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Setting up file structure and issues

J

jvaska

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2002
446
75
Setting up the new laptop...I've partitioned the drive in an effort to separate the OS from most everything else.

Is there a way to place my Users (accounts) folders on the non-OS partition? I can't think of a way to actually pull this off...and/or...if I should actually consider this.

The other route is to have people save files by themselves to the data drive...and so I wonder if there is a way to save a document say into a default folder like data/Users/name/Documents the same way it automatically does now.

I hope that makes sense... ;)
 
mduser63

mduser63

macrumors 68040
Nov 9, 2004
3,042
31
Salt Lake City, UT
There are ways to do this (using links), but I'd recommend leaving the laptop set up the way it comes from the factory. There's no reason to separate "everything else" from the OS, and you're likely to have trouble getting it to work right. Partitions also do nothing to speed the computer up because you're still using a single physical hard drive.
 
belvdr

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
mduser63 said:
There are ways to do this (using links), but I'd recommend leaving the laptop set up the way it comes from the factory. There's no reason to separate "everything else" from the OS, and you're likely to have trouble getting it to work right. Partitions also do nothing to speed the computer up because you're still using a single physical hard drive.
Click to expand...

While there are no speed benefits, it helps in the fact that if the multiple users fill up the user partition, the system will still be happy with a system partition that has free space.

Also, there's no trouble in getting it to work right. It's BSD and it will follow the symlink.

To do this, let's say you named your second partition UserPart. Go into terminal.

First, copy the Users folder to the second partition:
cd /
cp -rvp Users /Volumes/UserPart

Now rename the original folder and link it to the second partition:

mv /Users /Users.old
ln -s /Users /Volumes/UserPart/Users

To test the link works later, create a temp file:
touch /Users/newpart.tmp

That's it. Now check that it works by double-clicking your first partition icon and the browsing to Users and you should see your new file called newpart.tmp. You can now drag that to the trash.
 
J

jvaska

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2002
446
75
This might sound like a dumb question actually but here goes...

If I move the default Users file to a 'data' partition I still have issues with sharing files acorss accounts. It's very common that I need to access files from another user - obviously this is a little bit of a pain with permissions and all.

I just noticed that I can choose to 'ignore permissions' for the entire data partition via Get Info (and selecting a checkbox).

What I wonder though, if I did this with the Users files on the data partition would I be setting myself up for something very bad? We don't have anything to hide on the computer so it's not an issue of somebody gaining access to look at our files...but I wonder if OSX will have some bad reaction to this kind of practice.

If OSX doesn't like it, then it would be prudent to simply leave the Users folders on the OS drive and simply not use them as much as is possible...

Hope that makes sense...
 
belvdr

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
I don't think OS X will have any issue with it. As you stated, you don't have any issue with users seeing everyone's files. That's the only issue I can see.
 
J

jvaska

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2002
446
75
OSX will let me make a copy of it and put it on the partitition...but it won't allow me to link it to the new home....

The other annoying thing is that when I delete my Users file from the OS partition it automatically replaces it with a new Users folder.

I don't really like that I need to store gigs of images on a partition I'm trying to keep dedicated specifically for the OS and apps...

Anything I can do to get by this?

EDIT: This post was very helpful...once I found it...

https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-12980.html
 
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