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OS X + Bootcamp on the same SSD - yes or no?

J

jon08

macrumors 68000
Original poster
So I read some posts advising against installing OS X and Bootcamp partitions on the same SSD, as one of them is NTFS and the other one HFS+ and whatnot, but what's really the verdict here?

Is it ok or not to have both on the same SSD?
 
That's how I have mine set up. I also turned the swapfile down to 512MB on the Windows side. I've thought about taking to none, but don't really need those 512MB...
 
I have mine setup this way.

OSX and Win7 each get a partition on the SSD. A second hard drive in the optical bay formatted FAT so I can use no matter which OS I am using.
 
jon08 said:
I see... Would it be ok if I formatted the HDD in optibay to NTFS?
Click to expand...

Not sure how to answer this question. You can format it however you want.... it depends on what you intend to use it for? if you mean for your Bootcamp installation to go on the opti bay? I don't see why you could not do that.
 
The HDD in Optibay will be for my data, such as music, movies, pics etc., so I guess it would only make sense to format it to NTFS so to be able to transfer files bigger than 4GB...? Or are there any limitations that I should be aware of?
 
Even HD movies that I have purchased from iTunes are under 4GB. That would be the only problem with Fat over NTFS.
 
jon08 said:
The HDD in Optibay will be for my data, such as music, movies, pics etc., so I guess it would only make sense to format it to NTFS so to be able to transfer files bigger than 4GB...? Or are there any limitations that I should be aware of?
Click to expand...

NTFS can only be accessed but not written to via OSX therefore you will need Paragon NTFS for OSX.....or similar to allow read/write access....I have mine setup with Paragon NTFS for OSX($19) works wonders for accessing my bootcamp drive and I have macdrive 8 (torrent😕) that I use from my bootcamp to read/write to my storage partition(which is formatted to HFS+) noting my Bootcamp is stored on HDD and Only OSX uses my SSD...since I don't use windows as much, its mainly a backup OS incase my SSD fails and for things that I cannot do via OSX(for work & school).
 
jon08 said:
The HDD in Optibay will be for my data, such as music, movies, pics etc., so I guess it would only make sense to format it to NTFS so to be able to transfer files bigger than 4GB...? Or are there any limitations that I should be aware of?
Click to expand...

I think you can format it to exFAT, which does allow for larger than 4GB file transfer.
 
The advantage I know of over NTFS is hat OSX supports exFAT natively and without any bugs. NTFS and Spotlight don't like each other very much in my experience. I always had to exclude NTFS drives if I wanted to run a bug free setup.
NTFS is more secure bascily. It has more safety protocols or any for that matter. I wouldn't worry about that with your usage. That matters for high access/ high availbility servers not so much for you. There are rarely problems with a data storage drive and if there are just go into Disk Utility and hit the repair button those tables are easy to repair.
I didn't want to take the inconvenience of NTFS anymore and went all exFAT on my HDD.

BTW. I would definitely put all system partitions on the SSD. What do you buy an SSD for if you boot into Windows on HDD speeds.
If some Windows apps are to big to install on the small partition than move them off. Windows has no trouble with installing stuff on different drives. Although I would obviously try to keep as much as possible or at least the most often used stuff on the SSD. Again the SSD is a waste of money if you need the HDD too often.

As it seems that you put the SSD into the main drive and the HDD into the optibay. I would recommend the other way around. I also read that with some 2011 Notebooks there are problems with SATA 3 speeds. I am not convinced they are real with newer 2011 (but I only have 2010 and cannot test). I would try it (ssd-optibay, HDD main) and only if that really doesn't work I would change the setup.
Better acoustics, saver mounting, better setup imo.
 
I disagree with putting the SSD into the optibay... I've done quite some research on this and basically you can never reach your SSD's potential if you put it in the optibay (because it's SATA 2 as opposed to the main HDD bay, where you can get 6G speeds), so I'll definitely put it in the main HDD bay. I believe 17" MBPs had some trouble with SATA 3, but I have a 15" MBP so it should be fine in the main HDD bay - and my SSD is 6G, so it would definitely run slower in the optibay.

So you say it wouldn't be detrimental for my SSD if I kept both OS X and Bootcamp partitions on it?

Although I would obviously try to keep as much as possible or at least the most often used stuff on the SSD

What stuff would that include?
 
That stuff would include. Apps you always use.
Say you play one or two games on bootcamp. I would put them on the SSD and move them off once you play something else.
If you are a programmer you will want to keep your workspace data on the SSD because putting all those documents and files on the HDD would be a waste.

I would put everything on the SSD except movies, music and big picture libraries. Applications that don't fit move to the HDD depending on how often you need them, how big they are, how much startup speed suffers.

(because it's SATA 2 as opposed to the main HDD bay, where you can get 6G speeds)
Click to expand...
But that was only true for the first 2011 Notebook sold. Since April/May they sell with SATA 3 on both ports. Some poster said that there is still some bug that keeps them from actually running that speed. Also there was an issue that was fixed by a firmware upgrade with bad SATA signal quality. If you didn't buy your 2011 in the frist 2 months after release I would check out if it really cannot get SATA 3 speeds in the optibay instead of just taking it for granted.
There is loads of people on this forum that give bad advice because they got it somewhere else and take it for granted or never actually tried to solve problems instead of just following some generic tutorial on the web.
I would simply recommend the plan a) and plan b) route instead of just sufferin plan b without ever giving plan a) a shot.
From a technical/theoretical perspective there is absolutely no reason why plan a) shouldn't work (again unless you bought your 2011 MBP in the first two months).
 
