Two hard drives, two operating systems, one MacBook Pro

Question

Dear community,
     I have a MacBook Pro (mid-2010) with Mac OS Lion. I plan on having this computer all through the rest of college (another two and a half years, hopefully) so I want to upgrade it just a bit. What I would like to do is take out my optical drive, install a second hard drive mount, and put an SSD in that spot. Now, this would be pretty simple if it were just Mac OS Lion that I wanted on it, but here's the catch - I'd like to put my copy of Windows 7 on that drive as well. I currently use one hard drive for Mac/Windows 7 using boot camp, so I figured it'd be possible to do this with 2 hard drives.
     Basically I'd like to put the OSes and a few programs on the SSD, and the files/remaining programs on my big HDD. Is this even possible? Any suggestions?
     In summary: Mac OS Lion and Windows 7 + a few Mac/Windows apps on the SSD; Mac OS and Windows data files and programs on the HDD. Can it be done?
Thanks a lot.
-Grant
*Note- here is the hard drive caddy I'm looking at: http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Unibody-MacBook-SuperDrive-Replacement/dp/B0058AH2US /ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1MJCRJMNCU4QQ&colid=1LV4HAU48M27X

Answer 1

grantmcconnaughey wrote:
Dear community,
     I have a MacBook Pro (mid-2010) with Mac OS Lion. I plan on having this computer all through the rest of college (another two and a half years, hopefully) so I want to upgrade it just a bit. What I would like to do is take out my optical drive, install a second hard drive mount, and put an SSD in that spot. Now, this would be pretty simple if it were just Mac OS Lion that I wanted on it, but here's the catch - I'd like to put my copy of Windows 7 on that drive as well. I currently use one hard drive for Mac/Windows 7 using boot camp, so I figured it'd be possible to do this with 2 hard drives.
     Basically I'd like to put the OSes and a few programs on the SSD, and the files/remaining programs on my big HDD. Is this even possible? Any suggestions?
The SSD should be the boot drive in the present hard drive spot for these reasons.
1: You want the SSD as the boot volume for speed of OS X, Windows and applications (must be on boot drive along with one bare bones user, each OS)
2: You want to inflict as little change to the SSD as possible to make it last longer as they can wear out with a lot of use, thus a boot/app drive is ideal for this.
3: Present hard drive becomes the exFAT formatted drive to use for Windows or Mac file storage use in the optical bay caddy.
Problems:
You can't install Windows from a external optical drive, only the internal one.
You also won't be able to boot off a 10.6 install disk just the same.
However you can option boot off 10.6/10.7 previously installed, or cloned (Carbon Copy Cloner), on a external drive.
Windows in Bootcamp is subject to the same problems requiring reinstall like it is on PC's, which to reinstall would require you to install your internal optical drive each time.
You can't make a bootable clone of Windows on a external drive and use it (because of validation issues with the drive Windows is installed on) or use it to restore Bootcamp (there used to be software that did this for Snow Leopard, but it hasn't been updated anymore)
Also if your 2010 MBP doesn't have SATA 6, your going to be using SATA 3 and not the full speed capability of the SSD.
What you might consider doing instead is getting a 1TB 7,200 RPM boot drive, you get storage size to partition and decent speed, without excessive speed which you might not be able to use it all with your hardware.
Another option, if your using Windows for non-hardware presisng issues (3D games, heavy CPU loads) is to use virtual machine software (VMFusion, Parrallels Desktop etc) and run Windows in a window on OS X.  This gives the advantage of Windows running as a file, and you can have earlier "snapshots" in case Windows gets hosed like it does sometimes.
Also Bootcamp restricts you to Windows 7, with virtual machine software you can run any Windows version, even cool Linux distros too (install older versions first then upgrade) Plus you don't have to dual boot or worry about file formatting issues, which both is a pain in the butt.
Lion is a pain to reinstall on a new hard drive directly with older hardware (two steps involved), luckily you've got a older machine and can install 10.6.8 first, then upgrade by holding option key and clicking on Purchases, then apps, then files, then bootcamp or virtual machine software, then Windows.
Should make a copy of that 10.6 disk
http://www.walterjessen.com/make-a-bootable-backup-snow-leopard-install-disc/
So anyway, that's a loadful to think about.
What you should do is join the MacOwnersSupportGroup and ask Bmer how best to go about installing the optical drive kit. I've send all these sort of hardware hacks his way as he has done it himself so he knows.
Apple obviously doesn't support such a thing and nearly none here can offer any support in such a thing.
OtherWorld Computing has a kit as well, gives a enclosure for the Superdrive to use as a external optical drive as well. (just can't boot or install Windows with it.)
As always this is all I know and subjective to change, so ask around further and perhaps you'll find more answers, but likely not here.
See this for fast SSD choices
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html
Good Luck and hope that helps.