Q: Install app on a second HDD

SSDs have gotten cheap, 256GB EVO 850 is under US$100

Also where is it now? PCIe SATA III? the fastest are PCIe-SSD blades of 256GB up to 1TB.

Use the small one for scratch. And I would even upgrade the 1TB to larger model seeing how you run a few pro apps.

Use PCIe device for system - and even scratch - and 4 drive bays with 2TB or 4TB drives for projects and data.

Here is info for how to install windows via Boot Camp.

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/

There is a Boot Camp forum

Boot Camp

There is a support page and forums for Windows (Boot Camp).

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

I tried long ago to use a 2nd 15K 18GB SCSI drive (Cheetah) for 3rd party apps. No benefit and more trouble but if you are out of space.... using 128GB though you would already I hope only have ~/Library on it so there is a mini user account but only using 10GB or less.

I highly recommend getting 500GB EVO 850 for Windows and mac and not 1TB hdd.

enneemme wrote:

 

I have never installed windows on a Mac, so I am afraid that I could make some irreversible mistakes.

Could you help me with that?

Please start at How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support .

On a MP, you should remove all disks that will not participate in the Windows installation. On MPs with Optical drives, Windows should be installed using Optical drive, not a USB. Wired keyboards/mice work much better. Disconnect any external FW/TB/USB storage during the installation.

Please also see How to install Windows 7 on extra Internal Disk .

Many applications will only let you install them on the boot drive e.g. Microsoft Office.

A way round your problem would be to setup the two drives as a combined 'Fusion' drive. This will result in the system software automatically moving files between the two drives so that the files that 'need' the speed are kept on the SSD and the rest get pushed automatically off to the slower hard disk. To you as a user it will look like one big drive.

See http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-how-to-create-and-disable-a-fusion-d rive/

While you can mix internal and external drives as a DIY Fusion drive, you cannot normally use an external drive for Windows Boot Camp. However Boot Camp does support using the hard disk portion of a Fusion drive for the Boot Camp i.e. Windows operating system. See Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions - Apple Support

Update: I see you have a Mac Pro 5,1 rather than the 6,1 so your hard disk is probably fitted internally and the above would not be an issue anyway.

You are probably going to find that you can only make the two drives in to a Fusion drive by erasing them both. Therefore the first step is to back everything up.

Note: Not that you have one but I do not believe any PCIe connected SSD drives support Boot Camp, SATA SSD drives mounted in the standard drive bays would be supported. You can still make a DIY Fusion drive using a SATA SSD drive and a standard SATA hard disk both in the standard drive bays.

I would never recommend and think long and hard before ever using Fusion - especially when it isn't needed and there are better and easier setups on a cMP.

One disadvantage of Fusion LVG/LV combination is loss of readability from the Windows side. The advantage is that if you have an SSD as the first disk, you can add 128 disk slices and build a CS and have some portability of disks using plug-and-play. Partitioning is a chore with DU or diskutil. Bootcamp and CS seem to cause more grief at times. With a MP, you can separate CS on non-BC/Windows disks and keep them at an arm's length, if necessary.

enneemme wrote:

 

I do not really mind reading the OSX drive from windows, I will save data on an external HDD.

Buuut, I do not know a lot about fusion. If I will be able to run programs from the 2nd HDD, things will go straight.

If you use CS, there is no separation of file system between the two drives - SSD or HDD. Blocks move between the two based on usage and access irrespective of where they are located when created. The SSD acts as a fast cache and persistent store for such a fast cache. To all layers above the OS X, it appears as a single logical entity. A CS combines slices from different disks as a logical volume group with multiple logical volumes carved out of such a group.

Also, about Bootcamp, should I format initially as FAT and then as NTFS during the installation?

Bootcamp Assistant has no default read-write facility for NTFS. It creates a FAT, with the expectation that the Windows installer will provide an opportunity for the user to format it to NTFS. Here is an example.

There are a lot of negative experiences and reviews of these Fusion setups. Handy at one time when SSD cost more and you didn't have a Mac Pro to play with. A pure SSD only and good setup of storage is much better.

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/topic4991.html

Apple does not have license to use NTFS except as read-only.

Removing the GPT partition table before installing Windows - unless you were to use UEFI install which supports GPT.