Install new SSD together with an HDD

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My MBP mid 2010, 8Gb Ram has a 500Gb 7200 rpm HDD but I would like to replace it as a main disk with an OWC 240 Gb 3G SSD. Im looking for help about how to do the setup of both disks, looking for a way to have the applications in the new one and all the other (documents, pictures, movies, downloads...) in the old disk. I need help with detailed instructions and I hope some one could help.
Thanks in advance :*
 
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You can relocate your user home folder entirely to the other drive if you like. Be aware that if that drives fails or gets replaced, you will not be able to use that user account and if that is the ONLY user account, then you can't log in at all. So… have a backup user with admin privileges as a safety net.

As for relocating your main user to the other drive:
TUAW Tip: Moving your home folder to another disk (or moving it back) | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

If you don't want to move your entire home folder to the other drive, and just certain folders, then the best thing to do is to move those folders to the other drive, create symbolic links to them, and put the symlink where the OS "expects" to find the original folder. See instructions below for how to make these… be sure to rename the symlink so it matches the original folder name EXACTLY!

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...mac-ssd-iphones-ipads-backup.html#post1234677
 
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You can relocate your user home folder entirely to the other drive if you like. Be aware that if that drives fails or gets replaced, you will not be able to use that user account and if that is the ONLY user account, then you can't log in at all. So… have a backup user with admin privileges as a safety net.

As for relocating your main user to the other drive:
TUAW Tip: Moving your home folder to another disk (or moving it back) | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

If you don't want to move your entire home folder to the other drive, and just certain folders, then the best thing to do is to move those folders to the other drive, create symbolic links to them, and put the symlink where the OS "expects" to find the original folder. See instructions below for how to make these… be sure to rename the symlink so it matches the original folder name EXACTLY!

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...mac-ssd-iphones-ipads-backup.html#post1234677

You meant "Make Alias" of all the file archives I move to the other disk? In this case I can put those Aliases in the same original place to be found by the system. It is correct?
 
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You meant "Make Alias" of all the file archives I move to the other disk? In this case I can put those Aliases in the same original place to be found by the system. It is correct?

No. I mean symbolic link. They ultimately serve the same purpose, and the Finder thinks they are the same thing, but the BSD subsystem of OS X doesn't know how to handle aliases. If you stick to using symlinks for folders, then any processes that expect a folder/file to be in a specific place will accept a symlink as if it was that folder/file.
 
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No. I mean symbolic link. They ultimately serve the same purpose, and the Finder thinks they are the same thing, but the BSD subsystem of OS X doesn't know how to handle aliases. If you stick to using symlinks for folders, then any processes that expect a folder/file to be in a specific place will accept a symlink as if it was that folder/file.

Im sorry but then I don't know how to do this Symbolic link. If there is a simple explanation, maybe?
Thanks any way for your help
 
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Im sorry but then I don't know how to do this Symbolic link. If there is a simple explanation, maybe?
Thanks any way for your help

I posted a link to instructions and an example already.
 
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No. I mean symbolic link. They ultimately serve the same purpose, and the Finder thinks they are the same thing, but the BSD subsystem of OS X doesn't know how to handle aliases. If you stick to using symlinks for folders, then any processes that expect a folder/file to be in a specific place will accept a symlink as if it was that folder/file.

Well, looking for an answer I found an application to do that, the SymbolicLinker. It could work OK?
 
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Im sorry but then I don't know how to do this Symbolic link. If there is a simple explanation, maybe?

In this example, I will create a link from a user's folder to some other location. I like to put Pictures and Music in a common location, rather than having them in different user directories. Note that all directories I create are readable and writable by all users on the system

1). Bring up the terminal
2). cd /Users/Shared
3). cp -r /Users/Shared/<Username>/Music .
4). chmod -r 777 Music
5). cd /Users/Shared/<Username>
6). rm -rf Music
7). ln -s /Users/Shared/Music

That should work. Username should now have a Music directory that is in the /Users/Shared directory.
 
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Well, looking for an answer I found an application to do that, the SymbolicLinker. It could work OK?

Of course it will. It was specifically recommended and referenced it in the link I provided and reminded you that I provided. Are you not reading any of these resources I'm providing?
 
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Well, thanks to all of you for this help. I think it will be OK. If I will have any problem I will ask again.
 
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In this example, I will create a link from a user's folder to some other location. I like to put Pictures and Music in a common location, rather than having them in different user directories. Note that all directories I create are readable and writable by all users on the system

1). Bring up the terminal
2). cd /Users/Shared
3). cp -r /Users/Shared/<Username>/Music .
4). chmod -r 777 Music
5). cd /Users/Shared/<Username>
6). rm -rf Music
7). ln -s /Users/Shared/Music

That should work. Username should now have a Music directory that is in the /Users/Shared directory.

So let me understand it better, please. I have in mind to have the system in the new SSD after cloning the old one. This old one, an HDD, I would like to install instead the optical drive with the OWC data doubler putting (copying from Finder) there the Home files. It is possible then to do as your advice for all the Home Folder or I will need to do that for each one?
Thanks any way
 
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So let me understand it better, please. I have in mind to have the system in the new SSD after cloning the old one. This old one, an HDD, I would like to install instead the optical drive with the OWC data doubler putting (copying from Finder) there the Home files. It is possible then to do as your advice for all the Home Folder or I will need to do that for each one?
Thanks any way
If you're going to do that, the better solution would be to use the Server Admin Tools to change the home directory for your users from /Users/Whatever to /External/Users/Whatever where External is the name of your 2nd hard drive and Whatever is the name of each user is.

If you do this, I'd also enable the root account, so that you can always log into the system, even if the /External drive becomes unavailable for one reason or another.
 
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So let me understand it better, please. I have in mind to have the system in the new SSD after cloning the old one. This old one, an HDD, I would like to install instead the optical drive with the OWC data doubler putting (copying from Finder) there the Home files. It is possible then to do as your advice for all the Home Folder or I will need to do that for each one?

Yes, it is. However, you need to make sure you have at least one admin account left on the SSD so that, in the event you have to remove the HDD for any reason, you can still log into your system. While enabling root would suffice as the other poster suggested, we don't really recommend enabling the root user unless you know what you are doing, chiefly because while logged in as root, it's a lot easier to completely hose your system if you don't know what you are doing. We've seen it happen often enough here. You can just make an admin user account that you don't plan to use except in an emergency, and ignore it otherwise.
 

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