strange problem with home directory after installing SSD

[kudukudu]

I upgrade my computer with an SSD for my boot drive and I kept my home directory on my old primary HD. I made sure my user account worked fine residing on my HD and I created an admin user on the SSD in case the SSD ever loses track of my user account. All of my applications seem to work fine, but I have an interested problem with Aperture. When I try to import photos I get the following error message:

"You don't have permission to save the file "<User>" in the folder "Users". To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info".

obviously <users> is actually the name of my account. I figured that aperture was trying to save the files onto my SSD and was getting a permissions error since I don't have a user directory there. Sure enough If I create my user directory on the SSD/Boot drive then Aperture can import the photos onto the SSD. This creates a number of different problems:

1. I have to user relocate masters to move the photos to where they should be with all of my photos on HD.
2. I don't want to be doing writes needlessly on my SSD.
3. I don't want my home directory to exist on both my SSD and my HD simultaneously. I think this is asking for problems.

Does anyone know a way I can move the default import directory? Note that the Aperture library file is located on HD in my user directory.

 

[derbothaus]

I figured that aperture was trying to save the files onto my SSD and was getting a permissions error since I don't have a user directory there.

Well you just said that you did have an admin user on the SSD. That would write a user folder to HD/Users/(admin). Unless specified otherwise.
Did you remove your old user folder on the SSD after joining the home directory from HDD? Have you looked in Aperture prefs for library location? It is by default in Users/yourname/Pictures. So it should have no problem writing to HDD/youruser/Pictures.
Needless writes are going to happen on the SSD anyway as that is how an OS runs. I wouldn't worry about file copying. 4K and 256K blocks are in constant use.

 

[kudukudu]

I have admin users both on SSD and HD. My user folder never existed on the SSD since my user folder is over 500GB. My regular user on HD has admin rights.

The library location from my aperture library location is HD/Users/myname/Pictures. This is what I can't figure out. Given that the location of the applibrary is on HD, why is aperture trying to write to look for a user directory on SSD and copy the files here?

 

[minifridge1138]

This is more of a workaround than a fix, but you could create a soft link from your SSD to your hard drive.

 

[goMac]

Your home folder is still owned by the user on your HD, not the user on your SSD. All your permissions are wonky.

 

[derbothaus]

Your home folder is still owned by the user on your HD, not the user on your SSD. All your permissions are wonky.

If you never went into System Prefs>Accounts> Right click on account, choose advanced options and navigate to Home folder location. Reboot. Then you will have issues as goMac mentions.

 

[kudukudu]

After installing the SSD, I enabled root and then used advanced options to ensure the home directory for my regular user account was on HD.

 

[kudukudu]

minifridge thanks for the advice. I created a symbolic link on the SSD pointing to my user directory on HD. This seems to do the trick. It is a bit wonky as you say, but it works.

Thanks