Install SL on separate HD, keep old home folder – doesn't work...

[flatfoot]

Hi there,

I installed Snow Leopard on a separate HD I put into the lower OD-bay of my Mac Pro. I created a new account under SL with the same name as my old one under Leopard and migrated only my apps folder using Migration Assistant.

Then, in the Accounta prefpane, I did a right-click on the newly created acocunt and pointed it to the "old" home folder on the Leopard drive.

The problem is: Somehow Snow Leopard has no access to the folder!

Any suggestions on what I missed out on?

Right now I'm upgrading my old Leopard installation to Snow Leopard in order to make my "old" home folder a "Snow Leopard compatible" one. Don't know whether this makes sense... Any suggestions?

EDIT: Or is it because my new account surely has a different user ID and if so, what would be the solution? "chown" might break something, I guess...

 

[GoCubsGo]

Pretty sure you cannot run an OS from a secondary drive.

 

[flatfoot]

Come on, folks, I know that it's possible to keep the system and apps on one and the home folders on another drive...
The question is how that is done in this very case.

 

[plinden]

You can run OS X from any drive, secondary or otherwise.

Likely the userid of the account you created in SL is different from the original one, meaning you don't have the right permissions to access to the original home folder. Open Account Preferences, right click on your account and select "Advanced options". Check that the user ID is the same.

Edit: I see you came to the same conclusion. You can change the user id in the Advanced Options.

Edit 2: If I were you I'd create a test account in Leopard and see if you can get it accessible in Snow Leopard using this method before messing with your main account.

 

[flatfoot]

Thanks for the reply, plinden,

I ended up using "chown" and it worked. For some reason, some apps (like Terminal lost there preferences, but I think that has something to do with my using them in the newly created account before rerouting it to the other drive.

I like OS X, it's so simple in the end.