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dual hard drive file organization

G

Germwise

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2009
148
15
Like many of you I have installed an SSD as my main boot drive with a spinning disc for large file storage.

I am experiencing some issues on how to organize my files.

I want to keep documents, downloads etc on my SSD. I want to move my music, pictures and movies folders to my HDD. THe problem is my mac won't let me delete the music, pictures, movies folder on my SSD saying OSX needs it.

How do I convince OSX that those folders will be in my other drive from now on?

I guess I could move my hole home folder and make new "documents" and "downloads" on my SSD but I am looking for a more elegant solution.

thanks in advance.


P.S. also microsoft word updates wont work, gets stuck looking at both HDs and won't let me choose one for installation. what is going on there?
 
i think what you are trying to do would be a symlink between the folders... you can google how to do it or look on these forums for tutorials.
 
I just completed the same setup as you yesterday.

I had no problem moving my iTunes library (music, movies, etc.) to the HDD in the optibay and just pointing iTunes to the new location. Also, some Mac apps require that you install them on the system drive, but for the others, you can just move the app to the HDD and create an alias to that app to put in your applications folder on your SSD so it will act like any other app.

I don't think you will actually be able to delete your actual home folders from the SSD, but you can certainly store documents, etc. on you HDD.
 
In order to receive the benefits of ssd wouldn't you want your apps on it instead of the magnetic drive? If your apps are on the magnetic drive your ssd is really only helping improve boot speed, not helping app launch time/response etc.
 
I would keep your home directory (desktop/docs/music/pics/videos) on the hard drive and put the system/system folder/library/applications on the SSD. In system preferences, go into the advanced user options (ctrl + click your username) and point the home directory folder over to the hard drive's user folder.

no sense in keeping your home folder content on the SSD, that's valuable real estate that should be kept as lean as possible
 
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