I wanted to use a SanDisk Extreme 120 SSD to boot both my ALS G5 iMac and my mid-2010 mini, with 10.5.8 and 10.7.3, respectively.

Taking space-time's advice, I used my G5 to make the SSD an APM volume, and two partitions, and install and update 10.5 on one of them.

Then I connected the drive to my mini and used the Install ESD to put 10.7.3 on the remaining partitions.

I booted from each partition and ran permissions, then booted from my mini's HDD and ran DiskWarrior on both partitions. (DIrectory fragmentation was 30% on each).

The G5 boots from the external volume via FW400. It's quick enough, definitely faster than my current maxed out HDD with 10.5.8.

On my mini (2.4GHz/8G) things have sped up quite a bit. As has been noted in previous threads, things happen much quicker. Apps launch with one bounce most of the time, and populated window <POP> onto the screen. Restarting is a little faster than with the mini's HDD, but not as fast as my 2.0GHz/4G BMB with an SSD. So I guess there are situations where a given drive is faster on an internal buss than it is on an external one.

The vast majority of operations now have an instant feel to them that you just don't get without an SSD. It reminds me of old florescent lighting compared to new CFLs. Like telling all my apps to "Jump!" And they ask "How high?"

On the way up!



So I too will convert all my Macs to SSD and time and money permit.

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You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

This is what I love about the phorum-I have only a vague idea what Ram is talking about! But it's cool because I learn about something I would have never even come across if it weren't for this site.
What's an ALS G5? What's an APM volume and what does "installing ESD" mean?

APM = Apple Partition Map. This was used for PPC machine, with Intel they switched to GUID.

PPC will read and boot of an APM. PPC will read but not boot of a GUID.

INTEL with read and boot off GUID. INTEL will read and boIT of an APM, the tricky part is to install an Intel OSX on a APM, I think that involes installing to a GUID forst and then cloning to an APM.

ALS G5 is some sort of Aluminium G5 iMac, I am not sure what the S stands for.

EDS is the name of the dmg file found in the Lion installed App.

ALS = "Ambient Light Sensor" iMac G5 - white plastic, not aluminum.
the model before the iSight iMac G5.

Intel will boot from APM formatted HFS+ drives, but you cannot install firmware updates while booted from APM, it must be GUID.

[eshop.macsales.com]

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[www.giyf.com]

Great info. Thanx!

Sorry about the abbreviations and lack of link to my previous post on the subject.

I was really tired and slightly lazy.

The whole purpose of this exercise was to have an external drive that would let me compare the SSD to both the G5 iMac's and Intel mini's HDDs (hard disk drives).

This is not meant to be a permanent application. After playing with the SSD and both computers for awhile, I'll reformat the volume partition map to GPT (GUID Partition Table) as one partition, and put 10.7 and eventually 10.8 on it.

Then it will pull boot duty for my mini until I get a 320G SSD to put inside the mini. I'm hoping somebody here does it first.

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You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.