# Concerned about swapping around ssd drives.



## el-bo (May 26, 2021)

Currently have 2 internal ssd in my 2012 macbook Pro. Would like to swap my 1tb ssd backup drive into the boot slot, with the 2tb ssd, to be used as a second boot drive and samples/Kontakt folder. My only concern is that my current installation (2tb drive) will have a different system id (or whatever), meaning that there may be some conflict with currently authorised programs on the (to become) second drive.

Does anyone know if this'll be a problem?

Thanks


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## musicalweather (May 26, 2021)

I swapped external SSDs a few months ago. The new SSD was larger than the old one, but the data was the same -- I simply cloned the old one onto the new one. Most of the VSTs (Kontakt, but also others like Toontrack) did _not_ recognize the sample paths (even though the location was technically the same), I assume because of the new hardware. I should have made some notes on what happened, but from what I remember: some VSTs simply had to be pointed to their respective sample folders. Other VSTs had to be reinstalled using installation managers. I think some others had to be reauthorized. All in all, it took some work but wasn't too onerous. I don't think I ever had to contact technical support. I wish I had taken some notes because I'm sure I'll have to do this again in the future.


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## el-bo (May 26, 2021)

musicalweather said:


> I swapped external SSDs a few months ago. The new SSD was larger than the old one, but the data was the same -- I simply cloned the old one onto the new one. Most of the VSTs (Kontakt, but also others like Toontrack) did _not_ recognize the sample paths (even though the location was technically the same), I assume because of the new hardware. I should have made some notes on what happened, but from what I remember: some VSTs simply had to be pointed to their respective sample folders. Other VSTs had to be reinstalled using installation managers. I think some others had to be reauthorized. All in all, it took some work but wasn't too onerous. I don't think I ever had to contact technical support. I wish I had taken some notes because I'm sure I'll have to do this again in the future.


Thanks!

My situation will be a little different to yours, but I suspect that I'll encounter the same kinds of difficulties. Re-authorisation is not the worst, I guess. But reinstalling on both drives might be alittle infuriating.

I think that in the end I'll probably end up deleting much of what'll be the 2nd drive/OS installation, and just keep it as a bare-bones system/testing space (New plugins, as well as old).

I just hope that it'll at least boot up


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## gamma-ut (May 26, 2021)

If your 2TB drive is already the boot drive, why do you need to swap it? I’m not clear on what you’re expecting to do. OS X will cheerfully boot off an external drive if you tell it to - the boot drive doesn’t have to be in a specific slot. But maybe I’m missing something.

Also, C/r keys off different things - some will work rightaway with an upgraded drive, some won’t depending on what they use for the system fingerprint.


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## el-bo (May 26, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> If your 2TB drive is already the boot drive, why do you need to swap it? I’m not clear on what you’re expecting to do. OS X will cheerfully boot off an external drive if you tell it to - the boot drive doesn’t have to be in a specific slot. But maybe I’m missing something.
> 
> Also, C/r keys off different things - some will work rightaway with an changes drive, some won’t depending on what they use for the system fingerprint.


Thanks!

I've been booting off of external drives for years. Even the 1tb is bootable. I guess I just assumed that having the primary boot drive in 'slot A' is preferable, on a long-term basis. I know I can set the boot default in system prefs, but is there really no downside to perpetually booting from the 2nd SATA port? (Where the DVD drive used to be attached)


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## Technostica (May 26, 2021)

el-bo said:


> I know I can set the boot default in system prefs, but is there really no downside to perpetually booting from the 2nd SATA port? (Where the DVD drive used to be attached)


As long as the 2nd port runs at the same speed as the 1st one I can’t see that there will be any difference.
Unless there is a strange quirk in the system design.


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## gamma-ut (May 26, 2021)

It may depend on your specific MBP. In general, OS X doesn’t care. The only question is whether the Mac treats the two SATA channels the same way. I’ve seen reports that sometimes they are nominally the same but one works faster than the other (though this may be down to different drives being used rather than anything intrinsic to the Mac’s SATA controller. If the System Report shows them as the same speed, there should be no tangible difference.


