How to put Docs & Mail folders back to boot drive?

[yamamr]

I followed the advice and instructions on MacPerformanceGuide and relocated my Documents and Mail folders to a separate volume called "Master".

Now I want to move them back to the "Boot" drive and I don't know anything about terminal commands. Can anyone help me out here?

This was what I typed in the Terminal for the "Documents" relocation:
cd
sudo cp -r Documents /Volumes/Master
sudo rm -rf Documents
sudo ln -s /Volumes/Master/Documents Documents

For the "Mail Relocation", I did these
0. Quit Apple Mail, and make a backup of your mail folder.
1. Copy the Mail folder to the top level of your data drive (or elsewhere, then modify step 3 appropriately).
2. Rename the original mail folder to Mail.old as an additional backup.
3. Start a Terminal window and type:

ln -s /Volumes/Master/Mail Library/Mail

 

[Cryptic57]

Terminal, can be terminal.

May I suggest;

If you don't know how to use terminal, DON'T. Using Terminal without knowledge can lead to major problems.

To restore your computer and files/folders etc to their correct location, re-instal your operating system software. This can be done without losing files but it's best done after backing up important files to another drive.

 

[Mal]

May I suggest;

If you don't know how to use terminal, DON'T. Using Terminal without knowledge can lead to major problems.

To restore your computer and files/folders etc to their correct location, re-instal your operating system software. This can be done without losing files but it's best done after backing up important files to another drive.

Nonsense. Reinstalling the OS would have no effect on this situation, and would only be unnecessary hassle. Perhaps you should adapt your original statement, because making recommendations to people about "using Terminal without knowledge can lead to major problems."

OP, you can get out of this without the Terminal actually, most likely. Just drag the Documents folder from your Master drive back into your Home folder, and let it replace the symbolic link that's currently there. If it balks, then you'll have to use the Terminal command and simply reverse some of the order, like so:

cd ~
sudo rm -rf Documents
sudo cp -r /Volumes/Master/Documents ~/

That will first delete the symbolic link that was created in your home folder in place of the Documents folder, then copy the actual folder back from your Master drive.

For Mail, the process is similar. Make sure Mail is quit first, btw. You can simply copy the Mail folder from that Master drive into ~/Library/Mail, or you can use the Terminal commands in reverse again:

sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Mail
sudo cp -r /Volumes/Master/Mail ~/Library/

Same basic process.

jW