Managing OSX with 2 Hard Drives?

Spit

Spit

Spit

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How do you guys do it?

I have just moved from a 2009 iMac with a single 1Tb drive to a 2010 iMac with a 120Gb SSD and a 2Tb 2nd Drive.

The main problem is can you put the Downloads, Documents, Movies, Picture and Music system directories on the 2Tb Drive? So whenever I download anything thats where it will go, when I create movies they will be stored in the movies etc etc. Just want that seamless if its possible?

Anyone contemplating an SSD for the Mac, just go for it!!
 
I think the best way of doing this is by using this:

http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html

It creates symbolic links to folders on other hard disks.

You need to copy all the folders in the home user folder you want to move onto the 2Tb, then using the above app in the context menu (right click) make a symbolic link for them all.

Then you need to go into Terminal, using command lines which are easily found on zee webs delete the original folders you want to sym link in the home user folder.

Copy the sym links you made previously to the user home folder making sure they are named correctly (IE for a Downloads symlink, you need to have it exactly as "Downloads", "Documents", "Pictures" and "Movies", etc.

I currently have my Documents folder moved like this, I couldn't be bothered moving anything else, mainly because the Finder Sidebar Icon goes MIA when you simlink :(

That should sort you out :)
 
Crikey that seems like a lot of work?

I have a 4x1TB Drobo, my iTunes folder is on there, my iPhoto library is on there and the rest is on my normal drive in the Mini.

Surely your not going to fill your SSD with Documents & Downloads.

I'm not sure what else there is to manage?
 
I just moved my entire 'home' folder to a second drive using a guide I found here.

Very simple and it means that the only thing I have on my boot SSD is the OS and applications.
 
What storage you got in the Mac Pro now feek, besides the SSD?





PS. Spit send your setup when your ready dude to my email!
 
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Feek said:
I just moved my entire 'home' folder to a second drive using a guide I found here.

Very simple and it means that the only thing I have on my boot SSD is the OS and applications.
Click to expand...

The only downside is that there's quite a lot of stuff in ~/Library that applications use when launching. Typically small files, read and written often - the type of stuff SSDs excel at. Seems a shame to not take advantage of that.

I've got a Vertex 2E, waiting for my Optibay to arrive. I'll be setting it up with symlinks, as that seems to offer the most control and flexibility.

I suppose you could always symlink ~/Library back to the SSD though.
 
It would be nice to get the library folder onto the SSD, it would make things even snappier :)

I could create a folder on my SSD called (for example) 'homeLibrary', copy the contents of my ~/Library into it, create a symbolic link to that folder and rename it 'Library' and then move that symbolic link into my Home folder.

That would work?

How exactly would I do that and successfully remove the original ~/Library folder because I believe OS X would get arsy if I tried. I've had a quick google but couldn't find a way.

I'd like to do this. Luckily I've already symlinked my SteamApps folder out of ~/Library/Application Support/Steam otherwise that would have been 20Gb of stuff I'd have needed to move onto the SSD and that would have been a waste of space.

ATF - I've got the 60Gb SSD, a 2Tb F3 and a pair of 500Gb drives. One of the 500Gb drives is partitioned and used for SuperDuper! backups and the other one is a Windows 7 bootcamp but I've not booted into that for over six months!
 
I sorted it and it's made things even snappier.

I set up a second administrator account and did it from there, that way I didn't have to faff about deleting the library folder of an active account!

From the Apple logo appearing at boot to having a fully booted and usable system is now 18 seconds. I didn't time it before I'd moved the library folder over but it does make sense to have it on the SSD because *every* application accesses it.
 
Feek said:
I sorted it and it's made things even snappier.

I set up a second administrator account and did it from there, that way I didn't have to faff about deleting the library folder of an active account!

From the Apple logo appearing at boot to having a fully booted and usable system is now 18 seconds. I didn't time it before I'd moved the library folder over but it does make sense to have it on the SSD because *every* application accesses it.
Click to expand...

Feek, so you now have your OS including library on your SSD and everything else on your other HDD. In the advanced account settings where you change the Library location, is that set to it's original location with the OS on your SSD? And are you just using symbolic links to point your User Folders to your other HDD?

