ATTENTION Current Mac mini/A+ users: Boot Mavericks from an SD card, load a RAMdisk, dismount your internal SATA drives, and pour a drink for the musicians walking out of your speakers!

[alsterfan]

I had a successful look at:

Address Book plugins

Automator

Components

Quick Look

QuickTime

Speech/Synthesizers plus Voices

Spotlight.

Now I have finished the new installation, and for those who are bold enough to try out what I have uploaded to Dropbox, I have a small correction concerning the Launch Daemons:

If you absolutely need WiFi you better not kill those Lauch Daemon processes beginning with "com.apple.Net..." (9 all in all). In my case the WiFi symbol was greyed out. So I could not choose my network.

And 2 more showed up in the Activity Monitor that I did not need:

com.apple.ifdreader

nehelper.

Activity Monitor now shows some 68 processes, which is pretty good I think. And with respect to SQ there is a good reward for this time-consuming job.

 

Regards, Uwe

[BobL]

[quote

 

Originally Posted by Booster MPS

Gsquared not sure of the vintage of your macbook pro but I will confirm that running the OS off of a SD card or thumb drive is extremely slow. It works but it is slow. The benefits of un-mounting the computer internal drive (unless you have an SSD) are undeniable.

 

=Superdad;285451

 

I know it is tough to get just right (I keep back-ups of of best working SD boot drives for when something goes wrong), but my 8GB 2010 Core 2 Duo with Mavericks boot SD (just a cheap 22MB/sec SDHC) is quite snappy. 45 seconds from power-on chime to desktop with dock; iTunes, Finder, and A+ perform with no lag or delay--most of the time one would be hard pressed to even know that no HD/SSD is being used. But of course I am only using the machine for music playback.....

 

Not sure I've got the quoting systam working correctly-this is a comment about #266, on 01:02:14, a bit late, but it does bear on the 'slowness of SD' problem. I had tried three different cards in 2010 and 2012 (i5) minis; the speed varied, but booting up from the best of these, as I reported earlier, was slower than than starting up an Apple II from a 5.25 inch floppy. The worst took over 10 min., and trying to operate Audirvana+ gave nothing at first, then a bouncing dock icon. If I got at all impatient and tried another keypress things would appear to freeze until the spinning ball appeared (sometimes that even stopped spinning). If I was patient, it would work, but so slowly...

 

However, finally I decided to try the 32G Transcend card which Superdad has used.

 

Eureka!

 

Now booting takes less than a minute, only about 2x that of my SSD. Audirvana and iTunes work as if I was on the SSD.

 

At least for me, the answer is get the right card! This may not be anything like the whole story, but the ones which did not work for me (all 32G) were a grade 6 Lexar, a grade 10 "ultimate" Kingston (these were about the same, though for some things the "faster" card was slower, and a grade 10 Kingston micro (the worst). All had what appear to be polished contacts, if that is still of any relevance.

[pl_svn]

yup: would like to try the SD card boot too but... can't decide *which* card

 

Trascend, at least on photography forums/reviews, are often reported as really unreliable cards

[wwaldmanfan]

yup: would like to try the SD card boot too but... can't decide *which* card

 

Trascend, at least on photography forums/reviews, are often reported as really unreliable cards

 

From the internal Kingston 120GB SSD, boot time for optimized Mavericks on my mid-2012 2.5gHz Core i5 MBP only takes 10-12 seconds. With a SanDisk Ultra 64GB 30MB/s level 10 SDXC-I, the boot time took 2:40 minutes, and all other computer operations were correspondingly slow as molasses. So, avoid this card, too.

[pl_svn]

seen a "new generation" (new to me, at least ) of ultra fast, Class 10, U3 cards aimed at 4k video, rated for *true* 120+MB/sec read/write speed but... costs are "prohibitives" (€200+ for a 64GB, if memory deserves)

[jotauve]

Hello,

I have downloaded your folders, but I am confused.

The content in these folders is what must be removed or deactivated from a clean Mavericks install?

Thank you and regards,

Juan.

[BobL]

seen a "new generation" (new to me, at least ) of ultra fast, Class 10, U3 cards aimed at 4k video, rated for *true* 120+MB/sec read/write speed but... costs are "prohibitives" (€200+ for a 64GB, if memory deserves)

 

If there is one thing which comes out of my observations, it is that quoted speed has nothing very much to do with this game. My Kingston 'ultimate' is also recommended for video. I would not bother with expensive cards (until somebody else buys one and finds that it works....)

[pl_svn]

fully agree!

 

and, btw, I was wrong: 280MBsec is this new generation cards speed

[Superdad]

Yes, I don't think the expensive, fast cards are worth it, especially since I think the Mac's SDXC slots have a speed limit. Also, I seem to recall that any card larger than 32GB has to formatted differently (I could be wrong on this but I don't have time this morning to research this aspect).

