Installing internal storage device

Question

Hello all,
Some time over the next few days I will be collecting and installing a 160GB Ultra ATA (internal) drive for my aging Quicksilver (specs below). The old HD is down to about 7GB spare. It is intended to configure the existing and new drives as master/slave.
I’ve found the KB documents relating to installation etc and have no queries in that respect. Additionally, a search of this forum turned up a number of helpful articles, however, one otherwise unanswered aspect upon which I am looking for further information is the possible uses as to which the new drive arrangement can be put.
At this stage I’m considering keeping the boot volume on the original HD and using the new drive simply for storage, i.e. not installing an OS on it.
Questions:
1. What are the pros and cons in making the new drive bootable, bearing in mind that I have a Tiger disc, a MacBook Pro, and a bootable clone on a LaCie FW drive if ever the need for external booting arises?
2. Is there any point in installing (or cloning) the boot volume/all the old stuff onto the new drive and wiping the old one, using that for storage?
3. Would it be practical to house the existing applications iTunes/iPhoto on the old drive and move their respective libraries onto the new drive? If so, how is that most easily achieved?
And if anyone has other suggestions as to making the most out of the drive arrangement, please feel welcome to add them.
Cheers,
Dennis

Answer 1

Hi-
1- Simply stated, allows for another boot volume should the need for it ever arise. Having a bootable clone already, it may not be necessary, if you are comfortable with your current backup scheme. Some (including myself) like to keep multiple boot volumes. I maintain three of each OS (4 different OS's).
Another pro; new drives are often much better performers than older drives, and having the system on the new drive could help system performance.
Con would be loss of space on the hard drive due to OS files. Some may say multiple boot volumes are confusing, yet another negative....
2-Only if the old drive provides adequate space for intended use. Again, if the old drive is relatively antiquated, cloning to the new drive, and using it for boot volume could increase performance.
3- Very practical, and helpful with regards to maintaining necessary free space on the boot volume for proper system performance.
It is as easy as moving (not copy) the iTunes library to the non boot drive, and then, setting the iTunes preferences for library location to the new drive. See this article for specifics. This article provides additional insight.
As with iTunes, iPhoto libraries can also be kept on a separate volume. This User Tip provides instruction. For additional insight, this article is helpful.
I keep my libraries on separate volumes, and try to maintain only the OS and applications on the boot volume. For backup, this requires two backup volumes, but I do feel that it provides for the best system performance, and helps keep drives from filling too fast.