user6018: I am about to install Premiere Pro on a laptop with 500gb SSD and 750gb HDD, how can I optimise it in terms of where to install the OS, other apps and where to put the video files. I also have an external drive where I store footage, am not sure if that should come into the mix.
Thanks

user5074: The question is whether disk performance is critical in your normal workflow, in which case you'd want to place the footage on the SSD.
I have a similiar setup with Sony Vegas and I observed that, disk performance is rather uncritical during rendering, because it's always the processor that's the bottle neck. But your situation may differ from that. Especially, if you have a very fast CPU and a very slow HDD.
Alternative 1:
The following configuration works well for me:

OS on SSD to have fast boot time
Vegas/Premiere on SSD to have fast startup time
Video footage on HDD to have all footage in a single location.
External drive for backuping your footage
All other stuff: where-ever there is room left. Just make sure there is enough storage for your videos on HDD. 750GB fill up very quickly with HD footage ;-)

Disadvantage: May be slow with fast CPU's and slow drives. Project opening times may be slow as well.
Advantage: Fast boot and programm start. All footage in one place.
Alternative 2: 
Of course, if OS+Premiere+Video fits to the SSD, put it there. This will give you the fastest experience. Plus the option to have a very fast backup to the HDD and a second slower backup to the external drive.
Advantage: Fast. Double backup.
Disadvantage: Not much storage for footage.
Alternative 3: 
Put OS+Premiere to SSD and video to HDD. Place the one project that you're currently working on to SSD. This configuration is also very fast, but I sometimes experience issues with moving projects across the drives, so I try to avoid that. 
Advantage: Fast.
Disadvantage: Possibly issues with moving footage/projects around.

user2836: I personally run my OS off of my HDD (primarily from lack of room on my SSDs) and run my Adobe suite, temp files, swap files, project files and media files all off the SSD.  
In order of importance, I would say swap files, temp files, media files, project files, Adobe software, OS.  Put as many as you can on the SSDs.
An SSD has no seek time, so multiple accesses from one don't really matter unless they are all accessing at the same time.  Super ideal would be to either link multiple SSDs in RAID0 to allow for higher throughput or simply split the files that will frequently be used at the same time across different SSDs.  For example, swap files on one and media files on another.  This split is only needed on relatively large files where lots of reads and writes will be preformed though since it only matters if you are able to max out the data rate of the drive.

6018: <p>I am about to install Premiere Pro on a laptop with 500gb SSD and 750gb HDD, how can I optimise it in terms of where to install the OS, other apps and where to put the video files. I also have an external drive where I store footage, am not sure if that should come into the mix.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>
 5074: <p>The question is whether disk performance is critical in your normal workflow, in which case you'd want to place the footage on the SSD.</p>

<p>I have a similiar setup with Sony Vegas and I observed that, disk performance is rather uncritical during rendering, because it's always the processor that's the bottle neck. But your situation may differ from that. Especially, if you have a very fast CPU and a very slow HDD.</p>

<p><strong>Alternative 1:</strong></p>

<p>The following configuration works well for me:</p>

<ul>
<li>OS on SSD to have fast boot time</li>
<li>Vegas/Premiere on SSD to have fast startup time</li>
<li>Video footage on HDD to have all footage in a single location.</li>
<li>External drive for backuping your footage</li>
<li>All other stuff: where-ever there is room left. Just make sure there is enough storage for your videos on HDD. 750GB fill up very quickly with HD footage ;-)</li>
</ul>

<p><em>Disadvantage</em>: May be slow with fast CPU's and slow drives. Project opening times may be slow as well.</p>

<p><em>Advantage</em>: Fast boot and programm start. All footage in one place.</p>

<p><strong>Alternative 2:</strong> </p>

<p>Of course, if OS+Premiere+Video fits to the SSD, put it there. This will give you the fastest experience. Plus the option to have a very fast backup to the HDD and a second slower backup to the external drive.</p>

<p><em>Advantage</em>: Fast. Double backup.</p>

<p><em>Disadvantage</em>: Not much storage for footage.</p>

<p><strong>Alternative 3</strong>: </p>

<p>Put OS+Premiere to SSD and video to HDD. Place the one project that you're currently working on to SSD. This configuration is also very fast, but I sometimes experience issues with moving projects across the drives, so I try to avoid that. </p>

<p><em>Advantage</em>: Fast.</p>

<p><em>Disadvantage</em>: Possibly issues with moving footage/projects around.</p>
 2836: <p>I personally run my OS off of my HDD (primarily from lack of room on my SSDs) and run my Adobe suite, temp files, swap files, project files and media files all off the SSD.  </p>

<p>In order of importance, I would say swap files, temp files, media files, project files, Adobe software, OS.  Put as many as you can on the SSDs.</p>

<p>An SSD has no seek time, so multiple accesses from one don't really matter unless they are all accessing at the same time.  Super ideal would be to either link multiple SSDs in RAID0 to allow for higher throughput or simply split the files that will frequently be used at the same time across different SSDs.  For example, swap files on one and media files on another.  This split is only needed on relatively large files where lots of reads and writes will be preformed though since it only matters if you are able to max out the data rate of the drive.</p>
