Hello all. Posting this in the Mavericks Forum just because it was the OS I ended up doing this on, but there is no reason why it shouldn't work on previous versions of OS X. Recently, a client of mine wanted several things done to her '09 Mac mini, one of which was installing a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 12. Anyone familiar with Adobe Products knows that they cannot be installed on Case Sensitive drives, and unfortunately, the only known way to do it is either create a non-Case Sensitive partition on your drive, or reformat the drive as non-Case Sensitive. I will be sharing how I went about doing the SECOND option.
You will need:
- At least one spare hard drive.
- Another OS X installation, or another Mac
- A way to attach your current drive to the computer
- Most likely, a disassembly kit or screwdriver set. Check out iFixit
First off, back up all your data. However, we're talking manual backups. If you try to Time Machine with a Case Sensitive drive, Time Machine wants you to reformat the drive as "Case Sensitive," and that's not helping us. So take a spare drive, and copy everything in the root of your hard drive, EXCEPT the "System" folder. I copied the "Users," "Library," and "Applications" folder. We don't need the "System" folder because that will return perfectly when we reinstall OS X later down the line. To do this, you can't just drag and drop. Open a Terminal, and use the "sudo ditto" command to copy these folders. For example, "sudo ditto /Applications /Volumes/Backup/Applications" It will ask you for some passwords, but make sure you use "sudo" for administrator privileges, or it won't allow you to copy everything. For the directory links, you can just drag and drop locations into the Terminal to copy their address, but it's very straightforward here.
Next, you want to write down Users and Passwords. In my case, I had four different users, all with different passwords. Write down the User Name and the Full Name of each account, plus the passwords for each. These have to be added in again manually, and will not get recovered when we re-place the files. Take note of an Administrator account on the computer. In my case, the account was titled "Ariana." This will be the account you want to create first after reinstalling OS X. Once this is done, and you're confident all files have been backed up, it's time to reinstall the OS.
In my case, this was the time to reinstall Mavericks. Fortunately, I still had my USB install key handy from when I originally upgraded all my Macs a few months ago, so I was set. If you need to create a Mavericks Install USB, check out THIS guide. Simply hold the "Option" key at startup and boot from the install USB, then open Disk Utility. Erase the existing hard drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). You will notice there is also an option for Case Sensitive. Make sure that is NOT the option you are selecting. Should only take a few seconds, then close out Disk Utility and go ahead and proceed with the install. If you've never installed a new OS before, it takes 20-40 minutes, and the "Estimated Time Remaining" is never accurate. Once it's done, your machine will restart and boot into your fresh installation.
Go ahead and set up the user we designated before. Make sure it is an administrator. On my computer, this was "Ariana" - set that up as the primary account, using the same password the account had before. Set your Time Zone, and sign in with the Apple ID if you know it. If you don't, no big deal, it can be added later. Once you're on the main screen, run as many updates as you can. At the time of writing this, it was just a few updates for software, and the 10.9.1 update. Once your machine is up to date, now the real work begins.
First, go into your System Preferences, and create any other User Accounts you need to add to the system. In my case, I had to add 3 more accounts, one with Administrator Privileges, a Standard User, and a user with Parental Controls. This is why the Users and Passwords were important earlier. When you're happy with the Users, Shut Down your Mac and remove the hard drive.
There is a very good chance that this step can be tweaked a bit, such as if you have two OS X installations on your hard drive, but this was easiest for me. Open up your Mac and remove the hard drive. Somehow, attach it to another Mac. In my case, I have a Mac Pro with spare drive bays. Alternatively, use a USB to SATA adapter if you have one. Then plug in your drive you backed up the original files to (Applications, Users, and Library).
Restore the three folders back to your fresh hard drive. We need to do this from another OS X installation for a few reasons. The Applications, Library, and Users folders are all needed by OS X, so we can't do it while it's booted. You don't need to use the "ditto" command here, because we're actually going to REPLACE the files the fresh installation created. Just drag and drop "Applications," "Users," and "Library" onto the fresh drive. Make sure the Users Folders are done correctly - each user is named properly so there are no problems when we boot the machine back up again. If you did the Users setup properly, you should be OK. Once all the files are copied, open up Disk Utility. Navigate to the drive we are working on, and click "Repair Permissions." This is going to take a while, since all the permissions on the drive are basically incorrect. Run it once or twice more to make sure they're all set, then you should be good.
Remove the drive we are working on from your secondary Mac, and reinsert it onto its original machine. If all was done properly, you should be able to boot fine. Boot into an Administrator account, and open up Disk Utility. Once again, Repair Permissions on the hard drive. Do it twice or three times. It will always find something to repair, so don't freak out if you're constantly finding inconsistencies. Now, you should be good to go. Open up a few Applications to make sure they're alright, and log in as different users to make sure they are set up properly. If you messed up a user or two, there is an easy way to fix it. Follow THIS guide here, and just point it to the proper user folder, and Repair Permissions. NOW, you can install your Adobe Product.
