iMac with external SSD- need data management advice

[carves]

Hey guys. I just got an iMac and did a fresh install of OS-X on a Lacie external Thunderbolt SSD. Nice 'n zippy.

I have all of my old data, which includes about 600 GB of photos, onto an external USB drive- it's a time machine backup from my laptop. I want to start clean here, so I'm only interested in the data from my old laptop- not all the software and settings. My plan is to delete everything off of the internal drive, drag my user folder from the SSD to the internal drive, and then drag all my photos and documents from my time machine backup into that user folder.

Before I pull the trigger, is there a problem with any of this? Is my user folder just my data and settings, or is there software associated with it that will make my mac run slower?

Also, is there any way my SSD could mirror itself periodically onto the internal drive? That way if something happens to it, my computer is still able to boot up without it.

 

[bassjunky]

I pretty much did the same thing with an external Transcend SSD, 256GB. Left the internal 1TB for storage. I manually copied all media I had from an external to the internal, works great.

I'm pretty sure your user folder would just contain your data files and settings. Copying this over shouldn't slow down your mac at all.

Not sure about the mirroring. You'd probably want to make a bootable image on your internal drive before you start copying your data files. Someone else may have better knowledge of this.

 

[hfg]

Hey guys. I just got an iMac and did a fresh install of OS-X on a Lacie external Thunderbolt SSD. Nice 'n zippy.

.....

Also, is there any way my SSD could mirror itself periodically onto the internal drive? That way if something happens to it, my computer is still able to boot up without it.

Sure ... create a partition on your internal drive the size of your SSD, then use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone it using the CCC scheduler (I clone mine once per day during the night). You can even use CCC to create a recovery partition on the hard disk from your fresh SSD install, if it isn't still there from when new.

 

[Fishrrman]

I agree with hfg above.

You can partition the internal drive, and use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of your external SSD "booter" on the internal drive.

You will then have a second and IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE second boot source.

Caution:
I recommend that when you partition the internal, that you make the FIRST (uppermost) partition your clone of the SSD.

Then, use whatever's left for your file storage and data libraries.

Do this, and you are fully protected against an unexpected failure of the SSD.

And you can boot and run the iMac "on its own", if circumstances require...

 

[steve62388]

If you copy just your photos over will you lose any data that you had saved into your photo app? eg any organisation or tags? I don't know the answer but it might be something to look into before you take the plunge.