I have a similar question. I just bought an intel320 120 GB SSD for my white macbook (2007). I'm going to try to fit OSX and Windows 7 + apps on the ssd and use my old hard drive for data.

I don't understand all this NTFS/fat32 stuff. Should I just partition my HDD as well, one side for OSX data and one for Windows data? Or do partitions not really matter on a data disk?
 
NumNumNum said:
I have a similar question. I just bought an intel320 120 GB SSD for my white macbook (2007). I'm going to try to fit OSX and Windows 7 + apps on the ssd and use my old hard drive for data.

I don't understand all this NTFS/fat32 stuff. Should I just partition my HDD as well, one side for OSX data and one for Windows data? Or do partitions not really matter on a data disk?
Click to expand...

The File Format does matter. If you want to Read/Write files from both OS-X and Windows you will need to use something like FAT32. You cannot use NTFS for that as Mac cannot modify files on it properly. FAT32 is limited in maximum size of the partition though but will work.

I personally have formatted my 2nd drive 50% for Mac, and 50% NTFS. Just to store files on. But I do not do very much "cross system" use of my files.
 
Will the file transfer between SSD and HDD in optibay be faster if the latter is formatted to Mac OS X Journaled? Or NTFS?
 
Hmm, okay that makes sense.

Right now I have everything (OSX, Windows, all apps and data) on my regular HDD. Bootcamp just took care of everything and I use parallels if I need to access windows for something quick.

But now that I'm switching to the SSD I'm just a little confused about how the two OS's actually organize files and how they find things. I guess if the data is there the OS/Windows will just find it? I'll just have to google more how Windows on two drives is set up.
 
6Gb/s SATAIII SSD's DO NOT WORK IN THE OPTICAL BAY DRIVE! I have Tested this with my SATAIII Corsair Force Series 3 SSD, Works 100% from main bay but doesn't work from optical bay drive. there is a great thread(think it was on OWC forums) I found way back when I was wondering same thing which explained why! don't waste your time trying things, IF you haven't tested it then I don't think its worth suggesting to someone.


FYI NTFS is only READABLE in OSX not WRITABLE! So if you do decide to format your Storage HDD into NTFS you will need Paragons NTFS for OSX to enable WRITE natively, otherwise you will have to download anything to everything onto your SSD....hence reducing the life...

Here are your options:
SSD:
Partition 1: OSX
Partition 2: Win7

Storage HDD
- NTFS (Install Paragons NTFS for Mac)
or
- HFS+ (Install Macdrive 8 or Paragons HFS+ for Windows)

Alternatively You can install Paragons NTFS and HFS drivers on OSX & Win7 so you can access your system 100% natively regardless of partition type and location (SSD or HDD) making life as easy as it can get......
 
Last edited:
small addition...

Satnam1989 said:
6Gb/s SATAIII SSD's DO NOT WORK IN THE OPTICAL BAY DRIVE! I have Tested this with my SATAIII Corsair Force Series 3 SSD, Works 100% from main bay but doesn't work from optical bay drive. there is a great thread(think it was on OWC forums) I found way back when I was wondering same thing which explained why! don't waste your time trying things, IF you haven't tested it then I don't think its worth suggesting to someone.


FYI NTFS is only READABLE in OSX not WRITABLE! So if you do decide to format your Storage HDD into NTFS you will need Paragons NTFS for OSX to enable WRITE natively, otherwise you will have to download anything to everything onto your SSD....hence reducing the life...

Here are your options:
SSD:
Partition 1: OSX
Partition 2: Win7

Storage HDD
- NTFS (Install Paragons NTFS for Mac)
or
- HFS+ (Install Macdrive 8 or Paragons HFS+ for Windows)

Alternatively You can install Paragons NTFS and HFS drivers on OSX & Win7 so you can access your system 100% natively regardless of partition type and location (SSD or HDD) making life as easy as it can get......
Click to expand...

or:
Storage HDD
- NTFS (Install Paragons NTFS for Mac)
or
- HFS+ (Install Macdrive 8 or Paragons HFS+ for Windows)
- EXFAT (and no need for any workarounds, but just a reliable Data-disk which is accessible for both platforms...
 
jon08 said:
I disagree with putting the SSD into the optibay... I've done quite some research on this and basically you can never reach your SSD's potential if you put it in the optibay (because it's SATA 2 as opposed to the main HDD bay, where you can get 6G speeds), so I'll definitely put it in the main HDD bay. I believe 17" MBPs had some trouble with SATA 3, but I have a 15" MBP so it should be fine in the main HDD bay - and my SSD is 6G, so it would definitely run slower in the optibay.

So you say it wouldn't be detrimental for my SSD if I kept both OS X and Bootcamp partitions on it?

Although I would obviously try to keep as much as possible or at least the most often used stuff on the SSD

What stuff would that include?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't touch a SATA 3 SSD yet. They've had too many issues with stability and controllers.
 
My media store is formatted as exFAT.

Why make it hard on yourself? No additional software required. Supports large file sizes.
 
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