Hope this helped someone out. I couldn't find a guide on how to do this, and the methods here are kinda questionable, but they work.
-N
You will need:
- At least one spare hard drive.
- Another OS X installation, or another Mac
- A way to attach your current drive to the computer
- Most likely, a disassembly kit or screwdriver set. Check out iFixit
First off, back up all your data. However, we're talking manual backups. If you try to Time Machine with a Case Sensitive drive, Time Machine wants you to reformat the drive as "Case Sensitive," and that's not helping us. So take a spare drive, and copy everything in the root of your hard drive, EXCEPT the "System" folder. I copied the "Users," "Library," and "Applications" folder. We don't need the "System" folder because that will return perfectly when we reinstall OS X later down the line. To do this, you can't just drag and drop. Open a Terminal, and use the "sudo ditto" command to copy these folders. For example, "sudo ditto /Applications /Volumes/Backup/Applications" It will ask you for some passwords, but make sure you use "sudo" for administrator privileges, or it won't allow you to copy everything. For the directory links, you can just drag and drop locations into the Terminal to copy their address, but it's very straightforward here.
Next, you want to write down Users and Passwords. In my case, I had four different users, all with different passwords. Write down the User Name and the Full Name of each account, plus the passwords for each. These have to be added in again manually, and will not get recovered when we re-place the files. Take note of an Administrator account on the computer. In my case, the account was titled "Ariana." This will be the account you want to create first after reinstalling OS X. Once this is done, and you're confident all files have been backed up, it's time to reinstall the OS.
In my case, this was the time to reinstall Mavericks. Fortunately, I still had my USB install key handy from when I originally upgraded all my Macs a few months ago, so I was set. If you need to create a Mavericks Install USB, check out THIS guide. Simply hold the "Option" key at startup and boot from the install USB, then open Disk Utility. Erase the existing hard drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). You will notice there is also an option for Case Sensitive. Make sure that is NOT the option you are selecting. Should only take a few seconds, then close out Disk Utility and go ahead and proceed with the install. If you've never installed a new OS before, it takes 20-40 minutes, and the "Estimated Time Remaining" is never accurate. Once it's done, your machine will restart and boot into your fresh installation.
Go ahead and set up the user we designated before. Make sure it is an administrator. On my computer, this was "Ariana" - set that up as the primary account, using the same password the account had before. Set your Time Zone, and sign in with the Apple ID if you know it. If you don't, no big deal, it can be added later. Once you're on the main screen, run as many updates as you can. At the time of writing this, it was just a few updates for software, and the 10.9.1 update. Once your machine is up to date, now the real work begins.
First, go into your System Preferences, and create any other User Accounts you need to add to the system. In my case, I had to add 3 more accounts, one with Administrator Privileges, a Standard User, and a user with Parental Controls. This is why the Users and Passwords were important earlier. When you're happy with the Users, Shut Down your Mac and remove the hard drive.
There is a very good chance that this step can be tweaked a bit, such as if you have two OS X installations on your hard drive, but this was easiest for me. Open up your Mac and remove the hard drive. Somehow, attach it to another Mac. In my case, I have a Mac Pro with spare drive bays. Alternatively, use a USB to SATA adapter if you have one. Then plug in your drive you backed up the original files to (Applications, Users, and Library).
Restore the three folders back to your fresh hard drive. We need to do this from another OS X installation for a few reasons. The Applications, Library, and Users folders are all needed by OS X, so we can't do it while it's booted. You don't need to use the "ditto" command here, because we're actually going to REPLACE the files the fresh installation created. Just drag and drop "Applications," "Users," and "Library" onto the fresh drive. Make sure the Users Folders are done correctly - each user is named properly so there are no problems when we boot the machine back up again. If you did the Users setup properly, you should be OK. Once all the files are copied, open up Disk Utility. Navigate to the drive we are working on, and click "Repair Permissions." This is going to take a while, since all the permissions on the drive are basically incorrect. Run it once or twice more to make sure they're all set, then you should be good.
Remove the drive we are working on from your secondary Mac, and reinsert it onto its original machine. If all was done properly, you should be able to boot fine. Boot into an Administrator account, and open up Disk Utility. Once again, Repair Permissions on the hard drive. Do it twice or three times. It will always find something to repair, so don't freak out if you're constantly finding inconsistencies. Now, you should be good to go. Open up a few Applications to make sure they're alright, and log in as different users to make sure they are set up properly. If you messed up a user or two, there is an easy way to fix it. Follow THIS guide here, and just point it to the proper user folder, and Repair Permissions. NOW, you can install your Adobe Product.
Hope this helped someone out. I couldn't find a guide on how to do this, and the methods here are kinda questionable, but they work.
-N