Hey there Martin County. Thanks for the tips. I might need more advice once I'm set up. Just to be sure before I go and do something stupid-by Home folder, you mean the little house with myusername next to it?
Yes. Not the one in Finder, but the one in your Preferences, Accounts file. Right click (or control click) on that and you should see the "Advanced" option (the one in a finder window won't give you an advanced option).
I must say I was thinking of installing XP and even bought Parallels 4.0 some months back. But after reading an article in Macworld about the possibility of viruses on the Windows partition, I have done nothing since I really would only be using 1 applications on Windows and left PC's 3 years ago due to Dell **** and all that virus software slowing everything I did! Haven't been happier since.!!
Right. It's only out of necessity that I went with this option. Certain needed programs are only available on Windows. And, since I was going to do it for them, I decided to finally solve the problem of how MS Office for Mac always had(has?) a few (minor) compatibility issues with files created on the Windows side and vice versa. So the combo of Parallels, Windows 7 and Office 2010 means that my Word, Power Point, and Excel files ARE 100% compatible with Windows-created versions.
next week plan to:
1. Get a HHD for cloning to put in safe deposit box-OK, but I lost everything due to Andrew years ago.
I just (finally) embraced time machine as a more regular backup option with this new Mac. It is better than expected.
Cloning is also an excellent option. And cloning then going off site is about as good as it gets.
2. Make sure I know how to take my 114GB of ripped music (still probably have another 20GB of vinyl to rip when I find a good vinyl-to-digital turntable. In other words do I take the Media folder (the real content) over to HDD and leave the Media Database on the SSD?
3. Make sure I take 6GB of recent photos over to the HDD safety since I have another 15GB of old photos to scan into a computer some day. I traveled the world for 20+ years and have many interesting shots I hope to preserve. These are the ones that Andrew did not take.
3. I have about 150GB of LD (low definition) videos to make sure they get on another hard drive from a LaCie 4TB mirrored external I have them on right now.
Time Machine is pretty much made for all of these needs. Use it and you should be covered.
4. I must think about your second sentence under #1 before I do that, but sounds very tempting. Right now my plans are to put my 256GB OWC SSD in the 2009 Mini (2.53) main bay and put a 500GB 7200 Momentus XT (Ok maybe over kill, but could prove nice to have if my Home folder was on the HDD like yours) in an OBHC where the SD currently sits and up the RAM to 8GB. OK so the CPU is C2D, but that's what I got.
My reasoning in that was solely related to this idea of maximizing reads from the SSD but minimizing writes. As I understand things, the folders in "home" are where the vast majority of a user's writes get written, so I didn't want "home" on the SSD. Basically, the effort is to write to the SSD as little as possible. There's probably a few other things to move to the hard drive, but this what I got out of much research.
Anyhow thanks for your kind reply. Maybe I will see you at the Catfish House on US1 one of these days or maybe Harry & the Natives. You must figure by now, I also live in Martin County. Congrats on your new iMac. From what threads I read on here, they sound pretty darn fast and the dual drives hit a home run. Did you go for the 2.93?
Yes. When I buy computers, I try to buy something that can go many years before it's time to change. So I pay up for a "max" spec, then use it for much longer than what seems typical (here anyway). The Mac this replaces was a PowerMac G4 Dual 1Ghz from around 2002. I'm pretty pleased to have squeezed 8 years out of that thing, and grew a thriving business with it. I also had a better Dell machine from around 2006, which is now also replaced within the wonders of Boot Camp and Parallels 5.
Needless to say, the jump in performance in pretty much every dimension is stunning as opposed to owning- say- last years kit and "upgrading" to this years for a 4% speed increase, or a slight graphics card boost, etc.
Rather than using migration assistant, I decided to fresh install on an "as needed" basis, so I keep going back to the old Mac to get registration info and similar. The effect is a reminder of how great the new one is every time. Much faster. Much better screen. Dead silent. Runs Windows at the same time. OS X 10.6 vs. 10.5. Much better graphics. Better keyboard. Better mouse. Apparently much better energy management. Etc.
Last night I managed to get the last of the Windows necessities into the new Mac, so I can mostly retire the old Dell, which also means the old CRT monitor (yes, remember those?.. not exactly a flat screen or "Apple thin fixation" competitor) can be retired as well. Now I have a big desktop again on the physical desk (too, not just the one on the iMac screen). I set the old Mac to "screen sharing" so that I can access it from the new Mac should I need any additional files, etc.
In hindsight, 8 years was too long, but that length of time sure makes a new buy seem obviously worth it... in pretty much every way. Dual 1GHZ PPC vs. 2.93 i7 Quad Core, and all the related goodies seems as big a leap as going from a Commodore 64 to an Amiga in the 1980's.