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## el-bo (May 26, 2021)

Technostica said:


> As long as the 2nd port runs at the same speed as the 1st one I can’t see that there will be any difference.


Both ports offer this information in 'system report':


_Intel 7 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 7 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Physical Interconnect: SATA
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported_




Technostica said:


> Unless there is a strange quirk in the system design.


That strange quirk would be me


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## Technostica (May 26, 2021)

SATA is fairly straightforward, so as the ports are the same type I would treat them as being interchangeable unless there is evidence that they aren't.


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## el-bo (May 26, 2021)

Technostica said:


> SATA is fairly straightforward, so as the ports are the same type I would treat them as being interchangeable unless there is evidence that they aren't.


The only slight confounding factor would be that the 1tb drive (Port b/2) is a few years older. I doubt there's really much in it, though (Crucial MX300 vs MX500). I don't remember detecting any real performance leap when I got the newer model. Will run a Blackmagic test on it, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Anyway, thanks guys. Bit of a brainfart, in the end


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## gamma-ut (May 27, 2021)

Harking back to ye olde days of parallel ATA/IDE drives, IIRC there was a primary and secondary drive on the chain and PCs were fussy about which one they would boot from, so it would seem natural that would carry on into SATA.


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## Technostica (May 27, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> Harking back to ye olde days of parallel ATA/IDE drives, IIRC there was a primary and secondary drive on the chain and PCs were fussy about which one they would boot from, so it would seem natural that would carry on into SATA.


It didn't. There is no 'chain' with SATA drives as every drive has its own cable.


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## gamma-ut (May 27, 2021)

I know. I'm just saying that it's a fairly natural assumption if based on prior experience.


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 27, 2021)

I don't understand the issue. You just go into the Startup Disk panel and tell the Mac which drive to start up from (or hold Option during startup).


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## Technostica (May 27, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> I know. I'm just saying that it's a fairly natural assumption if based on prior experience.


They are such different technologies that making assumptions is not at all natural in this case. 
Assumptions are dangerous.
Better to assume one is ignorant.


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## el-bo (May 27, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> Harking back to ye olde days of parallel ATA/IDE drives, IIRC there was a primary and secondary drive on the chain and PCs were fussy about which one they would boot from, so it would seem natural that would carry on into SATA.


Well, I've done some initial testing. Both drives are pretty similar speeds, tested via Blackmagic. But when booting from the 2nd bay, it's much slower to reach the login page. Will do some more testing over the coming days. No problem with a longer boot-up time, or apps taking a few extra milliseconds to load...as long as once everything is loaded there are no performance losses.


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## el-bo (May 27, 2021)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> I don't understand the issue. You just go into the Startup Disk panel and tell the Mac which drive to start up from (or hold Option during startup).


I've been booting from different drives for well over a decade. But I've never used an external drive as a permanent fixture. Need to be certain there is no performance difference. It seems like there probably isn't (Not a show-stopping amount, anyway).


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 27, 2021)

The computer doesn't care whether it's internal or internal.

Are you sure there's a difference in loading times if you do the same test three times? I'd be very surprised.


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## el-bo (May 27, 2021)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> The computer doesn't care whether it's internal or internal.
> 
> Are you sure there's a difference in loading times if you do the same test three times? I'd be very surprised.


Actually, booting back into the 'A' drive also took longer than normal. Perhaps it is just the first run-through with a switched drive. Will do some more quick tests, tomorrow.


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## el-bo (May 30, 2021)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> The computer doesn't care whether it's internal or internal.
> 
> Are you sure there's a difference in loading times if you do the same test three times? I'd be very surprised.


After some more testing, it seems that three really is the magic number. The first boot of the alternate bay (B) takes over a minute, compared to the 23-5 seconds of normal drive A booting. A second run-through bought the time down to about 32 seconds, after which it levelled out the same as drive A.
When switching back to booting from drive A, it follows exactly the same pattern.

So I;m curious why you explicitly mentioned three times. What is it doing on each run?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 1, 2021)

It's probably caching stuff that gets loaded when you start up.


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