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SSD+HHD strategy questions

Yorr

Yorr

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2011
87
0
Holland
With my new iMac just around te corner, and also as green as green can be with OSX.. I ask myself the question what your strategy is with the SSD+HHD combo.

When I boot OSX for the first time and start filling this machine up, what would be smart moves to do. For example iTunes and iPhoto.. etcetera and how can u control it?
 
Yorr said:
With my new iMac just around te corner, and also as green as green can be with OSX.. I ask myself the question what your strategy is with the SSD+HHD combo.

When I boot OSX for the first time and start filling this machine up, what would be smart moves to do. For example iTunes and iPhoto.. etcetera and how can u control it?
Click to expand...


Yorr, good to see you finally got your new iMac. Mine came this morning but I have only just got home and started playing myself.

I too am weighing up what to do. I want to redirect all my user data to the 2 TB HDD, so that application like Steam and the cache for these all take up space on the HDD instead of the SSD. I was then planning to run a VM of windows with 2 virtual disks, again one for the Win OS on the SSD and the other Virtual Disk on the HDD.

The only issue that I have is the what I have heard from other regarding the issues with the OS not booting and being stuffed if your 2nd HDD starts playing up and the user data can not be accessed. I don't want a second user account (with USER data local to SSD) sitting there just in case.
 
johnfkitchen said:
That account should be your admin account. The one you use generally should be a non-admin account.
Click to expand...

I have now created an account... as for using a non-admin account, what does this mean for installations, config changes and so on. Do I need to log out and log back in each time for this?

At the moment I have always been using and admin account, and even now when I want to change or install I have to enter my password, so if it is the same for the non-admin account, I do not see the difference. Can you please shed some light on this for us.
 
Hellhammer said:
You can move your Home folder from the SSD to the HD so all your user files will go to the HD while apps and system files will stay in the SSD.
Click to expand...

Dude, thanks for the link. As this is want I was going to do and I had already seen this article. You just saved me a lot of time trying to find it again....

I have just made the change by coping the home directory and then linking it to my HDD. I had created a 'Users' folder on the new drive, just to keep it neat. It worked like a charm and I don't see any issues with speed or performance.

The main reason I wanted to do this was because some apps like SteamPowered would fill up my 256GB SSD in no time flat with game installs, etc.

Anyway, I do you know if I should go to the extra mile and create symbolic links or does SL not need them?
 
So, when i turn on the iMac for the first time, i make a new user account. This is not the admin, but just a user with limited rights, right?

After that, u need to change move the map user data to the hdd? And thats it?

And sofar i understand, problems are ahead when i make a bootcamp on the SSD with W7?

[EDIT] move your home folder reply.. with link. thanks.. I looked over it
 
That's my biggest question -- can you have both OS X and boot camp (with Windows 7) on the SSD?
 
All Macs must have at least one admin account, and an admin account can only be created by an admin account.

So the first account created in your new Mac will have administrative rights.

The danger in this is that admin accounts can do pretty much anything to any files, even OS X files. If you get malware, they can do really bad stuff. If you just make a mistake, you can accidentally do bad things. How often on these and other forums have you seen posts like "All my applications have gone - HELP ME!!"

For this reason, it is a good idea to NOT use an admin account for daily tasks. There is also a mindset reason. We get so used to providing a password when asked, that it's easy to fail to think things through. If you are doing daily stuff, you should expect not to be asked for an admin userid/password. This should be the exception. Having to either log in as admin or provide both userid and password raises your level of alertness, and reduces the risk of allowing damage to your system.
 
johnfkitchen said:
So the first account created in your new Mac will have administrative rights.
Click to expand...

If you set up the initial account named "admin" and use that account to create an account without admin rights called "user", can you have the computer automatically startup loading the user account without a login screen?

What options should be enabled on user account?

I have a SSD+HDD iMac coming soon. It would be nice if there was a setup guide for accounts and data management (between two drives).
 
Multiple users, two drives?

Always good to be prepared:

We're a family of four- I thus plan to set up one admin and four user accounts.

Would I need to micro-manage the library pointers for every user and every application ( iTuned, iPhoto etc.), or is there some generic solution? I guess there is no way around repeating the process four times (leaving the admin account as is?).
 
OK, seems like some others are looking to do the same.... If you are looking to
have your entire home directory on a separate drive like me. then look at the hyperlink that hellhammer has assigned to the words "move your Home folder".

In basic this is the steps I took
  1. Create another account (Must have Admin Rights) that can be used as a backup. If you do consider to change your account from and admin to a regular user, then it may pay to do this after you have setup your system or at least completed the steps below.
  2. Use finder to make a copy of your home directory to the 2nd HDD. In my case I created a folder on the new drive called Users and copied the home folder under it. I had also completed this and all the other steps while logged into the system as the account that I was moving.
  3. Go into [System Preferences] --> [Accounts], then unlock the padlock at the bottom and then right click on the user that will have the home directory relocated and select [Advanced Options].
  4. Now only change the [Home Directory:] field by using the choose option to browse. In my case the field now reads "/Volumes/iMac Data/Users/darksheer". The "iMac Data" being the name of my 2TB HDD.
  5. It will then prompt you to reboot, once you have done this you will find that your home drive is now being used from your 2nd HDD. To make sure, just use finder to browse your HDD's, you should find that your second drive should have the house symbol as its icon for the home directory. If this is the cause then you can delete your old home directory on the primary drive.

Note that johnfkitchen made a good point regarding ACL's to files, etc. This is something that I may look at once I have settled into my new :apple: and all my apps are loaded.

As for bootcamp, I am currently starting the assistant to see if the SSD can be split. I can see why not, but will let you know. I can not yet install or test windows, as I do not have the time to do so atm. I will be on the road for the week and most likely set it up on my return. At this stage though I am planning to buy Parallels to also interact with the bootcamp version of windows. I am not sure what to expect with this, and all that I know is that a retail copy of windows (or corporate) is needed. Using OEM will cause issues with hardware changes when swapping between VM and bootcamp.
 
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