Help Optimizing Macbook Pro (2 internal drives)

[spetykowski]

I recently purchased the MCE OptiBay and am going to add a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500gig (BOOT DRIVE) to my Seagate 5200 500 gig (DATA DRIVE), already inside my MBP. I was reviewing macperformanceguide.com and was interested in formatting the new 7200.4 into my Primary Boot Drive with all my data on the other old 5200.

My question is, What should my Boot Drive consist of? The OS and Applications or only the OS itself? Also I was looking to create a scrach partition... would this best on the boot drive or the data drive?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Bill Gates]

Use the boot drive for everything, and the other drive to store large, infrequently-accessed files. You can also use it with Time Machine as a backup of your boot drive.

 

[fehhkk]

I use my SSD as my boot drive, and a 500GB drive for my data and bootcamp. In the 500Gig, I moved my Downloads, Documents, Movies, Music and Pictures folder.

I would keep your applications folder in your boot drive.

 

[spetykowski]

I use my SSD as my boot drive, and a 500GB drive for my data and bootcamp. In the 500Gig, I moved my Downloads, Documents, Movies, Music and Pictures folder.

I would keep your applications folder in your boot drive.

Thanks for the quick reply! I was under the impression that this was what should be on the data drive, but I just needed some confirmation. I was really interested in a SSD but I couldn’t bite the bullet just yet. So I went with the 7200 which should hold me over for a while.

Any recommendations on where I should partition my scratch? The 5400(data drive) or 7200 (boot drive)? I do work across CS4, so the 7200 (boot drive) would make for good scratch, but nothing too intensive where I need a RAID’ed arrangement. Would putting the scratch on the 7200 hinder any performance gains with my boot drive? Or should I partition my 5400 (data drive) and leave the 7200 (boot drive) all to itself?

 

[fehhkk]

Boot drive definitely on the 7200rpm, you want your OS and applications to be on the fastest drive possible. Your data that is not frequently accessed, can go in the 5400rpm drive.

I don't like having too many partitions myself. My top drive is the SSD, and the bottom drive is the 500GB HD. I created soft-links (alias) in my user's folder for Documents, Downloads, Pictures and Music, so I can access those through Finder directly.

 

[madog]

I have been planning on buying that Momentus drive for my laptop. Let me know how yours runs, or if the decrease in battery life and heat is noticeable.

 

[spetykowski]

Boot drive definitely on the 7200rpm, you want your OS and applications to be on the fastest drive possible. Your data that is not frequently accessed, can go in the 5400rpm drive.

I don't like having too many partitions myself. My top drive is the SSD, and the bottom drive is the 500GB HD. I created soft-links (alias) in my user's folder for Documents, Downloads, Pictures and Music, so I can access those through Finder directly.

Thanks for the info! This is a great idea I will have to set mine up the same way! Thanks again.

I have been planning on buying that Momentus drive for my laptop. Let me know how yours runs, or if the decrease in battery life and heat is noticeable.

I received my Momentus 7200.4 a few days ago. It hasn’t been in my computer yet, so I can’t really comment on the life or heat. Although I did initialize/format the drive in an external enclosure as well as copy and then access a few files on the drive. Had the drive running for about 25 minutes and didn’t notice any unexpected heat, although I wasn’t really taking note of the heat. I would have to say that it is extremely quite and that there is no noticeable difference from the OEM 320gig 5400rpm apple drive that my mbp came with. I recall a popular thread on this drive, that talked about the 7200.4 being noisy but I do not have this problem. I suspect that it wasn’t properly fitted for those who complained…. Overall a great drive. I’ll be getting the Optibay in tomorrow, so I will let you know about the heat and battery life in more detail.