 

I agree that the Sandisk SD seem to suck. I have had nothing but trouble with any of that brand that I tried (and despite Sandisk being the brand prone to being counterfeited, the ones I tried were genuine). My 32GB Transcend Class 10 has held up well for over a year, though after some reformatting/reloading a couple of months ago it now boots Mavericks in 70 seconds instead of 45. Once booted though, system response is fine and snappy.

 

I still have sealed in the box on my desk a 32GB Toshiba Exceria SDHC UHS-I Type 2 rated to read at 95MB/s and write at 60MB/s. Once I get into Yosemite and work out a slimmed version on my Trancend, I'll give this fancy Exceria card a try and report if it improves things (SQ or boot/use speed) in any way. Probably not before the end of this year…

 

Best to all you guys!

 

ALEX

[pl_svn]

thanks Alex

 

re 32+GB cards here's what an Apple document About the SD and SDXC card slot says:

 

"Does the SD slot work with cards that exceed 32 GB?

 

Yes. However, most media manufactures preformat the media using common block-and-cluster sizes that do not approach the theoretical limits of a given file system. Most SD cards use the FAT32 file format. Preformatted FAT32 SD media is commonly available up to a capacity of 32 GB. Media that exceeds 32GB usually uses the exFAT file system. (...)

 

 

Will the SD card slot work with SD cards that use the exFAT file system?

 

Yes. Any Mac computer with an SD card slot and running Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later can use the exFAT file system. (...)"

 

 

not clear, though, if a 32+GB card can be formatted for MacOS

[Superdad]

Thanks Paolo. Ah yes, now I remember, I worried that one could not format a large SDXC card with exFAT and still use the GUID partition map required to be able to have a volume boot an Intel Mac. But I just took a spare small SD card, formatted as exFAT and then set the partition map to GUID. It took it, so I guess we would be able to make a boot disk out of a 64GB+ SD card. Not that I have any reason to since I boot with a pretty slim OS and use an Ethernet-shared drive for music storage/access.

[wwaldmanfan]

not clear, though, if a 32+GB card can be formatted for MacOS

 

Sure, it can. I format my SanDisk 64GB SDXC as Mac OS Extended (non-journaled), however writing files to it is still pretty slow. Reads are faster, but still way too slow for any practical use as a boot disk, at least on my setup.

[alsterfan]

Hello,

I have downloaded your folders, but I am confused.

The content in these folders is what must be removed or deactivated from a clean Mavericks install?

Thank you and regards,

Juan.

 

Hi Juan,

If you refer to what I have uploaded, yes that exactly is (part of) the job you can do. For safety reasons I took out 5-10 files and placed them in a new folder. Then I rebooted again to check that everything I need is still working to go on. If something did no longer work properly, you could easily copy these files back.

As I have mentioned before my OS was irrepairably smashed after having touched the folder "Extensions".

 

In addition you can uninstall not needed processes that show up in the Activity Monitor (those I did not need I have mentioned above) by double-clicking them. After that you can click "i" (for information) and see the path you have to go to delete the file from there.

 

Regards, Uwe

 

Referring to the discussion about which SD card might be best suited for our purpose quite a lot has been said a few pages back in this thread. For me Sony SD cards have proved to be worth the money. And I agree with Bobl (#557) that its speed is rather unimportant (maybe the installation of the OS might be a bit quicker with a fast card, but normally this is what you do only once - till the next update perhaps).

But I still feel that my slow Sony SF32N4 Class 4 Standard 32GB SDHC card has a tiny lead over its faster counterpart (Sony SF32UX Class10 32GB SDHC). For me it is "warmer", less analytical. But that´s a matter of taste, I admit.

 

#SSD: Of course an SSD is much faster than an SD card. But once booted from an SD card it is more important for me to be able to deactivate the internal SSD/HDD. I can hear the improvement (SQ), especially if I copy the wanted files to a RAM disk, as this enables me to deactivate those HDDs too where my complete music is stored (via USB).

[AnotherSpin]

Which sd card to choose was discussed a lot in this thread earlier. Just want to repeat and summarize my own experience very shortly. Modest and cheap 16GB Transcend cards give better SQ in comparison with much faster 32GB SanDisk cards in my system (2012 mac mini with ssd). Boot time is slower with Transcend cards, and I applied some tricks detailed few pages earlier to make them boot faster. Also, while sd card/ram disks trick works for A+, it is not necessarily so for HQPlayer.

[Ipoci]

I would like to give a try to Yosemite on my MBP Retina ( still on Mountain Lion ) …

 

Is there a procedure to install it on an SD card ?

Is there a "must have" SD card for MBP ?

