[ Mac] New Users

[CMcK]

Restoring from a Time Machine backup is a doodle. Did it when I sold my iMac to a mate. It's an option on the installer disc.

[Richie_uk]

Restoring from a Time Machine backup is a doodle. Did it when I sold my iMac to a mate. It's an option on the installer disc.

Nice one, just backed my imac up ready to install Snow Lep at the weekend.

[JP]

Thanks. I didn't realise that you could use TimeMachine for a full backup, I'll have a look in a bit.

From what I've read from people who've been using the upgrade disc, it's actually a full installation disc which gives you the option to upgrade or install Snow Leopard on a freshly formatted hdd.

[Richie_uk]

From what I've read from people who've been using the upgrade disc, it's actually a full installation disc which gives you the option to upgrade or install Snow Leopard on a freshly formatted hdd.

is it better to upgrade, or do a full format ?

[randombs]

Quick question - does anyone on here with a Mac laptop use a 7200rpm drive?

I bought a new 13" Macbook Pro (2.26ghz one) a few weeks back and want a bigger hard drive, around 250gb or so. I've been intrigued by 7200rpm laptop hard drives but haven't got round to buying one, nor have I even knowingly handled one, but they seem quite cheap (?46 for a seagate 7200rpm 320gb hdd).

I'm a bit worried about heat and possibly noise, but also would be interested in whether or not they really make a difference? I've seen the difference between 4200 and 5400 and it's quite a lot. Also, I'll be upgrading the ram to 4gb at the same time (in case someone replies about more ram being more useful than just a faster hard drive).

Regarding usage, I'll be using Ableton (and other music programs) which likes a fast hard drive as well as regular browsing, MSN and whatnot. As it stands, I find the OSX very responsive and it doesn't seem to be affected much by hdd thrashing like my XP machine does for general use, but I don't mind losing out on gigabytes if the speed difference is worthwhile (500gb 5400 rpm drive is ?55) as I have a desktop which I use to watch videos on and they take up the most space for me compared with music, apps, etc.

[SegaMark]

Tempted with a 7200RPM for my MBP too, for improved performance. So I would also like to know if it's worth it on a 13" MBP and if it impacts much on the battery life.

[randombs]

I've been sifting through forums regarding 5400 vs 7200 but now I'm having to figure out which drives work ok with the 13" MBPs. Apple doesn't offer a 7200 rpm option for the 13", only the 15" and 17" models I believe, which led me to wonder if it's a heat/vibration issue due to the all-aluminium body.

Also, it seems the recent power management (or Sudden Motion Sensor) causes havoc with the 7200 rpm drives installed by Apple, which are the Seagate Momentus drives, activating the sensor even when nothing's happening which causes the drive to spin down for a while and then spin back up (around 20 seconds or so). I believe the drives themselves are the G versions which have a built-in motion sensor anyway and this sensor coupled with the one in the MBP itself causes the problem.

Right now my shortlist is either a 320gb Seagate Momentus 7200.4 for £46 or a 320gb WD Scorpion Blue 5400rpm (the black version has a motion sensor) for only £38.

It seems the WD holds its own against the Seagate speed-wise, while still being 5400rpm and so a bit quieter/cooler/etc. Problem is I can't find any definite arguments for reliability/noise/heat either way.

I'll need to play about with Ableton a bit more, it may be the case that I don't really need 7200rpm if I load all the sounds into ram...

[Magnakai]

I stuck a 320GB 7200RPM Western Digital Black into my 2.16Ghz Macbook about six months ago, and it's been great. The space upgrade (from 80GB) was delightful, and the extra speed has been noticable. I also use Ableton frequently, and haven't noticed any specific extra speediness in that. It's been better overall though.

[eASY aDDICT]

I put a 7200rpm WD 320Gb Black in from new on my unibody 13"

It's been faultless. Can't comment on battery life as I put it in the day I got the macbook so never ran the 5400rpm Momentus that was in it.

Doesn't seem too noisy to me.

[randombs]

Cheers for the info lads, and it's interesting you've put one in your uMBP as the black has the motion sensor, so maybe the issue I found out about is specifically the Seagate's motion sensor playing up.

In other news, I managed to borrow a 250gb WD scorpio blue from work to see what it's like. If it's cool I'll probably hang on to it instead of buying the 320gb one

[Brad]

is it better to upgrade, or do a full format ?

Upgrade is fine mate. This isn't Windows...

[ChrisF]

Apparenly upgrading is probably what's causing my issues, so I've been told. Been advised to do a clean re-install. It may not be Windows but it's doing a good impression

[Fei Fong Wong]

Erase and install might help Chris. Sometimes with upgrades the "baggage" you take from the old OS can have a negative effect. Also bear in mind that migrating your settings & applications back after a clean install can also sometimes have the same impact. If all else fails do a clean install of OS X and then install your applications again manually ensuring you have the latest updates for SL fixes.

[Brad]

Sorry to hear of your woes Chris. I guess it can't go swimmingly for everyone (despite what Apple might claim!).

[randombs]

Well, after a brilliant week in a cold sweat having discovered the EFI 1.7 firmware update that unlocks the full 3Gb/s sata bandwidth had severely limited my choice of hdd upgrade, I managed to roll back to 1.6 with a dodgy firmware downgrader from a post on a Russian forum (don't worry, I waited until there were enough positive results posted by forumites on the Apple forum. In fact, there were no problems reported by anyone at all) and now all is well in the world again.

I ordered 2x2gb Crucial ram from eBuyer and got it on Friday morning, along with my Snow Leopard upgrade, only to find the Mac beeping when both sticks were inserted! That's going back to eBuyer and I'll buy some more in the meantime from Crucial directly.

Snow Leopard is installed and well, and I'm beginning the long and arduous process of bringing over all my stuff from my old laptop - my iPod hasn't been updated in about six months and I've been using my iRiver in the meantime as I was using a temporary laptop - but it looks like I'm finally settling in now.

A few quick questions though:

1) Does anyone here partition their hard drive? I'm not talking about Boot Campers, just plain OSX users. As it stands I can't think of a good enough reason to install XP on here just yet, but was wondering if it's a good idea to carry over my PC philosophy of OS+apps on one partition, and all user data on another, or not to worry and just put everything in folders. Of course, the reason I used to do that was mainly for ease of formatting and reinstalling XP, which I imagine I'm not going to have to do too frequently with OSX, but are there any negative effects if I do this? Will some programs only look in certain places for things? Speaking of resizing partitions - can I just start the Bootcamp wizard, resize the partitions but not install XP, instead just reformat the XP partition as a Mac one and then carry on from there, or should I use a proper partitioning app?

2) Does anyone use OSX's (SL or otherwise) built-in firewall? If so, is it ok? If not, do you use a different program or not use any firewall at all? With XP and Vista I just use the built-in firewalls and they're fine and easy to use with minimal configuring.

3) What about antivirus? I'm worried AV software might mess with the the super-smooth feeling of the OS while in use (e.g. I find hard drive thrashing doesn't seem to impact on the responsiveness of other programs) but I imagine it's going to become necessary, if it isn't already

Cheers in advance, guys, and other than the feeling of dread experienced this week with EFI 1.7, that of Apple holding me by the proverbial balls, I don't regret switching at all.