OS X 10.6.3 hand-me-down

[AStinkyBumb]

I recently obtained an net admin job where the old worker used a Mac Pro desktop to have the feel of linux while being able to run VM's galore with vm fusion. I have never worked with a mac in my life. I have built a handfull of custom PC's (linux/windows) but never worked with a mac. The old user set me up an account however the boot drive has errors up the wazoo and needs to be restored with a backup. Problem is no backups were ever made so i want to clean install and start from scratch so i know the system inside and out.
It currently has a 640gb Hitachi as the Mac HD that it boots from and has all the users on. It also has a 1tb drive in Bay 2 for files. (both are completely full) My plan will be using SuperDuper! to copy the 640gb drive to an external 1tb drive so i dont lose any of the files i have/need from the old user.

My questions are:
1) Can i install OSX 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard) to a 40gb sata drive i have laying around and use it as the boot drive/users only, and put data/programs on the other 2 drives?
2) If i SuperDuper! the boot drive will the external act like any other external and allow me to cut and past the files back to the 640gb drive for storage?
3) How would i then connect the files on the 640gb to the user on the 40gb drive?
4) will the files on Bay2 1tb Drive still be accessible with a clean install once its connected back to the system?

5) anything else i should know?

I have built a machine where i have the windows os on a SSD and the data/programs on sata 1tb drives and everything is connected to the account however i know mac and windows are completely different and need help.

 

[ConCat]

1) Can i install OSX 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard) to a 40gb sata drive i have laying around and use it as the boot drive/users only, and put data/programs on the other 2 drives?

Certainly. Just don't go messing around with core apps such as Safari, TextEdit, etc, and you can store what you want where you want it. I've even installed apps on a network share once just because it was more convenient to have them available to multiple computers. Worked like a charm.

2) If i SuperDuper! the boot drive will the external act like any other external and allow me to cut and past the files back to the 640gb drive for storage?

Yes. It works how you'd expect. The only difference though is there's currently no "cut" functionality in the Finder. You have to either physically move the file from one finder window to the other (while holding down alt if moving between disks) to move the file, or copy/paste, then delete the original.

3) How would i then connect the files on the 640gb to the user on the 40gb drive?

Remember, Mac OS is UNIX, which shares a significant amount of features with Linux, including permissions. Assuming I'm interpreting this correctly, all you need to do is either chown the file to the correct user via the command line, or tinker with the ACL. If you want the file to be accessible to multiple users, use the ACL, which is accessible by clicking on the file in the finder and typing command+i.

4) will the files on Bay2 1tb Drive still be accessible with a clean install once its connected back to the system?

Yes.

5) anything else i should know?

If you're familiar with Linux, remember that many of the things you're used to will work the same way in Mac OS, at least as far as the command-line is concerned (which is often a hard thing to avoid in the Linux world). Till you get used to the GUI, you can definitely stick to the command-line for things that you know how to do that way.

 

[scott.n]

What model Mac Pro is it? I don't think you'll be able to use your 10.6.3 install disk if it's the 2010/12 ("MacPro5,1") model.

 

[AStinkyBumb]

Thanks!! I have been doing a little research on this process but i was not 100% sure on any of the stuff i asked. Like i said i have no experience with mac gui but linux command line hits closer to home.
Do you know of any guides off hand that show how to tie the account with the data so i dont start writing data to my boot drive?

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What model Mac Pro is it? I don't think you'll be able to use your 10.6.3 install disk if it's the 2010/12 ("MacPro5,1") model.

It says Mac Pro Early 2009
OS X 10.8.2

I have the OSX snow leopard install disk and a cd labeled Mac OS X install DVD for v10.5.6

 

[ConCat]

Thanks!! I have been doing a little research on this process but i was not 100% sure on any of the stuff i asked. Like i said i have no experience with mac gui but linux command line hits closer to home.
Do you know of any guides off hand that show how to tie the account with the data so i dont start writing data to my boot drive?

Each account gets its own home directory, just as it is in Linux (although it's stored in a different location). You can just "ln -s" the files or directories from any drive into the home directory for that user (~/Documents for documents, ~/Pictures for pictures, ~/Music for music, etc, although you don't have to be organized if you don't want to, I'm sure not...).

 

[AStinkyBumb]

It will most definetely be organized. The old admin just used his desktop for a majority of the files and folders, it looked horrible in my taste and he took forever to find things he needed. I however cant stand a non organized system. I will start looking up guides while its installing right now.

 

[AStinkyBumb]

Ok question i installed 10.5.6 to the 40gb drive then updated to 10.6.3 using the dvd i have. after upgrading it i shut it down and put the old 640 and 1tb drive in the bays and started it back up. i formatted the 640 drive and wiped it. Now when i go to transfer over the "users" folder and potentially applications folder i want to transfer them to the 640gb drive.

In the permissions under Get info on the drive it says each setting has custom privilages and i cannot change them to read/write they just switch back to custom. on both the 1tb and 640gb drive. i was able to give myself permissions on the 40gb drive but not the other two. what do i need to do to get read/write on the other drives and then transfer everything?