04-30-2012, 10:08 PM

Whoops. I didn't mean OS X. My apologies. However, at this point, I forgot what I wanted to ask

Anyway, I am still waiting to order my HDD caddy, so I haven't done anything yet.

Just for reassurance, let me run by this once more:

I should do all the fancy stuff to the SSD, then will do a fresh install.
Thats right. I installed a new HDD (Because I needed a bigger one, and the SSD all at the same time. Then I booted off a external firewire dock that now has my old, OS X installed HDD in it and formatted internal drives.
You can (reading below that you want to just move the HDD to the Data Doubler) just move it to the Data Doubler. Install the SSD, boot of the HDD in the DataDoubler and reformat.


Then, when you told me you brought your User folder over to the SSD as well, which folders are the essential ones?

For example, I don't need to bring my downloads folder over. I do not think I need to bring my Documents folder over either. The only folders I would need to bring over would be the Library and Application ones?
Yeah, so if application registrations are important for you you will need to transfer the entire Library folder over to the SSD user. HOWEVER, do this this way.
Boot from the SSD, setup the user. Then boot back into the HDD and start copying the folders in the Library folder to the SSD user.
If you try and do it from the SSD you will run into "This file is currently being used and cannot be replaced. etc" errors.

Then, in the future when I have my HDD installed as well, can I leave it just the way it is, and access folders accordingly?
I see absolutely no problem at all in that, make sure you set the boot drive in the System Prefs though so that OS X boots from the SSD and not the HDD.You will then have 2 complete OS's in your Mac.

Lastly, would the performance of programs on Bootcamp on the secondary HDD be affected, or just their boot time?
Depends, if the application has data on the HDD that it needs to access time after time while it is open then it will slow down. Lets say you are using Windows Adobe Lightroom, and your Photo catalogue is also on the HDD, it will as slow as the HDD is
Now games, browsers, anything that loads it's data once and then doesn't need to reload it
until it's quite and reopened. Those you will just see a slower boot time.

Thanks again!

04-30-2012, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by McYukon

Whoops. I didn't mean OS X. My apologies. However, at this point, I forgot what I wanted to ask

Anyway, I am still waiting to order my HDD caddy, so I haven't done anything yet.

Just for reassurance, let me run by this once more:

I should do all the fancy stuff to the SSD, then will do a fresh install.
Thats right. I installed a new HDD (Because I needed a bigger one, and the SSD all at the same time. Then I booted off a external firewire dock that now has my old, OS X installed HDD in it and formatted internal drives.
You can (reading below that you want to just move the HDD to the Data Doubler) just move it to the Data Doubler. Install the SSD, boot of the HDD in the DataDoubler and reformat.


Then, when you told me you brought your User folder over to the SSD as well, which folders are the essential ones?

For example, I don't need to bring my downloads folder over. I do not think I need to bring my Documents folder over either. The only folders I would need to bring over would be the Library and Application ones?
Yeah, so if application registrations are important for you you will need to transfer the entire Library folder over to the SSD user

Then, in the future when I have my HDD installed as well, can I leave it just the way it is, and access folders accordingly?
I see absolutely no problem at all in that, make sure you set the boot drive in the System Prefs though so that OS X boots from the SSD and not the HDD.You will then have 2 complete OS's in your Mac.

Lastly, would the performance of programs on Bootcamp on the secondary HDD be affected, or just their boot time?
Depends, if the application has data on the HDD that it needs to access time after time while it is open then it will slow down. Lets say you are using Windows Adobe Lightroom, and your Photo catalogue is also on the HDD, it will as slow as the HDD is
Now games, browsers, anything that loads it's data once and then doesn't need to reload it
until it's quite and reopened. Those you will just see a slower boot time.

Thanks again!

That sounds great! I really only want to use Bootcamp for games, so I don't mind the wait for the game to boot up.

As for the User settings and such, when I am installing OS X on my SSD, will I just make a new account? Can I keep the same name? Once that is completed, do I literally just drag and drop the Library folder?

