Startup Disk?

[itsruss]

Hey guys!

First-time poster here..

My current HD (Startup Disk) is failing in my Mac Pro - 500 GB, Hitachi (7200 rpm).

I currently have a duplicate Hitachi 500 GB HD to replace it, and just purchased a 2 TB Seagate HD (7200.12 SATA 6Gb/s 64MB cache).

My current Startup Disk has all my programs, plugins, etc. currently installed on it (duh.) - my question:

Should I clone my current (failing) 500GB to the replacement 500GB HD to use it as the Startup Disk, and use the 2 TB for data/storage?

OR, should I (can I?) clone/partition the failing 500GB HD to the 2 TB drive, and use the larger - and potentially faster - drive as the Startup Disk?

Any inherent advantages/disadvantages, either way?

Thanks!

[wonderspark]

I'd clone the second 500 over and use that. I'm not a fan of partitions because you always end up reading & writing both partitions at the same time, which hurts performance.

[itsruss]

Originally Posted by wonderspark

I'd clone the second 500 over and use that. I'm not a fan of partitions because you always end up reading & writing both partitions at the same time, which hurts performance.

Ok, cool. Thanks for your response!

Is there a way for me to send all the data from the 500 to the 2TB without having to partition the drive?

[wonderspark]

Drag and drop should be fine. If you mean the failing boot disk, and you want to temporarily clone to 2TB, I'd partition it, clone, then clone back to new 500GB. Delete the partition if desired.

[itsruss]

Gotcha.

That said, would you still just use the new 500 as the Startup Disk, and the 2TB strictly for storage?

Or, is there any benefit to using the larger drive as the Startup Disk?

[Does it really matter either way?]

Apologies for noob-fest 2012

[wonderspark]

I see no use for 2TB of boot disk. I'm using a 256GB SSD for mine, and only 106GB used with everything, including two sets of Adobe, CS3 and CS5. Music and everything else is on other data disk(s). You can always use more data space.

[gpzjock]

I would use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy of the good duplicate drive.
http://www.bombich.com/

[itsruss]

Originally Posted by wonderspark

I see no use for 2TB of boot disk. I'm using a 256GB SSD for mine, and only 106GB used with everything, including two sets of Adobe, CS3 and CS5. Music and everything else is on other data disk(s). You can always use more data space.

Right on - that helps tremendously with my HD conundrum

I think I'm going to just clone the failing 500 to the replacement 500, and say Yahtzee.

Thanks again for your responses!

[minifridge1138]

Originally Posted by itsruss

Is there a way for me to send all the data from the 500 to the 2TB without having to partition the drive?

No, you'd need at least 1 partition on the 2TB drive.

But I agree with wonderspark: clone the dying 500GB drive to the new 500GB drive. use that as start up.

Then use the 2TB drive as a backup or extra storage.