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ChrisR01

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2011
21
0
I thought it was time to do an upgrade on my aging Macbook Pro (Mid 2010) and decided to go with a dual drive setup removing the superdrive. I planned on having a Samsung SSD 840 Pro as a boot drive for Mountain Lion & Windows 7 and Applications & then installing a HDD and using that as internal storage for documents, music, movies, pictures, etc. However I have some questions regarding the setup. I want to be able to use boot camp with Windows 7 OS, and Mountain Lion OS + apps booting up from the SSD.

1) So how many gigs should I get the SSD

2) How much space for each partition if I want to boot both operating systems and some Apps from each OS on the SSD ? I can only think of downloading the office programs on the windows partition at the moment.

3) I was debating on which HDD to go for I was thinking either one thats Seagate 750GB 7200rpm / Seagate 1TB 5400rpm Suggestions ?
 

natesymer

macrumors newbie
Nov 19, 2012
24
0
New Jersey
1) So how many gigs should I get the SSD

2) How much space for each partition if I want to boot both operating systems and some Apps from each OS on the SSD ? I can only think of downloading the office programs on the windows partition at the moment.

3) I was debating on which HDD to go for I was thinking either one thats Seagate 750GB 7200rpm / Seagate 1TB 5400rpm Suggestions ?

1) Get as many as you can afford. You might like a 256GB drive for the main volume. Get a 128GB if you like my idea for #3

2) I would definitely give OSX more space than windows. 20GB is the minimum for Windows 7, I would go with 30-40GB for a 128GB drive. Just leave more than 64GB to OSX. Depending on what you are using windows for.

3) Don't buy an HDD as the second drive. The optical bay can't support sleep, and it also doesn't have the necessary sudden motion sensor to protect your HDD. I would personally get a 512GB Crucial M4 for the data drive. It's ~$300 more than a 1TB HDD, but it is well worth it in both

A few tidbits you might like:
1. I heard of Windows HFS+ drivers for bootcamp, so check that out. EDIT: its readonly
2. Set up OSX and bootcamp before you install the second drive in the ODD bay

There are some things you need to consider:
1. How much are you going to use windows?
2. How much space are you using now?
3. How much space do you see yourself using in a year?
 
Last edited:

Sergeant Pepper

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2009
93
0
I have the same setup going in my MBP.

I have a 256 GB Crucial M4 as the boot drive and the stock 750 GB HDD in the optical bay. The M4 is partitioned with 175 GB for OS X and 80 GB for Windows 7. The HDD is one giant ExFAT partition, which can be read natively in both operating systems.

Works like a dream so far. No problems whatsoever.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Keep in mind that if you require Windows on your computer, that you can install a bootable Windows (BootCamp) and then use that same installation for VirtualMachine access in OS X with Parallels or VMware-fusion. Normally you would consume 30-50GB of OS X space to hold the Windows VM, but this way you can have both methods of access with a single installation.
 
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