Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

angelmb · Oct 1, 2008, 01:15 PM

So I have this hard disk as boot hard disk and there is where all my stuff goes…

I wonder if it would be any worth to use the currently unused second hard disk inside my Mac Pro as my primary hard disk, it is this one.

Would I notice any improvement?, it is not like I need it really but once you have to choose one as the hard disk that gets all the goodies… my only complaint about the WD is that I would expect it being quieter, could the Samsung be quieter? (besides what the specs say)

tooki · Oct 1, 2008, 09:09 PM

The bigger drive is probably faster. And since the beginning of a disk is faster than the end, putting 320GB of data on a 640GB drive will give better performance than filling the 320GB.

angelmb · Oct 2, 2008, 12:26 AM

Thanks tooki, I guess I would tell SuperDuper to clone it.

Simon · Oct 2, 2008, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by angelmb

Thanks tooki, I guess I would tell SuperDuper to clone it.

No need for third-party tools to clone.

Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder or in the utilities menu on the OS X installer DVD) has a Restore tab. In that tab you drag source and destination partitions to their respective fields and you're done. Select Erase destination to make an exact clone of your source disk. Rock stable. Much faster than all the other solutions (block copy mode). And none of the issues people using SD or CCC have reported.

angelmb · Oct 2, 2008, 06:54 AM

Thanks Simon. Well, tried Disk Utility's Restore option, didn't like it. Firstly, destination HD 'has' to get the same name that source HD, some may like that but I don't. Then the 'clone' is not perfect. Once booted up from the destination HD I miss some things, e.g. Little Snitch rules are gone… but well, I had never tried it and at least now I can say why I like SuperDuper better

Thanks though.

Simon · Oct 2, 2008, 06:59 AM

You can change the name to whatever you want once the clone has completed.

Also, block copy does exactly that. The destination will be a perfect clone, block by block. If an app behaves differently after a clone it has to do with the app, not the clone. A good example is iTunes. If you clone a disk to another Mac iTunes will require you to authorize the new computer. It's not because the disk contents have changed after the clone, but because iTunes notices that the Mac has changed.

Obviously it's ultimately your choice which product to chose. And you are free to lay out $28 for a tool that at least partially replicates included functionality. Personally however, when it comes to things like clones and backups I see no reason to take any chances. CCC and Super Duper have in the past both had bugs that caused issues for some people. asr (the underlying tool used for DU's Restore) is rock stable. And it is much faster as well.

angelmb · Oct 3, 2008, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

You can change the name to whatever you want once the clone has completed.

Of course you can, but still I prefer the hard disk keeping a previously given name… a minor pain but choosing to reboot between two or three hard disk dubbed 'Macintosh HD' is not that straight forward.

A good example is iTunes. If you clone a disk to another Mac iTunes will require you to authorize the new computer. It's not because the disk contents have changed after the clone, but because iTunes notices that the Mac has changed.

I wonder how iTunes knows about it. My Quark XPress copy didn't need to be reactivated after the clone process was finished.

And it is much faster as well.

Well, SuperDuper! was eight minutes faster than Disk Utility, but YMMV.

Last but not least, this Samsung hard disk is indeed quieter than this Western Digital model.

Now let see if I can (re)install MS Office 2008, the three updates I ran yesterday borked it so badly that I had to nuked it from the Mac, but that's another matter…

tooki · Oct 8, 2008, 06:31 PM

On a file-level copy, SuperDuper and CCC may be faster, because they skip some cache files and whatnot that Disk Utility copies.

In block copy mode, Disk Utility or CCC blow away anything using file copy, including all 3 of these utilities in file copy mode.

Ted L. Nancy · Oct 11, 2008, 11:40 AM

SuperDuper! is so seamlessly easy to schedule copies. It's integration with Time Machine is great for novice users. I could not live without SuperDuper!, it has saved me on more than one occasion.

You know which way my vote goes.

SierraDragon · Oct 11, 2008, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by angelmb

So I have this hard disk as boot hard disk and there is where all my stuff goes… I wonder if it would be any worth to use the currently unused second hard disk inside my Mac Pro as my primary hard disk...

What apps you use and how much of what kinds of data are involved will affect which disks are best used for optimum performance. In general the OS and apps should be on the boot drive with data on the other, and drives slow as they fill so for best speed make sure neither drive exceeds half full.

Do not forget daily on-site and minimum weekly off-site backup in your planning.

Good luck!

-Allen Wicks

angelmb · Oct 12, 2008, 04:22 AM

Thanks Allen, well, apps are mainly QXP8 and the CS3 suite, besides the 'oh I guess have to fire up iWork or Office for that thing' kind of use. I guess I need to redo my strategy when it comes to hard disk use, right now the second one (the WD hard disk) is just my Time Machine and scratch disk for those apps that benefit of it. I can't see myself filling up any of those even half full, minor things go to a USB2 LaCie brick which is as good looking as slow and noisy… you get the idea