adding 2nd Hard Drive

[floydUA]

running a dell e6410, have ordered a caddy for 2nd HD and 240gb SSD that will be running OS. Question.. should i replace existing HDD with SSD and install existing HDD in optical drive, at the off chance i may need to use CD drive in future, or keep as is and add SSD to optical caddy? is there any an advantages to either option? already have windows ISO file on flash drive for initial boot/install and will run a clean new windows install either way. 2nd HDD will be solely for storage. thanks

 

[Mark RM]

For the best possible performance I'd do a clean install on the SSD and put the HDD into the optical caddy. it should be hot swappable wit the optical drive. In any case, removing the spinning disk altogether from the laptop eliminated the major point of failure for all laptops - the spinning disk. If you want to do that, just put the old disk into an external USB 3 case and keep it on hand.

 

[floydUA]

thanks for the feedback. currently only has a 250gb HDD, so putting in 120gb SSD for OS, and 1TB HDD into optical for storage(forgot to add ive ordered that as well since OP) what do you mean be removing the spinning, that having a HDD, even in the 2nd slot, would slow things down? i just can't remember last time i used a CD/DVD and would really like the 1TB being there for storage..but what type of failure/issues are you talking? i do have a 3TB external HD, but keep that hooked up to tv loaded w movies/shows and only ever move when adding more

 

[Mark RM]

People forget they have a spinning disk in a laptop and that even a minor bump at the wrong time can cause it to be damaged - with an SSD this is not true. They are for all intents immune to the shocks that would cause a spinning disk to crash.

Having a secondary spinning disk still leaves you at risk of this, however it's simply not as much of a headache when you have decent backups and your OS is intact (ssd).