iMac with SSD and HDD, user data?

[DJHack]

Not really an expert reply, however you can choose from within Itunes where the media goes, I copied my Itunes directory to the HD and pointed Itunes to it from within Itunes. (Preferences / Advanced)

IPhoto opens up when you click on the relevant iPhoto Library 'file' wherever it is, and I moved mine to the HD.

However I am no expert and still keep my home on the SDD to work with, and move processed, / old stuff it to the HD later.

Fine advice.

If you hold down the ALT key when you click on the application to open it (itunes, iphoto, aperture etc) it will give you the opportunity to point the app to the new location.

I agree this isn't as good a solution as i would expect from Apple. Whilst I am relatively good with tech I am not someone comfortable messing around in terminal and the like.

the solution works and, hopefully, Apple might come up with a different solution through Lion or and update to Lion?

 

[Manchestoh]

Fine advice.

If you hold down the ALT key when you click on the application to open it (itunes, iphoto, aperture etc) it will give you the opportunity to point the app to the new location.

I agree this isn't as good a solution as i would expect from Apple. Whilst I am relatively good with tech I am not someone comfortable messing around in terminal and the like.

the solution works and, hopefully, Apple might come up with a different solution through Lion or and update to Lion?

I've been through a few different options and have come back to this one too .... though I'm having to hold down ALT everytime I open the App to get it to find the library.

Is it not a case of ALT'ing, pointing for the first time and then it's set? Or do I need to ALT everytime I launch iTunes etc?

 

[dwithd]

I've been through a few different options and have come back to this one too .... though I'm having to hold down ALT everytime I open the App to get it to find the library.

Is it not a case of ALT'ing, pointing for the first time and then it's set? Or do I need to ALT everytime I launch iTunes etc?

For me I only had to do the ALT thing once. The problem is, any song I choose in iTunes has an exclamation point by it indicating it can't find the file. Any suggestions?

 

[kcossabo]

This may have been mentioned on this thread,

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1169936/

pointed me to this link

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/14/tuaw-tip-moving-your-home-folder-to-another-disk-or-moving-it/

I moved my whole user directory to the HDD off of the SSD, and iTunes, and everything is over there.... went slick.

 

[Pipper99]

I think this is a good guide.

http://jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F598EA.html

 

[dwithd]

I think this is a good guide.

http://jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F598EA.html

I was able to get my itunes up and running by alt clicking it and choosing the music folder on the HD instead of SSD. Then in the preferences advanced I choose itunes folder as the source of the music and it worked. Thanks for the suggestions. Lastly I wonder how to get my documents folder on my HD to be the default one so when I download or save it goes to that folder.

 

[supersid]

Succes!

If you don't want to be a command-line hero you can still do my original suggestion (which puts every user file, including those in Library, in the HDD), or you can do links or aliases (slightly different but works fine for things like iMovie that have hard-coded folders), and as pointed out some programs (iTunes, iPhoto,...) allow relocating their libraries.

Hi Guys,

I want to thank you all for your help! And Yes I do want to become a command-line hero. Yesterday I talked to a friend of mine and gave me the great idea to experiment with a freshly made user account. So I can tell from my own experience the following works if you want to move some of your user data folders from your SSD to your HDD:

1. Open terminal
2. Type: sudo mv Downloads /Volumes/HDD_Volume_Name/ (this moves the Downloads folder from the SSD to the HDD)
3. Type your password when prompted
4. Type: ln -s /Volumes/HDD_Volume_Name/Downloads Downloads (this puts a softlink on the SSD which redirects to the moved folder on the HDD)

The 'Softlink on SSD.png' shows the result of these actions in finder.

Note: You should type the name of your HDD drive where I put HDD_Volume_Name in the above example.

I wanted to apply the above for the following folders:
1 Desktop (Failed)
2 Downloads
3 Documents
4 Music
5 Public
6 Sites

I think moving the desktop failed because that folder is open/active when you are logged in. I will try to move the desktop of my test account from my normal account. When this works I will post this as well.

I did not want to move the other folders because I want to run my applications from the faster SSD drive and for movies and pictures I think Aperture and iMovie will be more responsive when the files I work with are on the SSD as well.

 

[ZMacintosh]

Im just genuinely curious the whole point of something like this is?
whats wrong with the way OS initially places things at install?

