Trying to move user folder - won't copy

[akm3]

I have an iMac with an SSD and HD. The system is installed on the SSD and I want to move the user folder to the Hard Drive.

I've done this before, but now it's not working. The copy of the user folder to the other drive won't finish, it keeps hanging.

This worked under Snow Leopard. Not sure what the hangup is. How do I check?

 

[hfg]

How are you doing the copy? Drag and drop? Copy and Paste?

Are you just trying to copy your personal user/name folder, or all users?

I assume there is adequate room on the target drive.

You may want to be sure / set the user/username folder and all sub-folders to have ownership rights to you and be read/write. (use "Get Info" on your folder, then look at the bottom of the dialog box which pops up).

 

[akm3]

How are you doing the copy? Drag and drop? Copy and Paste?

Are you just trying to copy your personal user/name folder, or all users?

I assume there is adequate room on the target drive.

You may want to be sure / set the user/username folder and all sub-folders to have ownership rights to you and be read/write. (use "Get Info" on your folder, then look at the bottom of the dialog box which pops up).

At first I just tried the drag and drop of just ONE user (From a Time Machine backup, which may be the trick here). But what really screwed me up was when on a clean OS X install I tried copying an new user and the same thing happened (just a small amount instead of 80gb this time.)

Not sure what the heck is up. Currently trying it in terminal from another admin account. With the GUI it got to the exact same spot 21ish gigs in out of 80 something before hanging. Hopefully with the verbose on I can see where or which files are causing the issue ... I guess it's possible something is corrupted.

Forgot to mention. yes there is adequate room. Copying one user but my setup is weird. SSD & HDD. My 'real' user account was on the HDD, now a Time Machine backup of that user account. The other accounts and the OS are on the SSD.

I'll doublecheck the ownership permissions.

 

[hfg]

On a new install, you might try "Migration Assistant" and just copy the users folders from TM backup. I have drag/drop copied user directories from disk to SSD and back, but not from TM backups.

Do you have a Windows Virtual Machine in your "documents" directory from Parallels or VMware? Those are usually huge files (30GB) and the transfer will appear to stall for a very long time when it hits this file. If you are patient and let it run, it will eventually copy this file in full and the copy indicators will appear to continue.


-howard

 

[akm3]

On a new install, you might try "Migration Assistant" and just copy the users folders from TM backup. I have drag/drop copied user directories from disk to SSD and back, but not from TM backups.

Do you have a Windows Virtual Machine in your "documents" directory from Parallels or VMware? Those are usually huge files (30GB) and the transfer will appear to stall for a very long time when it hits this file. If you are patient and let it run, it will eventually copy this file in full and the copy indicators will appear to continue.


-howard

This is good advice and I did have a VM. However, I had the same error when I tried to copy a new, small, blank user directory.

I ended up just reformatting everything, restoring the SSD from the time machine, and using terminal to sudo rsync -av source target and it is plugging away without stalling. Not sure what was borked but when it finishes copying all 800+gb, I'll let you know if it worked.

-Allen