Comments on: ExpressCard SSD in MacBook Pro

By: Paul Lefebvre

Paul Lefebvre — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:25:34 +0000

I have no idea if the ExpressCard SSD will ever show signs of slowing down, but this web site had some good tips for how to restore an SSD’s performance:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-SSD-Reconditioning.html

By: JoeyN

JoeyN — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:54:29 +0000

Got my ExpressCard SSD today and installed Snow Leopard.. Definitely quicker, but I’ve run into one big issue: None of my Adobe CS4 products will run. When I try to launch any product, a popup says “Licensing for this product has stopped working.”. I tried to use Adobe’s license recovery tool and I also called their tech support. They suggested uninstalling all the products then reinstalling. So, I’m currently downloading the 5GB install file from their website
Just a warning for anyone thinking of booting off this ExpressCard and keeping their CS4 apps on their internal HD.

By: Paul Lefebvre

Paul Lefebvre — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:10:11 +0000

@JoeyN: No, I did not remove Snow Leopard from the HD. I may still need to boot from it occasionally.

I did use the same name/short name for the account, but I don’t know that I had to do that. The important thing is to point this new user account to the user account on the HD (as described in the original post).

Of course all this is moot if you’re just going to use it as a scratch drive.

By: JoeyN

JoeyN — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:41:54 +0000

Thanks, got it.. Did you take any steps to remove Snow Leopard from your HD? Also, when you reinstalled, did you have to be careful to choose the same name/short name from your previous os?

I’m also considering not installing snow leopard on the SSD but instead using it just as scratch drive for photoshop.. during use, photoshop can sometimes it can take 15-20 gigs off my HD, which is about all I have left.

By: Paul Lefebvre

Paul Lefebvre — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:08:58 +0000

No. Since I installed OS X on the SSD, that is where the Applications folder now is. For the apps that I use often, I reinstalled (or just copied) them into the SSD application folder.

For apps that I don’t use as often, I left in the HD application folder and simply launch them using Overflow. None of the apps really seems to care *where* they are, but they do launch much faster when they are on the SSD.

By: JoeyN

JoeyN — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:12:28 +0000

“I then reinstalled a few commonly used apps onto the ExpressCard so that they would launch faster.”

Do you mean that you reinstalled some apps somewhere other than your applications folder? Did you just make a new folder on the SSD for these apps? Are apps typically “OK” with this?
Thanks!

By: Paul Lefebvre

Paul Lefebvre — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:57:31 +0000

@Bertie: From what I’ve read you can use an ExpressCard SSD in a 2006 MBP but you cannot boot from, which negates most of the speed boost.

You might want to check the comments on the original Mac OS X Hints article. I believe some folks there note which models this will work with.

By: Bertie

Bertie — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:39:30 +0000

Will these work in my 2006 MBP?

By: Paul Lefebvre

Paul Lefebvre — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:48:45 +0000

That stinks about the freezing. So far mine has not had that problem.

I would think that the manufacturer would replace it for you since it does have a 1 year warranty.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:52:29 +0000

I got one and had similar experience. Remember to use the GUID partitioning. It won’t work unless you do that.

The problem I had was that it freezes occasionally (maybe every other day with light use). Hard freeze, requires hard reset. I contacted the manufacturer and they said that they see this on a small number of units and don’t know the cause. So I went back to the hard disk and, basically, I have a $200 paperweight..