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tomwalsh77

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 12, 2012
139
37
Blackpool, UK
Hi all,

I’m in the process of copying all my data to an external hard drive to save room on my internal. When I checked the size of the source ‘Home’ folder it is a different size to the folder copied to the external drive; 821.84GB vs 761.38 on the external hard drive. I’ve checked each individual folder’s size and they appear to match up so what would make the OS report the difference in size?
 
Probably hidden files that are missing.

are you looking to copy or relocate your home folder?

In my macbook I relocated it to the 2nd HDD in optical bay.
 
Probably hidden files that are missing.

are you looking to copy or relocate your home folder?

In my macbook I relocated it to the 2nd HDD in optical bay.

My plan is to relocate my home folder to the external drive and just keep the OS and applications running on the internal drive.
 
then you need move it from another admin account.
I'll find you the guide.... 2 mins.....
[doublepost=1520108893][/doublepost]this guide I used.

https://computers.tutsplus.com/tuto...-folder-to-another-drive-or-volume--mac-48822

I was running Sierra at time and upgraded to High Sierra with no problems.

Thanks elf69 I appreciate that. I’m thinking of doing a clean install of OS X too. I’m guessing the process would be the same and then just format/reinstall from recovery.
 
Ummm.....

You CAN'T just "copy your home folder" to another drive (that's not on the same volume the OS is on) -- and then expect things to work properly.

The folders you see in your home folder are "more than just folders".
Try moving them, and you may start having all sorts of problems.

What you CAN do is move "the large libraries" OUT OF the home folder (to another drive), and then "reference" them from that drive.

Thus -- your home folder "stays in place", but is substantially reduced in size.

Moving the entire home folder isn't impossible.
But it can be more trouble than it's worth.
Just move the large libraries (such as the iTunes folder, Photos library, etc.) and be done with it.
 
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