Two volumes (SSD+HDD)

[BiggAW]

I have a Blackbook 2.16 C2D, and I'm going to add an SSD in place of the optical drive. I can't justify buying a 512GB SSD, so I am going to get a 160GB SSD for the OS, apps, and VMs, and the 640GB HDD (currently boot drive) will be for pictures, music (iTunes), and my internet downloads.

What I need to know is if I can put my entire user folder on the HDD somehow, even though it's not the boot drive. Another option would be just to make new folders for stuff that I need, and put them in the sidebar of the finder, but then I wouldn't have the nice little icons, and I'd have two sets of everything, one empty, which could be kind of annoying.

Also, is there a way to move individual folders? It would be beneficial to have my desktop folder on the SSD, since I tend to have a lot of folders on there that I use a lot and sync with Dropbox, and its only a few gigs at any given time.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

TUAW Tip: Moving your home folder to another disk (or moving it back)
How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why

 

[Jolly Jimmy]

I have a Blackbook 2.16 C2D, and I'm going to add an SSD in place of the optical drive.

The optical drives in older MacBooks aren't connected by SATA like in the new ones, so you can't replace it with an HDD or an SSD.

 

[BiggAW]

The optical drives in older MacBooks aren't connected by SATA like in the new ones, so you can't replace it with an HDD or an SSD.

Hmmmmmmm. I just checked and my Macbook does have a PATA interface on the DVD-RW drive, and the bracket to put the SSD in doesn't look like it's available with a PATA to SATA converter. Might be time for a new 15" MBP...

 

[BiggAW]

I contacted mcetech, and their Optibay for the Macbook does have the pata to sata converter. However, I think I am just going to get a new computer, as I would have to put the HDD in the optical drive bay, which I am not particularly comfortable with, and that bay is not the same as the one for the new MBPs, the MB only has SATA I, and it has 4 areas where the case is cracked and it needs a new battery. I think my trusty laptop is on it's way out.

 

[BiggAW]

Yeah, so I ended up getting a MBP 15 with the 2.2 i7, hi-res screen, and I ordered 8GB of ram for it from Newegg. It's on a plane somewhere over the Pacific or in Alaska at the moment.

I got the appropriate MCETech adapter for it to mount the SSD in. The question I have is how do I restore the Time Machine backup to the new machine? The size of it is going to exceed the size of the boot volume, which will be the 160GB SSD, since it will not yet know to put my user folder on the hard drive, and not on the SSD.

The only thing I can think of is moving my user folder to a different external drive, backing the old machine up on TM, doing the TM restore on the new machine, and then manually putting it back together on the hard drive. Kind of a PITA, although it would work. Is there a better way to do it?

 

[BiggAW]

I ended up just doing it the slow way. Moving the user folder over doesn't work, as it screws up all the settings, and it moves the library over as well, which I want on the SSD. As a result, I just made new folders for my stuff on the Hard drive.