Question: SSD Main, 500GB HDD Optibay

[ryanpuru]

Hi All,

I will be recieving my first mac (2010 MBP) from Fedex tomorrow, and I have an Intel X25-m and optibay that I plan to install as soon as I receive it. I am planning on swapping my 500GB 7200 HDD with my new SSD and will be moving the HDD to my optibay.

I want to run bootcamp with OSX and Win 7 on the SSD in the main boot drive and would like to use the HDD simply for storage of my digital media libraries (like a really large HDD thumb drive ).

My questions are:
1. Once I install the HDD in the optibay, what must I do to the drive to ensure that it will function as a storage device with no OS installed on it?
2. Do I need to format the HDD a certain way to make it compatible for both OSX and Windows files?

Thanks in advance for any help. This is my first mac, so please pardon my ignorance.

 

[BeamWalker]

I would leave the hdd where apple put it and put the ssd in the optibay. That way you ensure that your hdd stays a bit cooler.

During your first install you can choose where you want to put your OS. The setup program should already recognized both of your drives.

I would propably use NTFS for your media drive and install ntfs-3g on MacOS X since it s a pain to work with HFS+ in windows.

 

[Jaro65]

I have my SSD in the main bay and the HDD replaced my SuperDrive. Either way works. If you were to put the SSD in the main bay, you can then insert your OS DVD in the SuperDrive and boot your MBP up. Use Disk Utility to format you SSD (GUID partition, OS X journaled). Once that is done, take out your SuperDrive and put in your HDD. Now you can actually put the screws back in your bottom lid and close the MBP. Use Utilities -> Disk Utility to partition and format your HDD whichever you like.

You can do a forum search here on MacRumors. There are plenty of threads with much better info that discuss your type of a scenario.

Good luck!

 

[Kingcodez]

Just put the new HDD in the normal place and the SSD in the optibay. The optibay dosen't have anything to protect the HDD from vibrations or shocks, the HDD area does.

I killed an HDD by having it in the optibay already.

 

[ssn637]

Just put the new HDD in the normal place and the SSD in the optibay. The optibay dosen't have anything to protect the HDD from vibrations or shocks, the HDD area does.

I killed an HDD by having it in the optibay already.

Good advice...

One question, though: If we use the Boot Camp utility to create a new partition in the SSD to install Windows 7, and insert the Windows 7 installation DVD in our now-external DVD drive, when we restart will we be able to boot off the DVD and install Windows in the new SSD partition? Do we need to push the ALT key upon restarting to select the external DVD drive? I'm just wondering because I'm considering this option.

I also heard that the DVD select bay drives are more difficult to remove in the 2010 models...I'll probably wait to dare it on my own until after I've seen some detailed instructions with the new models.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Just put the new HDD in the normal place and the SSD in the optibay. The optibay dosen't have anything to protect the HDD from vibrations or shocks, the HDD area does.

I killed an HDD by having it in the optibay already.

I would totally agree here since i have been using two drives for quite awhile now.If your going to use a spinning drive put it in the original hard drive space since it has protection there. The optical bay area I would put the SSD which damaging them is very hard to do. I just completely lost a 2.93 MBP due to a fall and the SSD are not effected in any way. One very good reason for SSD drives besides running cooler and other benefits.

Now just a side note since i came from the 2009 model with a express port which I ran a e-sata drive from for daily working storage it was fine have 2 128 GB SSD in the MBP. Now with the new I7 machine I lost the express port slot. So now i am thinking of selling both Crucial 128gb drive buy a 256 gb SSD and also a 7200 500gb spinning drive. Reason is I get more playing room with the SSD to process and hold large raw files for processing my images and than dump them off to the spinning drive for a short time. Now having a internal 500gb spinning drive I can break that into maybe 3 partitions One for OS back which always travels with the MBP one for I tunes music and other common data and one for raw file storage. Now this obviously is my need but my reasoning can be applied to anyone with big storage issues. My one issue is I am so used to having SSD drives with no noise or really heat that I am a little concerned.

 

[BoRegardless]

Good Choice

Only thing better than what other writers have mentioned is to go with 2 SSDs, which is what I've done, so I can run both WinXP Pro and Win7 Native and fast as required for my work.