Internal hard drive configuration

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flyman


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Hi Everyone,

I have a MacPro (early 2008) and I need some advice on how best to configure my hard drives.

I have the option of using any of the following 5 internal drives:

WD 640GB Caviar Black x 2
WD 320GB AAJS x 1
WD 320GB KS x 1
WD 150GB ADFD (Raptor) x 1

What I woud like to know is what would be the best way to use these drives for the following:

1. Running OS X
2. Running Windows XP
3. Running Windows Vista
4. Backing up Mac and Windows OS

Please note that Windows being used only for gaming so speed is an issued here.

Any advice would really be appreciated :Confused:
 
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Lifeisabeach


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The Raptor would be best for games, but I doubt it will hold 2 Windows operating systems plus your games. So...

Put OS X on the Raptor.
Put Windows XP and Vista on one each of the Caviar Blacks (or on just one of them). I've not tried installing Windows twice on one Mac... not sure if there are issues that will require them to be on separate drives or not. Or if you even can install Windows twice.
Use the Caviar Blue (AAJS) for backups. Or the extra Caviar Black if you use only one for both Windows OSs and you need the extra space for backups. The Blue is slower but more reliable than the Black.
 
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flyman


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lifeisabeach said:
The Raptor would be best for games, but I doubt it will hold 2 Windows operating systems plus your games. So...

Put OS X on the Raptor.
Put Windows XP and Vista on one each of the Caviar Blacks (or on just one of them). I've not tried installing Windows twice on one Mac... not sure if there are issues that will require them to be on separate drives or not. Or if you even can install Windows twice.
Use the Caviar Blue (AAJS) for backups. Or the extra Caviar Black if you use only one for both Windows OSs and you need the extra space for backups. The Blue is slower but more reliable than the Black.
Click to expand...

Now theres the problem - I agree the Raptor may well be tight for space :(

If its at all possible I'd rather partition one of the 640 drives and have XP and Vista (or W7) on each partition?

Or I've had it suggested that I could raid the 2 Caviar Blues and have that for Windows?
 
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Lifeisabeach


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flyman said:
Now theres the problem - I agree the Raptor may well be tight for space :(

If its at all possible I'd rather partition one of the 640 drives and have XP and Vista (or W7) on each partition?

Or I've had it suggested that I could raid the 2 Caviar Blues and have that for Windows?
Click to expand...

The problem with striping the 2 Blues is that the Mac Pro has no hardware support for RAID. You can do it by software using Disk Utility, but that places a heavier load on the OS and may negate any speed benefits, at least to some extent. Oh... and Boot Camp won't install to a software RAID drive anyway (tried that myself actually awhile back... no go).
 
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flyman


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lifeisabeach said:
The problem with striping the 2 Blues is that the Mac Pro has no hardware support for RAID. You can do it by software using Disk Utility, but that places a heavier load on the OS and may negate any speed benefits, at least to some extent. Oh... and Boot Camp won't install to a software RAID drive anyway (tried that myself actually awhile back... no go).
Click to expand...

Ok then I think we can rule out the raid option for now.
Do you know if I can put 3 partitions the 640GB drive and have XP, Vista and W7 on each partition?
 
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Lifeisabeach


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flyman said:
Ok then I think we can rule out the raid option for now.
Do you know if I can put 3 partitions the 640GB drive and have XP, Vista and W7 on each partition?
Click to expand...

According to the Boot Camp FAQ:
You can install only one Windows partition on any of your computer volumes. The Setup Assistant will allow you to partition drives, or to install Microsoft Windows on an entire drive if it does not contain Mac OS X.
Note: You cannot install Microsoft Windows on an external hard drive.
Click to expand...
So it looks like you can only install Windows once using Boot Camp. I suggest looking into a tool called iPartition, and see if it allows more flexibility on this. It appears to be able to:
You can use iPartition on drives that contain Boot Camp volumes; in fact, you can even resize your Windows partitions, and let iPartition take care of reconfiguring the Windows boot process for you.
Click to expand...
 

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