Separate Clover drive.

I'm setting up my rig on OS X, after realizing how within reach it was. I realize I won't be able to do everything on macOS with or without WineBottler, so I bought 2 more drives and put Windows 10 on one and Ubuntu on the other.

I carry out most of my workflow on macOS, occasionally swapping to Ubuntu and using Windows only when absolutely necessary. I also spend most of my leisure/spare time in macOS. This means I will be doing a lot of low-level installs that modify core system files, and will be doing system updates to ensure that I am both up to date on features and security patches (Telugu character, Meltdown, Spectre, KRaCK, you name it).

As we all know very well, Hackintoshing is very much a castle of glass. Once we get things working properly, it is amazing, but in order to keep things running smoothly without any maintenance, we must dwell within very small parameters. (and even then that doesn't always work).

I don't think I need to explain why having the bootloader for all 3 of your operating systems on the same drive as your most volatile, prone to failure and drive-formatting OS is a terrible, terrible idea.

Well, you can't install Clover to the same drive as a Windows or Linux install, so that left me with one option, a dedicated drive.

At first, I wanted to go with a USB flash drive, and use a USB 3.0 to SATA 3.0 adapter to keep it inside the machine and function as a small internal drive. These adapters, however, do not exist, and even then USB drives are more prone to failure than any other type of modern media, taking them out of the race.

My next thought was to grab a low-capacity 5400 RPM mechanical drive for Clover, as it would be cheap, easy and secure. Spinning media, however is slow, and doesn't come in as many low capacity options as internal flash storage.

That leaves me with one final conclusion. I picked up a 60 GB 2.5" SATA SSD, found here. It is a good rated, low capacity and EXTREMELY cheap SSD, which are known for reliability and durability.

This guide is applicable to our use case, just change the target drive of any Clover installs to the dedicated drive we've already purchased.

I know this is a story/guide, leaning more to the side of story, and I know that I can be long winded^endmenow but I discovered this helpful method of making a multi-boot user's life easier by several orders of magnitude. I hope this can be helpful to you at some point. Consider spreading the word if it can!