MP 1,1-5,1 best way to move volume of user folders to new HDD ?

[RustyShackleford]

On my Mac Pro 5,1, I have my OS (frozen at El Capitan to maintain app compatibility) on an SSD, and my user folders on a larger HDD; the HDD also has a Snow Leopard installation for emergency use (though I imagine SSDs fail less often). I'd like to move the user folders to a new larger HDD, and am not sure of the best method.

1. Do a clean install of El Capitan on the new HDD and then simply copy over the user folders. The new HDD would necessarily have a new volume name, and I'm not sure how inconvenient that would be. AFAIK, I'd just have to change the pointers to home directory locations in SystemPrefs->Users&Groups, and a couple shellscripts I wrote to do backups. (Would temporarily connecting the new HDD as an external drive allow using the same volume name and get around this ?)
2. Use Disk Utility to do a "restore" of the old HDD onto the new HDD. I believe that means the volume name could be the same. But then I'd have to upgrade the Snow Leopard to El Capitan, which seems a bit uglier than the clean install. Or maybe I just leave Snow Leopard, since it's only for emergency use.
3. Something better ?

TIA.

 

[KeesMacPro]

Editing/moving Home folders can be done, and this way always worked for me:

1. install the "new" HDD ,format and give it a permanent name.
2. log in to the user account you'd like to move.
3. While logged in drag the Home folder to the desired new location.
Dont copy/paste, but drag it, the copying should start immediately.
4. After copying is completed , set the new Home location in Users/Groups under advanced options.
5. restart and log in to the mentioned account and check for the Home symbol in the new location.
If all is correct you can delete the "old" Home folder.

A safety net is to make another admin account on the same disk as the OS before starting the above mentioned steps.
This way ,in case of any failure/mistake , you'll still have access to the OS to adjust/correct anything.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Editing/moving Home folders can be done, and this way always worked for me:

So in step#1, I do the clean install of El Capitan (for emergency access to the user-data HDD). I also need to create user accounts in that OS (before I copy over the home folders), no ?

Why does it matter if I'm logged into the user account I'm moving ?

 

[KeesMacPro]

So in step#1, I do the clean install of El Capitan (for emergency access to the user-data HDD). I also need to create user accounts in that OS (before I copy over the home folders), no ?

No, another El Capitan install is not necessary,just format it to HFS+ and drag the Home folder you'd like to move ,to this drive.

A user account is bound to a certain OS install, so even with another drive with the same OS, AFAIK you can't (easily) add another user folder and have the permissions*

Why does it matter if I'm logged into the user account I'm moving ?

A couple of years ago , i worked a lot with multiple OS , and found out that this is a 100% working way.
For example editing a home folder from a OS that is not booted, might lead to "funny" complications.

*= It is possible with e.g. Immigration assistant , but is way more time consuming and in my experience not 100% failproof.