I've currently got my SSD installed my MBP and am using my old HDD in a caddy until my optibay arrives and I've moved my User folders including Library onto that. I originally had my User folders on my SSD and I just created alias's to my external drive but that setup had a few little quirks which did my head in. I would like to keep my Library on my SSD but and User Folders on my other HDD but obviously keeping the Library on the SSD points your User Folders there as well.
 
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Not quite. I moved my entire Home directory from my SSD onto an HDD using the method I linked in post #4 above so that everything in Home is on a mechanical drive. I then copied my entire Library folder back to the SSD to a folder called FeekHomeLibrary and created a symbolic link to it.

I logged in with a second administrator account, gave myself permission to Feek's home folder and renamed the original library folder to library.old (just in case this all screwed up so that I had a copy). I then moved the symbolic link into Feek's home folder and renamed it to 'Library'.

Then I logged back in as Feek and confirmed that the system was now accessing my ~/Library folder from the SSD rather than the HDD and once I was happy it was all working, I deleted the library.old folder.

This way I've only got one symbolic link, and that's my ~/Library back to the FeekHomeLibrary folder on my SSD.

I hope that makes sense :)
 
Feek said:
Not quite. I moved my entire Home directory from my SSD onto an HDD using the method I linked in post #4 above so that everything in Home is on a mechanical drive. I then copied my entire Library folder back to the SSD to a folder called FeekHomeLibrary and created a symbolic link to it.

I logged in with a second administrator account, gave myself permission to Feek's home folder and renamed the original library folder to library.old (just in case this all screwed up so that I had a copy). I then moved the symbolic link into Feek's home folder and renamed it to 'Library'.

Then I logged back in as Feek and confirmed that the system was now accessing my ~/Library folder from the SSD rather than the HDD and once I was happy it was all working, I deleted the library.old folder.

This way I've only got one symbolic link, and that's my ~/Library back to the FeekHomeLibrary folder on my SSD.

I hope that makes sense :)
Click to expand...

I got it. Sweet. I'm off to give it a go now. Fingers crossed. It works for me. Did you have to change permissions on the symbolic link or Library folder seeing as it was created and copied using a different Administrator account??
 
allosunshine said:
Did you have to change permissions on the symbolic link or Library folder seeing as it was created and copied using a different Administrator account??
Click to expand...

Nope, but the symbolic link was created using the original Feek account.
 
Feek, did you have to redo all your settings again. I've tried copying over my Library folder and sorting the Symbolic link out a couple of different ways but the only thing I can get to carry across settings wise is my Wallpaper.
 
Feek said:
Not quite. I moved my entire Home directory from my SSD onto an HDD using the method I linked in post #4 above so that everything in Home is on a mechanical drive. I then copied my entire Library folder back to the SSD to a folder called FeekHomeLibrary and created a symbolic link to it.

I logged in with a second administrator account, gave myself permission to Feek's home folder and renamed the original library folder to library.old (just in case this all screwed up so that I had a copy). I then moved the symbolic link into Feek's home folder and renamed it to 'Library'.

Then I logged back in as Feek and confirmed that the system was now accessing my ~/Library folder from the SSD rather than the HDD and once I was happy it was all working, I deleted the library.old folder.

This way I've only got one symbolic link, and that's my ~/Library back to the FeekHomeLibrary folder on my SSD.

I hope that makes sense :)
Click to expand...

I used to have my user folder on a separate HD however:

Only issue with that is some apps error quite a-lot and when I sent off my error logs to Apple Developer Connection they said that it's an unsupported configuration and will not help with anything you have issues with.


Since then i've kept the home folder where it should be and moved the documents folder and the number of error log entries has reduced significantly.


Personally moving the home folder isn't the way to go...
 
I've had my user folder on a separate drive for over two years (since I got my Mac Pro), no issues at all. I described the process above as though I'd done it from the SSD but it's actually been like it for ages.
 
I think I've got it working now. I think where I was going wrong was I was renaming the NWLibraryFolder I had created and copied the contents to to Library. I've now left it as NWHomeFolder and just changed the name of the Symbolic link to Library and all my settings seem ok. Cushty, cheers Feek.
 
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