I was about to propose swapping HDD for an SSD, which would make your re-install trouble massively worthwile. Now as you already have one, that advice is void.
Splitting the partitions on and SSD gives you no benefit, but the downsides of it are miniscule as long as the user is happy with the setup and you keep sufficient free space on the OS part.
Reasonable back-up system, that's where most people tread on thin ice. I did too and the USB drive I bought for it did not help (being stowed in a drawer).