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Macook HD Swapping

J

JosephEsquivel

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 30, 2007
230
0
THis may sound stupid, but i have a question:

Since the HDD on a macbook can easily be switched out, with the install disks that come with the macbook, can i install OSX on 2 HDD, say keep onyl photo programs and files on one and swap them out when i need to? like have a home HDD and a work HDD with only one laptop
 
There's nothing that would stop you from doing this. Of course, you could also create password-locked partitions for home and work on a single HD, and you wouldn't have to switch. Or you could use a USB-powered external HD for either your home files or your work files, whichever you wanted to keep separate. The one downside of installing OS X on both drives is that it will take up more space that way.

Syncing contacts may also be a pain if you swap the internal drive for each location.
 
ok the question was thou could i install OSX from the discs that coem with the mac onto a 2nd internal HD that i could just swap whenever i wanted
 
JosephEsquivel said:
THis may sound stupid, but i have a question:

Since the HDD on a macbook can easily be switched out, with the install disks that come with the macbook, can i install OSX on 2 HDD, say keep onyl photo programs and files on one and swap them out when i need to? like have a home HDD and a work HDD with only one laptop
Click to expand...

The answer is yes, but the second question is why?

The recommended option to get an external enclosure for the second hard drive is a good one.

Another thing you could do is get 1 large drive, and split it into 2 partitions and have Work and Home partitions. Then, just restart the computer and hold Alt to boot into one or the other.
 
Another option, which may or may not be optimal for Joseph, is to have two user accounts.

Have one Work Account and another Home Account. That way, you can share some applications and drivers, but you can keep certain files and libraries separate. Keep both accounts locked with passwords and user Fast User Switching to go back and forth.

I would find this much easier than have two independent hard drives (or partitions) that would both need Software Updates, Applications, etc. Plus, backing up would be easier as well.

Also, I just checked out Leopard's new features and the "Spaces" feature looks pretty neat. While it's not a total separation (like separate HDDs), nor is it a partial separation (like separate accounts), it is pretty neat. You can have up to four "spaces" where you can separate open windows, apps, etc. It probably won't help your situation, but there might be other features in Leopard that might be what you're looking for.

ft
 
ftaok said:
Another option, which may or may not be optimal for Joseph, is to have two user accounts.

Have one Work Account and another Home Account. That way, you can share some applications and drivers, but you can keep certain files and libraries separate. Keep both accounts locked with passwords and user Fast User Switching to go back and forth.

I would find this much easier than have two independent hard drives (or partitions) that would both need Software Updates, Applications, etc. Plus, backing up would be easier as well.

Also, I just checked out Leopard's new features and the "Spaces" feature looks pretty neat. While it's not a total separation (like separate HDDs), nor is it a partial separation (like separate accounts), it is pretty neat. You can have up to four "spaces" where you can separate open windows, apps, etc. It probably won't help your situation, but there might be other features in Leopard that might be what you're looking for.

ft
Click to expand...

You can actually have up to 16 spaces, but most prefer to stick with 4 or so (such as myself) it is easier to keep track of in your head that way.
 
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