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SteelBlueTJ

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 2, 2012
445
67
USA
I am planning to install an ssd in my new Mac pro. It came with a 1TB WD as the boot drive. I was wondering if it's smart to keep that drive as it is and just put it away somewhere which kind of seems like a waste, or erase it and put it in bay 2 and use it for iTunes, photos, movies and other data. My only concern would be losing the recovery partition, but I do have a lion thumb drive if I ever need it, so does that really matter?
 
I am planning to install an ssd in my new Mac pro. It came with a 1TB WD as the boot drive. I was wondering if it's smart to keep that drive as it is and just put it away somewhere which kind of seems like a waste, or erase it and put it in bay 2 and use it for iTunes, photos, movies and other data. My only concern would be losing the recovery partition, but I do have a lion thumb drive if I ever need it, so does that really matter?

You're better off using that 1TB of space, with work flows, photos, videos, music and data being what they are today, anything non speed intensive is a good place to store there and it'd be less wear and tear on your SSD.

I'm pretty sure when you install Lion on to the SSD it will also install its recovery. Hopefully someone can answer that exactly...
 
Make two partition on the 1TB. One used to keep a daily or weekly clone of the SSD in case of failure of the SSD. That way you can keep booting as normal albeit slower with the 1TB until you get a replacement.

For the second larger partition you can use it for data storage or Time Machine backups. If used for data storage you will obviously need another drive for full system backups. Preferably rotated with one stored offsite or at least in a bolted down fire/water resistant safe.
 
In my case, I replaced my 320GB drive with a 240GB SSD. Then left it sitting around for a year :)

Just recently, I backed up the second hard drive in my MP, a 500GB drive, put the drive back in, the did a stripe raid to create a faster 640GB partition. Obviously, I'm wasting space, but I still end up with a larger partition that is faster than my old system.
 
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