Help for using SSD for main system, HDD for data

Are you sure its necessary to split things up? Aside from my video games and multimedia, I have everything on a 30GB SSD partition. Anyway, I used "symbolic links" to redirect things that couldn't be re-defined in a program.

 

Assuming that you plan on putting the HDD in an Optibay type enclosure in the optical bay this is very easy to do. Its helpful to do a fresh install when you do this, that way you don;t get fragmentation of links to where your files are as the physical address is going to change.

After you've got the computer set up to how you like after your clean install Copy your Home folder to the HDD (just copy the folder with your account name from the /Users folder to the / of your HDD)
In the Accounts section of System Preferences click the lock to unlock full access.
Next Right click (option+click) and select Advanced Options.
Next to the Home Directory line, there should be a button that allows you to choose the location for your Home Directory.
Navigate and choose the copy of your home folder that's located on your HDD.
Click OK and restart your computer
After you restart you can tell if its using the folder on the HDD if you navigate to the HDD and the folder icon has changed to a house.
You may now delete the original Home folder in the /Users folder if you would like. to reclaim some space on your SSD

I did this last year and its worked out great. 40GB Intel SSD + 500 GB WD = Fantastic combo.

 

This is where the clean installation is recommended. You could, in theory, just copy the /system and /library folders; but the problem that usually arises from doing so is when the applications refer to the previous plists that point to the old home directory on the / volume instead of the new /new volume/ location.
If you can, I wholly recommend trying to gain access to the installation media from your IT department to re-install cleanly. In regards to VMware, the virtual machine vdmk file can simply be imported back into a new installation of VMware on the same computer and work just fine.

 

I almost forgot about the migration assistant. i suppose that using the migration assistant to transfer only the applications and then manually transferring your home folder and personal files to the second drive in the machine would also work to achieve what you want.

Using this method, if your user short name stays the same you could conceivably just transfer the entirety of your current home folder and then when you link to that in system preferences, it will load up your desktop and preferences as you have the right now.