I'd like to get my email and other data files off my startup drive and wonder if I can use aliases of the respective files or folders. Would appreciate any comments on the best way to set this up.
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Getting email and other data off startup SSD
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I presume you mean that you want OS X to store some data on another drive because your SSD is filling up.
Aliases aren't good enough. There is a Unix equivalent called Symbolic links, and it is possible to move some folders that OS X expects to be in a certain place and move them, leaving a sym link in its place that points to the new location.
However, there can be problems with this method, and OS X can be a bit temperamental about it.
.or merge your SSD and an HDD into a Fusion Drive, of course!
Aliases aren't good enough. There is a Unix equivalent called Symbolic links, and it is possible to move some folders that OS X expects to be in a certain place and move them, leaving a sym link in its place that points to the new location.
However, there can be problems with this method, and OS X can be a bit temperamental about it.
.or merge your SSD and an HDD into a Fusion Drive, of course!
Thanks for reply. Boot drive is SSD and I'd prefer keeping emails (some with big attachments), docs and images on a data drive. Set up my Mac Pro recently after problems with my old computer but now I want to optimize the setup.
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Thanks for resonse. My boot SSD is not filling up yet, but I can see that happening not too far ahead. It's only a 250GB.
I thought symbolic links might be what I was looking for but I didn't know anything about them, however if there are possible problems I'd just as soon leave them alone.
Fusion drive? Sort of familiar term but I realize I was confusing it with hybrid drive. Guessing it's a volume made up of an HD and an SSD where one can place selected data on a given drive. If so there must be significant overhead. Have you had success with this and are there any potential issues?
Like benwiggy mentioned, you could move the ~/Library/Mail folder to the HDD, then symlink back to it... but you are asking for problems with this setup. I agree with benwiggy.
Do you really have that many email attachments that it is going to put a dent in a 256GB SSD? Do you have a lot of music or maybe photos that are taking up space. iTunes and iPhoto have built in support for keeping their libraries on another drive, so that might be better way to save SSD space.
Thanks for reply. Not too much stuff, but I'm also concerned about deteriorating the performance of the SSD, which is what I understand happens to them with use. Have not noticed any slow-down yet. I'll probably leave it alone until it gets slow or full. I thought what I was suggesting was close to just creating an alias.
Don't sweat this at all. In the early days of SSDs there was much hand wringing over this, but it really is not a problem.
Read this post from user Hellhammer along with the linked articles. Even if you are a heavy user, your computer is likely to die long before that SSD even starts to wear out.