SSD and HD and ML upgrade

[0071284]

MBP with a SSD and a HD. The SSD has the OS on it. The HD has most of the home folders (desktop, documents, downloads, iTunes) and they are linked via alias.

Does anybody have a Mac with a SSD with the OS on it and a HD that has the 'home' folders and such moved (via alias/terminal sudo) from the boot drive SSD to the HD?
If so, did the Mountain Lion upgrade mess up the alias folders?

Wondering if the link will be broken upon upgrading.

Thanks for any help with this.

 

[bmacir]

Wondering if the link will be broken upon upgrading.

I was wondering the exact same thing. Does anyone have the answer to this question?

 

[bmacir]

Found this but still doesn't answer in detail the question

 

[haravikk]

Hmm, I'm interested in the same thing, though I've been considering abandoning the symbolic link approach and just moving my whole home folder instead, as symbolic links just add all kinds of minor annoyances for little real gain. Specifically, in my setup I've basically moved everything to my HDD volume, except for the ~/Library folder (though I moved some cache folders).

Moving the home folder completely would mean losing the faster loading of ~/Library items and caches, but it seems like it might be a smoother overall experience anyway. And, I could potentially do the reverse, and instead use symbolic links to move key ~/Library folders back onto the SSD, so I'm getting SSD benefits for folders that I know will make a difference, and which rarely need to be opened manually so shouldn't be affected by having been moved.

 

[0071284]

Perhaps just moving the folders back to the original location and deleting the alias links will be the easiest route. Thoughts?

 

[haravikk]

Perhaps just moving the folders back to the original location and deleting the alias links will be the easiest route. Thoughts?

You shouldn't have to move them at all; the worst the installer is likely to do (and it's not clear that it would) is replace the aliases with blank folders, all you should need to do is replace them with aliases again pointing to the different locations.

The installer shouldn't really touch anything otherwise; it's more likely to make changes to your ~/Library folder for added/changed apps while leaving everything else untouched. It really depends more on which exact folders you've moved, but ~/Document, movies, music etc. should all be fine.

 

[0071284]

Sounds good. Thank you.

 

[bmacir]

Ok, I installed ML and had no issues at all.

Did not do a clean install cause I thought it would be a waist of time.

Everything is in the right place, the transition was flawless and did't require me to move one single folder.

Hope this helps anyone in my situation. It's a no worry, no hassle upgrade. Of course ymmv...

 

[Incagraphy]

move complete home folder or do soft links to some folders?

@msdarkroom, i know it's been a while on this thread but I hope I can get some advice from you.

i just got a new ssd on my macbook pro, early 2011 and moved the hdd to the optical bay.
i erased both ssd and hdd (after taking backups) and made fresh install of ML to the ssd.

i am trying to decide which is better:
- to move only certain user folders to the hdd like you did, and keep alias or soft links on the ssd, or
- to move the complete home folder like haravikk here suggested

what is the difference and the benefits of one over the other?