performance of OS on internal HDD vs external

[edshays]

Hi,

I have a 2008ish Macbook Pro, and I have resisted from upgrading OS since Snow Leopard, as my Logic Pro 8 suit isn't compatible from Lion upwards.

It occurred to me I could install Mavericks on my primary internal HDD, and install Snow Leopard on a spare external USB HDD I have at home, purely to install Logic Pro 8 on. My Macbook Pro has USB 2.0 ports.

Would I experience significant performance reduction loading the OS and running Logic from an USB powered external HDD vs my internal SATA HDD?

I know I could also install on a separate partition, but as I said, I don't use the Logic software frequently, and would prefer to save HDD space on my primary HDD.

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a 2007 iMac that I use for music production.

I boot it from a USB/SATA docking station, with OS 10.7 (Lion). The music projects themselves are on the iMac's internal drive.

I don't have any problems running this way, but I just record two tracks at a time, and don't use a lot of plug-ins and no virtual instruments. Also, I use Cubase, not Logic.

But again, this works well enough for me.

Your particulars may produce different results.
The only way to know is to try.

My suggestion:
- Get an external drive
- Clone your internal drive to the external
- Boot from the external and try running that way on a experimental basis for a week or two.

This ought to give you an idea as to whether it can be a workable solution for you.

 

[benji888]

If you get a 7200rpm external drive it may run slightly faster for you. Try OWC (macsales.com)

EDIT: pardon me, I just re-read, you said HDD you already own. ...unless your external HDD is older and slower than your internal drive, it should run the same. Mac OS X doesn't care if you run it from an internal or external drive. Now, if you were talking USB 1, then that would definitely slow things down.

 

[iParis]

If you were to do this I'd suggest trying to go for an external SSD via firewire for the best performance.

EDIT: I did something similar to the last poster. Excuse me for not reading your entire post properly. >.<