setups due to SSD failure.

[holmes4]

Well, the custom SSD used in the Mini 9 had many failures, even from different manufacturers. The 10v takes a standard SATA drive and reliability of those has gotten a lot better. If reliability is paramount, buy an Intel drive. It's the only brand I will use in my desktop systems.

That said, I recall reading issues on the 10v specifically due to the way its drive was wired up to the chipset. Some people had compatibility issues. I suggest you look to see which makes and models people were successful with.

[nerdlord20]

Well here's the specific one I'm looking at:

256GB, 2.5-inch Solid State Drive, upgrades for Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (1011) Netbook, CT1998021 from Crucial.com

It's guaranteed to work with the mini 10v, and I really think Windows or OSX makes no difference when it comes to the hardware (at least for Hard Drives / SSDs)

[uuncndl1]

Just put a new SSD into a Dell Mini9 which is similar. Once you've installed the new SSD, you will want to format it. I used my original osx usb install drive and once it booted, went into "Utilities" and then "Disk Utility". You will want to format the new SSD following directions/guides found in my signature...
And then you have two choices: Either do a fresh install with your osx usb disk or you can use a carbon copy clone and boot that to your new SSD. Should work either way.
Let us know what you decide.
Cheers