Mate installation on new computer with HDD + SSD drives

Hello, I am a total amateur but have had Ubuntu Mate running on three family computers for years (since 16.04). Now that seemingly all new computers come with both HDD and SSD drives I'm not sure what to buy in the way of a new one or how to configure it. In the past I've just bought a new computer, wiped Windows, installed Mate, reinstalled Windows in Virtual Box and that was it. What is the best way to do this on dual hard drives? I'm sorry if this question has been answered many times elsewhere, if so please point me in the right direction.
Thank you very much!
BK

The answer is almost ENTIRELY "It depends"...

The common advice is "Put the OS on SSD" - which is utterly stupid, even for a Windows box. Boot time is irrelevant, and any piece of the OS you actually use will be loaded exactly once per session, which makes this the worst possible use of an SSD.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't put the OS on the SSD - but it's a good example of just how insanely bad most of the advice out there is, even when it's coming from sources that are generally "good", and it's often based on factors from years and years ago that don't even match reality any more, i.e. from the days of SSDs costing hundreds of dollars for just 64GB, and having the lifespan of a mayfly, etc.

Start by considering just how much "stuff" you actually have, and what TYPE of stuff it is. (The type matters because if, for example, your drive is full of videos, music, etc - well, that's all "cold" data, so it'll be just as happy on rust as it will on an SSD).
Then figure out how much stuff you expect to add this year (and, again, of what type).

Once you've got those numbers, let us know, and we'll use them to help you figure out the ideal setup for you. gl. :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
This question have many good answers, depends on your need mostly.

My side, I'm trying to apply my company best practices to manage data :

My laptops and desktops OS is installed on a SSD, including /home that makes all the system run fast.
The personal files do not remain on the laptop - all important files are on a remote storage - NAS server. We are mounting remote shares and put the data manually inside there.
As sometimes some files will get forgotten on the PC storage, a Deja Dup backup is backing up /home to a remote location.

Lost computer ? SSD failure ? Replacement ?
No data loss and restore possible of all the /home with configuration files.
In my case, a extra HDD will not be useful except to keep some .iso files, maybe some multimedia, but this is the point - present only on one device, and cannot be accessed from other laptops - if down or lost.

You can think to make some backups of your filesystem on this drive (a good software for that is timeshift), but this backups will not be helpful in case you lost your computer.

Well depends what are you going to install - for me ssd is enough to store os and some steam games, while documents go to hdd.