 

[ZeD X]

Im just genuinely curious the whole point of something like this is?
whats wrong with the way OS initially places things at install?

Nothing

But why you want to put all in your SSD, if you have an empty HDD on your iMac?

 

[WickedStealthy]

Anyone tried to move the complete users folder to the other HD and make a soft link to it ?
Just started with Mac OSX. The *nix terminal is very familiar to me, the GUI not yet
There where some remarks about keeping one user on the SSD. It don't see really a point in that. If you lose the complete Users dir on the SSD it is exactly the same as if you lose the HD (internal).

 

[Besk one]

Yup,

in Terminal sudo mv entire Users dir to spinning disk (open terminal type: sudo mv (drag users folder source here then drag destination, hit enter and put in your password)

ln -s users folder from spinning disk to SSD where it originally was

(still in terminal type ln -s and drag Users folder (which is now in its new home) to terminal window, then drag the SSD, hit enter)

Open System Prefs, right click each user and change location of User Folder to new home on internal spinning disk.

Reboot.

Everything works perfect.

You can see from the screenshots my System, System Library and Applications are on my OWC SSD, and all the user data is on my 2TB internal.

YOU MUST DO ALL THE STEPS OR THINGS GET BROKEN!

And ln -s makes a Symbolic Link, not an Alias - THESE ARE NOT THE SAME, Alias are soft links where as Symlinks are hard links, they look the same in the finder but not to the OS!!

 

[Besk one]

Oh and leave all the user data on the spinning disk. I have a 200+GB Aperture Library and it takes less than 3 seconds to launch and load.

Just put the system and the apps like I did and don't worry about the performance hit of having the user data on the spinning disk, you won't see it - it's fast has all heck this way.

 

[roland.g]

Oh and leave all the user data on the spinning disk. I have a 200+GB Aperture Library and it takes less than 3 seconds to launch and load.

Just put the system and the apps like I did and don't worry about the performance hit of having the user data on the spinning disk, you won't see it - it's fast has all heck this way.

But with only a 40GB iPhoto library and nothing other than OS and Apps going on the SSD, along with the fact that Lion supports TRIM, would I want my iPhoto library on the SSD or HDD?

 

[WickedStealthy]

Oh and leave all the user data on the spinning disk. I have a 200+GB Aperture Library and it takes less than 3 seconds to launch and load.

Just put the system and the apps like I did and don't worry about the performance hit of having the user data on the spinning disk, you won't see it - it's fast has all heck this way.

As I don't have many users I have simply moved my regular account to the HD and set the home directory to the HD.

Maybe going to create a seperate volume and mount it as /Users on / ...
Would be nice if it would more resemble the classical *nix style ...

 

[ZMacintosh]

Nothing

But why you want to put all in your SSD, if you have an empty HDD on your iMac?

the SSD is faster, so why not leave all that data there? then just reference iphoto, itunes -- libraries, downloads, etc on the HDD?

 

[supersid]

the SSD is faster, so why not leave all that data there? then just reference iphoto, itunes -- libraries, downloads, etc on the HDD?

Please read the thread before commenting, I think people are repeating themselves.

For the last time I will explain my reasoning: I intended to use the SSD for stuff that benefits from speed and the HDD for everything that does not need the speed but would use "expensive" SSD space.

Everybody will have his or her own reasons to do something like this or not. If you think 256 Gb is enough for everything you do there would be no need to have the HDD installed. If you think you need the HDD space I think it will be useful to do something like I did.

By moving and soft-linking my Mac does everything as it always did but my files automatically end up in the place I want them to be. In effect there is only one downloads folder and one documents folder etc, but every single one of them is in the location I placed it in. (Having a documents folder on both the SSD and HDD is very confusing).

 

[Incagraphy]

It backs up both, set mine up yesterday to back up SSD + HD (but not Parallels), with the option to exclude stuff if necessary (take a look in options to see what is backed up)

sorry for reviving this old thread, but I am curious to know how your experiences came around after a year's use of the setup.

I have been told that Time Machine would take the backups fine as Zurichuk mentions, but for recovery, it does not function..

is that the case?
how about those of you who use Carbon Copy Cloner (what i use)? Can we take backup of an SSD+HDD combo and recover when needed in one step? Or should i aim at cloning both drives separately?