New SSD, Howto restore user account without media?

[wozzamav]

Hope someone can offer advice. I am upgrading my mac with a 240GB SSD and 3TB HDD. My plan is to put the operating system and User accounts on the SSD and place the media folders (Music, Video and Photos) on the HDD.

Current usage size of 1TB Drive for User account is about 700GB.

What is the best way of restoring my user account with out the media using Time Machine?

I have read so many different setup options that I no longer know what is the best way. So maybe you great people could answer the following:

1. Would placing my User Account folder on the HDD make any difference to the performance increase of adding the SSD?
2. Would splitting my user folder and media be a good IDEA in terms of maintating my system.
2a. Is there a preferred method to splitting the media data from the user account folder?
3. Is Time Machine going to throw a wobbly if I want to restore and back up because my disk is different? (Read Article about tmutil here https://simon.heimlicher.com/articles/2012/07/10/time-machine-inherit-backup-using-tmutil

Usage Habits,

Mainly used for office type work. iPhoto is used often. Other than that its low to medium usage.

any advice, suggestions etc will be most welcome!

Fairly comfortable with the terminal, although instructions do help

 

[Fishrrman]

You shouldn't need terminal.

On the SSD, I'd suggest you put:
- OS (of course)
- Applications
- User accounts (stripped down)

By "stripped down", you should re-locate your "large libraries" (such as the iTunes library, iPhoto/Photos library, movies, etc.) to the HDD.

This takes a little thought and planning, but isn't difficult.

Question:
Are you satisfied with the general performance of the OS installation "as it is" right now?
That is to say, there's nothing wrong?

In that case, I would just use CarbonCopyCloner (free to download, and free to use for the first 30 days) in "demo mode" to "selectively clone" from your current hard drive to the SSD (and also to the HDD).

For example, you can go into CCC and "check off" those items which you DO NOT want to be copied.
For the SSD, when copying the home folder, you would not want to copy the "iTunes" folder, "iPhoto Library", etc.

The end result would be a "partially copied" home folder with "the large stuff" left behind.

You can then move these to the HDD, and "re-direct" iTunes, iPhoto, Photos (or other apps that access the libraries) to look elsewhere.

Suggestion:
Try this first. If it doesn't work to your liking, try something else.
But I think you'll find this method to work well enough.
You WILL want to keep a clipboard with handwritten notes...

(if you do this, please post a followup to let us know how it went)

 

[wozzamav]

Sound advice, thank you! Quick question. I have never used CCC before, can I clone to my external drive first and then clone back from that drive to the SSD?

 

[CoastalOR]

Sound advice, thank you! Quick question. I have never used CCC before, can I clone to my external drive first and then clone back from that drive to the SSD?

Yes you can do that. Here is a pdf of the CCC Manual.