Just installed SSD in optibay, should I now reformat HDD?

[fanchee]

Hi everyone,

I just installed an OWC SSD into my mid-2009 MBP. It went into the optibay and I left the HDD were it was.

You can read about my installation here.

Disclaimer: I have a bootable backup of the 500g HDD and also a time machine backup.

My questions: Should I reformat the hdd and then put my music/pictures back on the clean drive? Right now it still has the OS and system/user files on it. Can I just delete those, keeping music and photos? Or would it be better (seems so) to reformat it and put those files back on?

I would reformat and create 2 partitions, one 400g for all my files and the other 100g so I could clone the SSD just in case. This seems like the way to go, but I wanted to get opinions first.

Thanks.

 

[monsieurpaul]

I have almost the same setup but I did an extra clean install with manual reinstallation of files instead with the following steps:

1) Install Lion on the SSD (a Crucial M4 64 GB in my case).
2) During the installation, create an Admin account with its home folder on the SSD. Don't touch this account anymore afterwards.
2) Create your account (the one you are going to use) with its home folder on the SSD.
3) Format the HDD and copy your home folder on it
4) Link your home folder to the one on the HDD (System preferences > Account > advanced)
5) Install all the software and copy all the data

The goal of the admin account is to be able to boot your MBP if the HDD die. Do you really need to clone your SSD on the HD ?

 

[fanchee]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the info on your setup. It definitely helps. The only reason I'm thinking about cloning the SSD to a partition on the HDD is just in case the SSD fails... I can then boot from the clone on the HDD.

I'm a backup freak, I admit. After all's said and done, I'll end up doing what I normally do... use superduper and time machine to make sure I'm covered.

So no, I don't need to clone the SSD onto the partition of the HDD, but I think I'll feel safer.