Dual Drive MacBook Pro Question

[Krauser]

Upon hearing of the new 13" Retina MacBook Pro's, I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to max out a 13", non-retina, MacBook Pro. With this in mind, I want to purchase a 256GB Samsung 830 SSD for my laptop to boot from and use the 750GB 5400RPM HDD it comes with in place of the SuperDrive using a caddy to hold all my larger files and media. I've searched around the forums and looked for answers and, while I got most of them to the questions I had, I still have a few that I hope some of you can answer. I'll lay them out as simply as I can.

I intend to put the SSD where the stock hard drive would be and put the 750GB HD in the SuperDrives location. I'm going to be doing the computer from stock when I purchase it so I'm just going to clone my SSD from the bootable HDD it came with, switch them, and then utilize the SSD as the bootable drive in the hard drive slot. With that in mind though, here's my question:

1. Do I need to format the 750GB HDD now in the SuperDrive's location, or should I leave it the same, as a bootable disc? I assume I should just format it to Mac OS Extended and utilize it as a readable drive (like you would an external hard drive you intend to use as storage) but I could be wrong.

Also, another question arises. I want my SSD (obviously) to be my boot drive, containing my OS and my applications so that everything launches as fast as it can. With this in mind I have a few questions:

2. If I'm booting from my SSD and want my iTunes and media library on the HDD in the SuperDrive slot, how do I set them up? Do I use raid, or do I just treat that HDD as a destination for files and just remember to keep my media on the HDD?

3. What's the most efficient way to make the computer utilize the SSD the fastest and make sure it saves what I want on the SSD and not the HDD and vice versa, so I can maximize the speed of the computer?

I hope these questions make sense and if you don't understand what I mean (because I'm confusing you or not making sense haha) then just let me know and I'll do my best to elaborate. Thanks guys!

 

[Wafflausages]

1. I formatted my HDD in my optibay while my boot partitions were installed. They are gone now since they got transferred over.

2. No need for any raids. What I did is just configure my iTunes to save to my HDD or just drag media in. It works just like an internal-external

3. On windows by default applications install onto my SSD and I'm pretty sure it should be the same for mac unless you choose otherwise.

 

[MrKing]

Many applications require you to install the software on the macos HD.

 

[Krauser]

1. I formatted my HDD in my optibay while my boot partitions were installed. They are gone now since they got transferred over.

2. No need for any raids. What I did is just configure my iTunes to save to my HDD or just drag media in. It works just like an internal-external

3. On windows by default applications install onto my SSD and I'm pretty sure it should be the same for mac unless you choose otherwise.

Alright sweet. With regards to #2, can I set up my home folder's destination as my HDD leaving everything else, in the process, as running from my SSD? Wouldn't this, in turn, make the SSD take care of only launching apps, caches for files, and booting the OS, while the HDD, by default, was used as the repository for my media? I say it like this because I don't want to have to consciously decided where to put my media. I just want my computer to know that, when I'm downloading an app for instance, it downloads to my SSD and when I import some MP3's, it downloads to the HDD. Will it do that, or will I have to manually choose EVERY TIME I want to move something, add files, or download applications?

 

[Krauser]

Also, what will the eject button do now that there is nothing to eject? If I hit the eject button by accident with a drive where my SuperDrive was, will it eject my HDD as if it were an external drive?

EDIT:
http://mattgemmell.com/2011/06/21/using-os-x-with-an-ssd-plus-hdd-setup/

I know this article says there's a downside in speed to setting your home folder to your larger drive, but how much of a downside is it? It sounds like a much easier and simpler way to utilize the SSD for booting and apps while the HDD is used for storage than messing with terminal for individual apps. Is there that much of a speed difference? Because I feel like setting the home folder to the HDD and everything else as a result to the SSD is the easiest, most straightforward way, to get everything to "just work" and go where it needs to go. Is that correct?

 

[dylin]

I stumbled upon this thread because I was hoping to do the same setup, but the thing that scares me the most is better life dropping significantly, and sleep issues with the 2nd harddrive in the optibay.

How has your experience been so far?

 

[dusk007]

If you only put media like music on the HDD it will be spun down most of the time anyway. Even when spinning it sucks very little power.
I never had any sleep issues. Why should there be any?

@ Krauser (though the post is older)
the home folder holds lot of caches which are constantly written to and read from and many many preferences files which are need whenever an app starts and sometimes while running. If you put this all on the ssd you will get almost no gain in speed other than somewhat shorter launch times. Yet once apps are running it would be like an hdd again.
Don't do it. A better Idea is to enable Apples Fusion drive.

Eject Button is useless with an HDD. You can put some other function on it with special software.