ssd+HDD swap question

[ambientexposure]

i have finally purchased an ssd for my mac pro.

currently, i have my 1tb WD black partitioned as 200gb for apps & 800gb for the home folder.

now that i have the ssd, i would like to have my os & apps on the ssd & use my wd black as the home folder storage.

1. i would like to ask for advice on backing up or cccloner a dmg of the os partition.

2. would i just keep the home folder one the drive & delete the os partition once i am swapped?

i apologize if this has been covered, i could not get any results with my search terms. thanks in advance.

my next step is a processor swap

 

[Studio K]

i have finally purchased an ssd for my mac pro.

currently, i have my 1tb WD black partitioned as 200gb for apps & 800gb for the home folder.

now that i have the ssd, i would like to have my os & apps on the ssd & use my wd black as the home folder storage.

1. i would like to ask for advice on backing up or cccloner a dmg of the os partition.

2. would i just keep the home folder one the drive & delete the os partition once i am swapped?

CCC can clone the OS to the SSD.

As for the Home Folder/HDD drive.....You could just leave it as it is. But, if you've had the OS on the beginning of the HDD, then you've got a 200GB partition leftover. You can get rid of that, but I don't think you can simply resize the 800GB Home Folder partition to fill the entire disk. You can only resize from the bottom, not the top.

You'd have to wipe the entire disk, recreate a single partition, and recopy all of your data to it.

 

[ambientexposure]

first off, thank for the response!

i am in the middle of ccc cloning my 200 partition to the ssd in my pci-e slot.

my concern is the home folder. could i clone that to a dmg? or would it even work to drag it to a larger/separate drive while i wipe the original to 1 partition then re-copy it back & set the terminal to see home on the new/clean black drive?

 

[Studio K]

first off, thank for the response!

i am in the middle of ccc cloning my 200 partition to the ssd in my pci-e slot.

my concern is the home folder. could i clone that to a dmg? or would it even work to drag it to a larger/separate drive while i wipe the original to 1 partition then re-copy it back & set the terminal to see home on the new/clean black drive?

Do you need to use the Home Folder? I don't use mine at all. I assume that you keep all of your personal, media files in the Home Folder. But you don't have to do it that way.
I created new folders for each media type on my storage drive. I just redirected iTunes to the folder that I created for example.

Doing it this way seems to make it a bit less tricky---you don't have to worry about your Home Folder at all. Just use System Preferences to put it back on your OS drive and forget about it.

 

[ambientexposure]

i guess i am referring to the home folder, which is really the users folder. my users folder will go over the amount of the ssd. the ssd is 256 & i have my downloads, documents, & library folders that are pretty hefty in size to go over the 256 marker.

 

[Studio K]

i guess i am referring to the home folder, which is really the users folder. my users folder will go over the amount of the ssd. the ssd is 256 & i have my downloads, documents, & library folders that are pretty hefty in size to go over the 256 marker.

Yes, the 'home' folder is within the Users folder. I am assuming that you used System Preferences/Users & Groups to relocate your Home Folder originally, yes?

If you really Want the Home Folder on the larger HDD, then what you can do is...........

First, back up (copy-paste) the contents of your Home Folder to an external drive. If you haven't got one, then you should buy one, because it is important to have such a back up if the data is meaningful or valuable.

Next, you would restore the Home Folder to your OS drive temporarily. To make it fit on the smaller SSD, you must delete all of your stuff from the folders within your Home Folder. You've got the back up already, so this should be safe to do now.
Boot into the SSD and use System Preferences/Users & Groups to move your (empty) Home Folder from the 800GB partition back into your boot drive where it was originally.

Then, using Disk Utility,reformat the storage drive as 1 partition. Then, return to System Pref and place the Home Folder onto the newly formatted HDD.

Then, copy and paste all of your stuff from the backup into the Folders within the home folder.

 

[ambientexposure]

studio k, you-are-wonderful!

in the process of deleting non-important stuff now for backup & will do as you said.

from what i understand it should be fairly easy. i hope what i am doing is not shooting myself in the foot for performance. i need the space for lightroom/ps6 scratch, app cache, immediate file storage from downloads or docs. i have 3 other bays of 2-3tb green drives for photo storage plus time-machine backups.

to me, & i am probably wrong, i like the idea of fast app loading ssd drive with a good sata drive to hold scratch/quick file loading. i will eventually put 2 sdds or velociraptor drives for my lightroom/ps cache in an optical bay - but my main concern is a processor upgrade for my 1,1.

again, if this works out - YOU ARE AMAZING & THANK YOU!

 

[Studio K]

studio k, you-are-wonderful!

in the process of deleting non-important stuff now for backup & will do as you said.

from what i understand it should be fairly easy.
again, if this works out - YOU ARE AMAZING & THANK YOU!

Thanks for your kind words.

The process I've outlined is a bit cumbersome. But once it's done, then you should be ready to go for awhile.

This is the way I would go about it if I had your setup.

It might be possible to redirect your entire Home Folder (and its many contents) to the backup drive temporarily (while you reformat your large storage disk into 1 partition).
But.....if your backup drive is EXTERNAL, then OS X might not allow it. I'm only speculating, as I have never attempted this.
I'm just trying to outline a procedure that would be the least likely to present problems along the way.

So to summarize (my method):
-backup personal files stored in Home Folder.
-Empty the Home Folder of Personal files that are already backed up.
-Use Sys Pref/Users & Groups to redirect home folder back onto OS X ssd Users Folder (temporarily).
-Reformat storage drive to '1 Partition'.
-Move Home Folder to new partition.
-Restore personal files from backup into appropriate Folders within newly-relocated home folder.
-Job Done....hopefully.

 

[ambientexposure]

that is the route i thought, however i was remembering a script line i used in terminal to redirect the folder in the first place (maybe). now i cannot locate that particular script to be sure.. again, i could have just "thought" i used terminal during the home folder extraction

oh, all drives are internal - the ssd is on a pci-e board slot 2

 

[Studio K]

that is the route i thought, however i was remembering a script line i used in terminal to redirect the folder in the first place (maybe). now i cannot locate that particular script to be sure.. again, i could have just "thought" i used terminal during the home folder extraction

oh, all drives are internal - the ssd is on a pci-e board slot 2

You should not have to use Terminal to redirect the Home Folder. I use System Preferences/ Users & Groups. Then click on the Lock to unlock it. Then 'control-click' your Admin Account in the table of conents/list of users. Choose 'Advanced Options'. Somewhere on the options pane is the ability to choose the path of your Home Folder.

If your backup drive is internal, then perhaps you could temporarily park your Home Folder and all its contents there. When ready, re-direct the home folder back to the drive you want to use.

 

[Studio K]

Here is an instruction how to move the Home Folder using Sys Pref.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57365307-263/moving-your-home-folder-in-os-x/

 

[ambientexposure]

i went with the sys pref way before i saw your post. had a small issue with erasing, but a quick pref refresh & it is all good!

well, minus a small issue i am dealing with, but i will create a new topic since this problem is officially (fingers crossed) closed! with your insight of course!