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sOwL

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 25, 2007
490
6
Nerd Cave
Ok, i got an HDD from a friend and its pretty faster than the one my mac pro has. What i want to do is, put all the system files, apps etc in that new HDD, but have my home folder on my old HDD which is bigger. How can i do that from software side? Im guessing it would cause problems to just move my home folder to another HDD
 
Ok, i've read that guide and im worried about this:
"This procedure has worked for me with several external hard drives. You just need to make sure that the drive hosting your home directory is connected before you attempt to log in. If it isn't, you'll get an error -- which is preferable to the behavior of Tiger and earlier versions of OS X, which would create a new user folder and then change the home-directory path to that new folder, forcing you to reset the location again. (Unfortunately, Leopard client doesn't let you use this setting, alone, to place your home directory on a remote volume; for example, on an AirPort Disk.)"
Well, if i move my home folder to an internal disk obviously it IS connected while i attempt to login. So, i guess its not going to work?
 
OK, what I'd do step by step.

Install the "new" drive.
Clone your current drive to the new one (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper).
Boot off the cloned drive, make sure everything is OK.
Format the old boot drive.
Run through the procedure I linked to to move your Home Folder to the newly formatted drive.

I run my system with a boot drive and a separate drive housing the home folder. Works perfectly.
 
yeh thats what i was about to do, just got concerned about that comment he has in his article. But since it works fine in your mac pro, i dont see any reasons it wouldnt on mine. Ill superduper my HDD also on an external, in case something goes terribly wrong. thnx for the help

Also: Just found out that besides this guide i can actually do that via the menu;
Account settings>advanced(on the current account, after right clicking) and there you can set the "Home DIrectory". Wouldnt this be the safest way doing it?
 
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