I found these comments very very helpful! I’m in the process of ordering my Wintec SSD right now actually. I was just wondering tho, I noticed that there are two Expresscards offered by Wintec: Expresscard 34 Ultra and the Expresscard 34 SSD.

http://www.wintecind.com/FileMate/index_solidgo.htm

Which SSD has everyone in this forum been using?  I’m assuming the regular 34SSD since there was no mention of an ultra express card.  I just wanted to double check before I make my purchase.  So far Newegg has the cheapest for 170 including SH.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

I have a similar “No Booting” problem with a 64GB SSD ExpressCard from TEAM Group <www.teamgroup.com.tw>.  It was NOT recognized before installing the driver from MyDigital.  Subsequently, I found there is a similar driver on the drive from the vendor.  Interesting there was no way to access it.

I have a late 2008 2.6 GHz MacBook Pro.  It too will not boot from the TEAM Group SSD.  I believe it is a problem in the interface for the SSD’s. which incorrectly identifies the device type.  This prevents Mac from identifying the SSD as a storage device, therefore never loading the OS or the driver.

I welcome better insight!

Steve
Portland, OR

srjaynes - 19 May 2010 11:44 PM

I have a similar “No Booting” problem with a 64GB SSD ExpressCard from TEAM Group <www.teamgroup.com.tw>.  It was NOT recognized before installing the driver from MyDigital.  Subsequently, I found there is a similar driver on the drive from the vendor.  Interesting there was no way to access it.

I have a late 2008 2.6 GHz MacBook Pro.  It too will not boot from the TEAM Group SSD.  I believe it is a problem in the interface for the SSD’s. which incorrectly identifies the device type.  This prevents Mac from identifying the SSD as a storage device, therefore never loading the OS or the driver.

I welcome better insight!

Steve
Portland, OR

the reason the discussion here is usually referring specifically to the Wintec 48GB ssd expresscard is because it’s read write speeds: [115MB/sec (read) and 65MB/sec (write)] are good enough for a boot drive.
The TEAM card looks good: Read: 118MB~120MB/sec BUT Write: 37~40MB/sec (by MLC) is not so great - ‘not sure but this might effect overall speed - virtual memory etc.

The r/w speed of the Wintec 48GB is what makes it suitable, even though the capacity (48GB) means that selective installation is necessary and creative use of sim links (Cocktail) may be required.
There are many ssd expresscards available with higher capacities e.g. 64GB, 96GB but the r/w speeds are USB and not suitable for *fast* booting or launching.

This is yet another follow up since my originally installing the Wintec 48GB SSD.
Recently I have changed my setup such that my MB Pro is being used as a desktop now rather than mobile. I have a large monitor connected and the lid of MBP closed. Since doing this for 2 months or so I have started to have problems with the SSD after sleep.

Three days ago I had basically a hard crash of the SSD which I couldn’t recover from by a Disk Utility reformat. That’s the bad news. Now for the good. Wintec support provided a file which is a firmware/format utility for the drive. I had to connect it to a Windows based computer using the usb link on the FileMate. I tried to do this from within Parallels, but it wouldn’t work. But, the utility worked fine from a Windows only pc.

What appeared to be a dead SSD drive came back to life and after restoring my SuperDuper backup All is fine again.

There are many comments on other boards, Amazon, Newegg, etc. with tales of woe about the drive “breaking” and deemed useless. This utility, dated January 2010, seems to address the problems.

This experience has been worth putting up with the glitches as the performance of the SSD is so noticeably faster than when running from my stock internal HDD. The learning has been fun as well and backing up scheduled through SuperDuper has proven simple and completely reliable. I use time machine and off site to back up my home folder and SuperDuper for the sparcebundle backup of the SSD.

The question for me is can you compress the OS into just 24GB as there is the old FILEMATE 24GB Ultra ExpressCard Solid State Drive card for sale on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/FILEMATE-24GB-24-GB-Ultra-ExpressCard-Solid-State-Drive-/260521547139?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3ca84b5583#ht_2140wt_1003

Not sure if there is enough space to hold the whole OS or if they even boot on Mac, but they do have the same speed rating as the 48, and if I can’t fit all of my OS, than why not just put the important bits in an SSD that I can afford ($63)

  -Randy

Well, I guess no one knows, but the drive arrived for only $63 and it works perfectly.  See: http://www.israndy.com/Randys_Blog/Blog/Entries/2011/3/11_SSD_Boot_Speeds.html

I did NOT do anything special other than assigning the home folder after installing from the boot discs that came with the computer.  I pointed it at the user folder from the already booting HDD and it just seems to work.  Still have 5 GB for future updates, but I do not run the Apple Studio apps so I only have Garage Band filling the HDD with easily movable stuff.

Fully boots my new MacBook Pro faster than the $999 MacBook Air at only 20 seconds, but the more expensive Airs still blow me away, Air, Blow… Ha, ha.

Thanks for the clever idea, love that expresscard slot, wonder if SD slot owners can do the same thing.

  -Randy

Thanks for the update here, Randy. This is fantastic to hear!

I too am trying to boost my 2008 MacBook Pro speed with an express card SSD.. I just bought a 96 GB Wintec drive. I installed Snow Leopard on it and made a new user and pointed it to my user on the internal drive. Is there a way to move my applications folder from my internal drive and run applications off of the SSD? What about the preferences etc? I’d like to keep the data on the internal drive but run the programs from the faster SSD. How would I run mail, iTunes, IPhoto, iWork etc. When I start from the SSD with the install of snow leopard my internal drive doesn’t show on the desktop but this is not the case when I boot from the internal drive. I’m a bit nervous about this since I had a Wintec 48 GB drive that only lasted a few months before it stopped working. If someone could point me to a detailed write up of how to do this I’d be very grateful.
Thanks,
Mike

Bob C - 28 July 2010 04:55 PM

This is yet another follow up since my originally installing the Wintec 48GB SSD.
Recently I have changed my setup such that my MB Pro is being used as a desktop now rather than mobile. I have a large monitor connected and the lid of MBP closed. Since doing this for 2 months or so I have started to have problems with the SSD after sleep.

Three days ago I had basically a hard crash of the SSD which I couldn’t recover from by a Disk Utility reformat. That’s the bad news. Now for the good. Wintec support provided a file which is a firmware/format utility for the drive. I had to connect it to a Windows based computer using the usb link on the FileMate. I tried to do this from within Parallels, but it wouldn’t work. But, the utility worked fine from a Windows only pc.

What appeared to be a dead SSD drive came back to life and after restoring my SuperDuper backup All is fine again.

There are many comments on other boards, Amazon, Newegg, etc. with tales of woe about the drive “breaking” and deemed useless. This utility, dated January 2010, seems to address the problems.

This experience has been worth putting up with the glitches as the performance of the SSD is so noticeably faster than when running from my stock internal HDD. The learning has been fun as well and backing up scheduled through SuperDuper has proven simple and completely reliable. I use time machine and off site to back up my home folder and SuperDuper for the sparcebundle backup of the SSD.

Bob,
Thanks for the info on the recover utility. I may try this on my previously mentioned dead 48 GB SSD. I’ll try to contact Wintec. As a follow up to your first post, did you figure out what applications to move over to the SSD and how did you do this? Since my first 48 GB drive died I am hesitant to go “all in” with the new 96 GB drive I recently purchased. I guess your backup scheme has saved you from any terrible damage.
Thanks,
MikeL