How does the MBP act with 2 HD's installed?

Hello,

I am fairly new to the Apple scene when it comes to OS so I was looking for some help/info,

I'm planning on putting an SSD in my optibay and keep my current HD in it's place, so I have both performance and storage.
But i'm not sure how Mac handles 2 hard drives so Im looking for clearification.

I've been a Windows user for over 10 years now and I know that when you add extra drives they just show up under Computer as storage. You can install programs on them, store data in own made folders and as far as I know you can link folders from Documents to the extra drives.
How do the folders work on OS X? I mean like will I see documents, music, images, downloads on both drives? Or will my HD just be an empty storage drive? If it's option 1, how do I manage to replicate those folders/files to my HD so I use less space on my SSD? I've been seeing the word symlink come by a few times but it doesn't made any sence to me yet.

I hope you guys can help me with this tricky Q.
It's making my brains spin(everything about mac is so trickt +().

Thanks in advance.

Assimilated said:

It just shows up on your desktop as an empty drive.

I'm not sure whether you can install apps on it (I've never tried), but other than that it acts just like the main drive. You can simply copy files and folders onto it as you would with any other drive.

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So it acts like an external but in this case its internal? Meaning I have to create my own folders in it right?

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alphaod said:

You can do whatever you want. You can install programs or even the whole OS to another drive, be it internal or external.

Symlinks is just fancy talk for creating shortcuts.

As for showing up, as with Windows, you need to format any new drives first. On OS X, this usually done in Disk Utility.

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So I could Symlink my music folder on my OS drive to my actual music folder on my storage drive? If so, where can I find how this works?

Formatting, understood!

dusk007 said:

It works exactly like an external but is shown as an internal. It even spins down when not in use and up in about 1-2 seconds.

The sym linking doesn't seem to work quite well anymore. Apple puts quite a few stones in your way. Itunes isn't happy with it apparently.
You can easily create a symlink in the music folder to the external one.
I had a quite lengthy thread a few months back and trying to change the hardwired default folders (music, movies, ...) to a different location created quite a few problems. You really have to force it to get it to work at all.

You can in theory do everything but the standard media folders in OSX are quite reluctant to change. They aren't as easy and simple as Windows library folders that just need a mouse click to switch. Libraries also can unite multiple locations. OSX is a bit backwards if you try to use it anyway Apple has not intended for you.

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So basically you're saying forget about linkig, just go to the hdd when stuff of there is needed?
Too bad, I was hoping just to link the folders without extra hassle.

yusukeaoki said:

Thats correct.
It acts exactly like an external drive but its inside.
This is how it shows up.

Image

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Care for another screenshot but then of the content of both drives?
Wondering how it's layed out.

This is my Windows setup.
I have my C drive for my OS and programs, I also have a D drive where I store even larger programs (Adobe packages etc.) to keep my C as empty as possible and my E drive serves as a storage disk. Then I also have an external one which contains movies and more storage stuff (program installers, backed up pictures, etc).

yusukeaoki said:

Your main drive is normal.
Your secondary drive is basically nothing.
you can put any files you want.

I laid mine out like a normal HDD so I have files like app and pictures, etc.
But truly, you can create your favorite layout.

Here is a picture of my layout.
Left is my main drive (SSD) and right is my second HDD.
Dont mind the Japanese language
Image

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Your private video collection huh... LOL just kidding man.

How about your iTunes files? You just imported them from your HDD or do you have it stored on your SSD?
BTW how do you put the SD in your menu bar? My current HD isn't in that list..

yusukeaoki said:

Actually the one you pointed out is saying "System Voice"
My collections are in "Saved" *cough cough*

What do you mean by SD in menu bar?
If you're talking about the Macintosh HDD, its when you plug in another drive and click under "Devices" they show up.

To be honest, it works either way but for the best performance, I put music in my SSD.
It only takes up about 2~3GB so its not a huge problem for me.

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Between desktop and Applications in, your SD shows up as a home location.
How did you change the logo? I just found out I could just drag the HD in my favourites(new to mac excuse me ).
2-3 GB? You have a small collection then.


Im not ready to put stuff on my 250GB HD untill I replace it with a 750GB so for the time being I share my libary by iTunes with Home Sharing(the folder does dissapear sometimes).

yusukeaoki said:

Your HDD→ Users→ and just drag your name to the sidebar.

Yeah I deleted all the musics I dont listen too as much.
Deleted 45GB to 3GB lol

I suggest you buy a SSD 128GB and put it in your main bay.
Then buy a 750~1TB HDD for optibay.
The Read/Write speed on SSD is incomparable to the HDD speed.

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Roger that. That also changes the icon to a home button?
Will be getting me a 256GB Samsung 830 €190 when the money is there!
Gotta wait since the optibay also costs money lol.

Mr. Retrofire said:

Use the SSD in the main bay, and the HDD in the optibay. If possible, reduce the speed of the HDD with a jumper setting to 1.5 GBit/s or 3 GBit/s, because the shielding of the cable is not compatible with the higher frequencies of SATA-III (6 GBit/s).

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Doin this means I lose SMS for my HD. I rather have it shock proof than put it in the optibay, since the SSD will be faster than my HD anyways.

Mr. Retrofire said:

No. Modern HDDs like the Western Digital Scorpio Blue have a SMS. So one of the SMS should work.



ShockGuard = WD SMS

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Thats in case of à WD.
How about Seagate drives?