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

[AnotherSpin]

I would like to give a try to Yosemite on my MBP Retina ( still on Mountain Lion ) …

 

Is there a procedure to install it on an SD card ?

Is there a "must have" SD card for MBP ?

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

Hi Massimiliano,

 

Transcend works for me. Some people like Sony, it is more pricey. I would avoid to buy SanDisk again - very expensive and sound is too "thin and dry". I believe 32GB card will be ok to try. I prefer to do a clean install after formatting a card.

[alsterfan]

Is there a procedure to install it on an SD card ?

Is there a "must have" SD card for MBP ?

Hi Massimiliano,

as AnotherSpin pointed out, Transcend is good, (better avoid SanDisk, it hasn´t got polished contacts). I prefer Sony to SanDisk, especially the slowest version and maybe the cheapest of them all. Have a look here:

http://www.amazon.de/Sony-SF32N4-Class-Standard-SDHC-Speicherkarte/dp/B0034HC3B0

If SQ is what matters, a clean install is what you should do. As there is ML on your MBP you simply have to insert your SD card and boot ML. Then go to the AppStore to download Yosemite. Once it is finished (and before you will be asked to install it on your MBP cut it out (download location is "Programs") and put it into a folder of your own choice. In the meantime you can format your card (GUID partition table to make it bootable) I prefer Mac OS Extended Journaled. After that you can start the Yosemite installer and agree to it being installed on your SD card.

Relax with a glass of wine, as this will take about 30 minutes.

In the end you can download the latest version of iTunes if needed. That´s it.

As far as I understand you need a 32 GB SD card, as Y after installation consumes about 18 GB of space. Only after having applied Superdad´s trick to extinguish once and forever the swap file it will be half that big.

 

Regards, Uwe

[Ipoci]

…Relax with a glass of wine, as this will take about 30 minutes...

 

Thanks for comments guys … This seems to be the easy part of the whole process, find a good glass of wine in Italy is easier than downlod Yosemite … ah ah ah.

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

[jamesg11]

"Only after having applied Superdad´s trick to extinguish once and forever the swap file it will be half that big."

 

Can I be directed to where that is ...?

[AnotherSpin]

Thanks for comments guys … This seems to be the easy part of the whole process, find a good glass of wine in Italy is easier than downlod Yosemite … ah ah ah.

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

Depending on the player you prefer you may want to try ram disks trick as well...)

 

And, it seems nobody mentioned - you need to check whether your mac has dedicated sd card slot separated from usb - if its on the same tree with usb trick may not work. Apple in a left top corner> About this mac> System report>

[alsterfan]

"Only after having applied Superdad´s trick to extinguish once and forever the swap file it will be half that big."

 

Can I be directed to where that is ...?

 

Hi jamesg11,

I cannot tell you the exact posting, But can quote Superdad from what I saved in my "SD card tuning" folder:

 

Remove Spotlight icon from menu bar:

sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

 

killall SystemUIServer

 

Turn off Spaces:

Defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool false

 

killall Dock

 

 

Turn off Safe Sleep (prevent background copying of RAM contents to boot drive file):

Google about it and you will see that the sleep file is mostly an a vestige of the past, and was meant for laptops.

 

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

 

Actually, the above command is part of the CAD 1.2.2 script, but the below two are not.

 

Delete existing Safe Sleep file (file is at least half the size as your system RAM; so for my 16GB machine that's an 8GB file written!):

sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

 

Keep it from coming back after restart:

sudo ln -s /dev/null /var/vm/sleepimage

 

Regards, Uwe

[jcpom]

I thought I had given one possible answer to your question (#472). The attached picture shows, which apps have remained in my OS leaving me all I need to have a properly working Music OS on my SD card.

Regards,

Uwe

 

Deleted

[jcpom]

I did push on the card and it did seem to move (slightly). I'll try the tape before reaching conclusion.

 

The SD card finally died and cannot be reformatted via DiskUtility. I think DiskImage may have overburdened the SD. I will disable DI per above instructions and try another SD.

[Ipoci]

...

 

And, it seems nobody mentioned - you need to check whether your mac has dedicated sd card slot separated from usb - if its on the same tree with usb trick may not work. Apple in a left top corner> About this mac> System report>

 

My Mac Book Pro Retina has a separate item listed as "Card Reader" that's separate from USB ... Into USB tree I see FaceTime HD camera, Bluetooth Host Controller, Keyboard and Trackpad ...

 

Tomorrow I will go to Fry's to see what SD cards they have on stock ...

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

[alsterfan]

Tomorrow I will go to Fry's to see what SD cards they have on stock ...

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

Don´t forget to look for 32 GB. Speed is no point but polished contacts (Sony or Transcend).

 

Regards,

Uwe