02-25-2009, 09:40 PM

Hi all,

I'm really new to the mac world. I had used Apple II+'s - GS's, but had swapped to DOS and windows based machines in college. I'm now coming back to Mac, and I have a question...

Ok - let's say I add a hard drive to a Mac Pro - I assume it will show up in the partitioner, and once partitions are created and drive formatted, it will show up on the desktop like other drives do - at this point, I assume I can use it. What do I need to do (if anything) to integrate it into my personal home folder?

I know on unix/linux, you can mount a given partition to a specific folder, but I wasn't sure about the proper procedure on a mac with OS X 10.5.x

Or do I just open it as a seperate hard drive on my desktop and create a folder in it and start saving my stuff?

I'm sorry about what must seem to be a simple question, but I really don't know the story behind this - my mac will be here early next week, and I have some larger sata drives I plan to add to it from my decomissioned pc.

I know the machine has leopard OS, I don't know what subversion off hand.

Any info, or even links where I can read about it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

02-25-2009, 09:50 PM

While OS X is from the unix realm, it does not have the function you may be familiar with in Linux of having separate partitions for your system files, user files and virtual memory. Just start using your extra drives as storage space - after you set aside what you need for backup of course.

For partitioning and formatting you'll use Disk Utitlity, found in Applications/Utilities.

02-25-2009, 10:22 PM

Ok, that was kind of what I thought. I had been playing with a mac a work we had just gotten to see if I was interested in making the transition, but as it was not one I could just add an internal hard drive to, I wasn't sure. i had found the disk utility (couldn't remember what it was called) in my exploration - but I'm glad you cleared up how the extra drives are handled.

I read somewhere - as long as I don't turn off using permissions for a given drive, it should carry along the security of files being created by me only useable by me, is this correct? Basically, I just want to make sure, if I have some files I put into a folder I create, and have a seperate account for if someone comes over to use my system, they won't be able to access my files?

02-26-2009, 06:47 AM

Don't have a Mac Pro, so don't have the ability for multiple internal drives.
My understanding just from reading the forums is that it would be similar to external drives, e.g. any user logged in would have access to data that is not stored within your user folder.

For sensitive data not stored in your user folder, you'll want to store it in an encrypted disk image. Make sure to read the additional info at the bottom of the page also.