Will I need to replace the other Library folders? There are three that I can see:

Macintosh HD/Library
Macintosh HD/System/Library
Macintosh HD/Users/XX/Library

I believe the application data is stored in Users/XX/Library, but I want to double check.

Is it even possible to replace the Macintosh HD/Library folder?

And about the software registration. If I am indeed dragging and dropping the folders to the freshly installed OS, will the software still be registered, or will there be errors? If this was the case, wouldn't it be possible to just share the corresponding file to get software for free?

Thanks again!

04-30-2012, 10:54 PM

That sounds great! I really only want to use Bootcamp for games, so I don't mind the wait for the game to boot up.

As for the User settings and such, when I am installing OS X on my SSD, will I just make a new account? Can I keep the same name? Once that is completed, do I literally just drag and drop the Library folder?
Boot from the SSD, setup the user can be the same name! I even suggest you use the same name. Then boot back into the HDD and start copying the folders in the Library folder to the SSD user. (You can try the entire Library folder if you want)
If you try and do it from the SSD logged into the user you are trying to replace files in you will run into "This file is currently being used and cannot be replaced. etc" errors.

So to repeat myself, copy the Library folder from the HDD (While being booted into the HDD) to the SSD. And then boot into the SSD and run a permissions repair to make everything have the right perms. Some might have a problem with this approach, but hey it worked for me

Will I need to replace the other Library folders? There are three that I can see:

Macintosh HD/Library
Macintosh HD/System/Library
Macintosh HD/Users/XX/Library

I believe the application data is stored in Users/XX/Library, but I want to double check.
Most application registration data is stored in your User Library folder, leave the others alone unless you want trouble ;p


Is it even possible to replace the Macintosh HD/Library folder?
Yes, but it's not advisable to muck about in there.

And about the software registration. If I am indeed dragging and dropping the folders to the freshly installed OS, will the software still be registered, or will there be errors? If this was the case, wouldn't it be possible to just share the corresponding file to get software for free?
Most of it will be registered, maybe even all of it. Now if it isn't it's not that hard to search up the email with the registration info and re-register.

Thanks again!

04-30-2012, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by McYukon

That sounds great! I really only want to use Bootcamp for games, so I don't mind the wait for the game to boot up.

As for the User settings and such, when I am installing OS X on my SSD, will I just make a new account? Can I keep the same name? Once that is completed, do I literally just drag and drop the Library folder?
Boot from the SSD, setup the user can be the same name! I even suggest you use the same name. Then boot back into the HDD and start copying the folders in the Library folder to the SSD user. (You can try the entire Library folder if you want)
If you try and do it from the SSD logged into the user you are trying to replace files in you will run into "This file is currently being used and cannot be replaced. etc" errors.

So to repeat myself, copy the Library folder from the HDD (While being booted into the HDD) to the SSD. And then boot into the SSD and run a permissions repair to make everything have the right perms. Some might have a problem with this approach, but hey it worked for me

Will I need to replace the other Library folders? There are three that I can see:

Macintosh HD/Library
Macintosh HD/System/Library
Macintosh HD/Users/XX/Library

I believe the application data is stored in Users/XX/Library, but I want to double check.
Most application registration data is stored in your User Library folder, leave the others alone unless you want trouble ;p


Is it even possible to replace the Macintosh HD/Library folder?
Yes, but it's not advisable to muck about in there.

And about the software registration. If I am indeed dragging and dropping the folders to the freshly installed OS, will the software still be registered, or will there be errors? If this was the case, wouldn't it be possible to just share the corresponding file to get software for free?
Most of it will be registered, maybe even all of it. Now if it isn't it's not that hard to search up the email with the registration info and re-register.

Thanks again!

Again, you were very clear. Thank you very much for all the help! I figure, if I don't just go ahead and do it, I never will. I will probably start the OS X installation tomorrow.

If I run into any errors, hopefully you won't mind answering them

Thanks again for all the help!