Using 2nd HDD for system restore(?)

My new computer will be here tomorrow. It has a 256gb SSD. I plan on disabling system restore to optimize the SSD performance. If I place a blank 40gb HDD in the second bay, can I configure system restore for that 2nd drive specifically? If so, does that second HDD need the/any OS on it?

 

If it's Windows 7, just have Backup and Restore load an image and any backup files onto that HDD. If you're talking about moving the recovery partition, those generally reinstall everything to whatever drive it's already on. Not sure how to reconfigure that (never had to try).

 

Thanks for the help. It is windows 7 and it will be my first time trying this os, so excuse the next question if it exudes ignorance . Can Back up and Restore actually Restore settings to a previous time in on the computer, or does it just backup important files?

EDIT:

Sorry, missed that. thanks for the help

 

Be careful with the windows imaging software. It failed on me twice with two different machines. Both times, I replaced the original hard drive so it appears that it has issues when restoring the system image to a swapped hdd.

 

My experiences with the Backup and Restore software in Windows 7 and with Acronis True Image 2009 have been very positive. I have replaced HD's in several computers (some more than once while trying out different drives) and have yet to have a problem with either of the Backup and Restore programs mentioned.

I will say that I quick formatted and wrote and read from each new drives before attempting the Restore (mainly to make sure the new drive didn't have any issues before I began). Sometimes the new drive was in an external enclosure and was cloned and other times an image of the old drive was restored to the new drive installed in the computer.

 

Definitely agree with this, multiple backups using multiple programs is definitely the safest way to go. If you're paranoid about backup failure like I am, keeping a secondary backup image locked up in a safe is SOP as well. I make the backup images all the time, but if I tend to use the file recovery system to go back to an earlier version more than to restore an image wholesale. It's pretty rare that I opt to restore an image rather than do a clean install. But the only times I've had an unrecoverable failure were where I was trying to restore to a smaller partition (had to use a smaller backup hdd after a failure) and where the image was overly fragmented because of the way I abused the backup drive.