Why use a boot disk?

[btng]

People are always saying that one should use a separate boot disc and another disc for photos etc etc. Why do you need a separate boot disc? What are the pros?

 

I have 3 M.2 slots on my new build. What is the optimal way to use these slots? A small boot drive (250GB-ish) and then 2 storage SSDs for all programs, photos, videos, work, games etc etc?

[Slottr]

I think what youre seeing is people having a mid sized or small SSD for windows and maybe one or two programs and then a hard drive for mass storage.

 

Reasoning behind that is that SSD's are -significantly- faster than a hard drive and large SSD's arent as affordable as a large hard drive.

[btng]

So where should all the installed programs be? On an SSD for speed?

[btng]

Also, is it good to separate boot and the programs or can they all be on the same SSD?

[Slottr]

Just now, btng said:

So where should all the installed programs be? On an SSD for speed?

If you have the space for it yeah,

 

I have a 250GB SSD where I have Windows, most of the Adobe Creative Suite, Steam, Chrome and other startup programs.