Copy user folders to DVDs

I want to make a backup copy of the user folders on my iMac prior to doing a serious re-arrangement of my Time Machine setup and some other changes. Between my own user files, plus separate user folders for the kids' accounts, it would fill more than a single DVD. My own user folder is more than a single DVD, so it's not really feasible to just do a plain copy from Finder directly to the disk. How can I do this in OS X without having to go out and purchase some other software or hardware (no extra disk drives, please)?

I guess you have to split up your folders into DVD sizes. Maybe others can point you at a DVD/cataloguing application.
I use to do this and hated manually cataloging and managing folders, files, and DVDs. I switch to external HardDrives and it makes it so much easier. I know you said no extra disk drives, but for me it is the best solution. I save hours and hours of time and no more headaches and fiddling with DVDs and catalogue files. I just mount the hardrive and copy to it. I have 500GB drive in my iMac and I have two external hardrives that are copies. I can even boot the external harddrive copy if required.

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Copy users guide to dvd?

Does anyone know if it is possible to burn the guide to a dvd? Windows can't read it.

The User Guide for your model is a simple .PDF file. Just download the User Guide and then burn the .PDF file to a DVD. You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to view the file. As long as you are downloading I would recommend downloading the Hardware Maintenance Manual. That manual contains a lot of useful information as well.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, it can be downloaded at the link below.....
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html
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Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

Move Users folders from external drive to a new internal drive

Hi All,
I have a white Intel iMac running Snow Leopard. I have kept the Users folder (4 users) on an external hard disk (too many photos and movies). The internal hard disk recently died, but since all user data was on the external, I wasn't too worried.
The iMac now has a new hard disk, and I've installed the system back, starting from the original System Install DVD so that all the iApps are also reinstalled.
What I want to do now is to move the user folders to the internal drive, and use the external for backups. It seems that I can't use Migration Assistant because it only works when moving data from another Mac or another startup drive. I've looked around the forums and on the web, and the only thing I found was a post on TUAW in which the writer talked about eventually having to do this but without giving much info about how to do it (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/14/tuaw-tip-moving-your-home-folder-to-another-disk- or-moving-it).
Does anyone have any experience moving the user folders from an external drive to an internal drive, (or even just having a Mac recognize user folders on an external drive from another machine)?

Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

2 macs with identical user folders?

Situation: my wife and I each own our own Mac, but 2 isn't always enough. Often a friend will come over and snarf one up for extended periods of time. When this happens, one of us can't access our own account (we have a guest account on each) on our computer.
Solution: Is there a program that will completely and safely synchonize our users folders across both macs? It would be great for us to be able to sit down at either machine, anytime, with all of our preferences/bookmarks/documents instead of having "his" and "her" macs.
Anybody have a suggestion? There's a myrid of backup/sync software out there, and I've tried many, but thus far none have fit the bill. BTW, we have mostly all the same software/apps installed, and in the App. folder vs. our home folders if this helps at all...
TIA!

At a technical level it's a bad idea for both of you to have separate computers with identical accounts. This sort of violates the privacy concept of a multi-user system such as OS X. What may be a better solution in the long run is to have two external Firewire hard drives. Each of you can clone your system to an external drive. Each of you can use backup software to maintain the clone by doing regular incremental backups. Because these backups are done on a regular basis each of you has the benefit of keeping your data safe, and because the external drives are bootable each of you can boot one another's computer from your external drive. Your data are safe, your privacy is protected, and you can use each other's computer with your own individual systems. I can suggest the following:
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
However, if the above isn't something you're willing to do then you will need to provide more specific information on just what you want to be able to do that the backup/sync software you've tried has been unable to do.

Multiple hard drives, user folders and SSD's

I thouhght I would ask for advice here before I even start.
OK first a bit of background.
OSA X 10.6.8
When I bought my Mac, I fitted extra 1TB hard drives, setup like this:
Drive 1 Mac OS 500gb
Drive 2 User home folders..moved from MachintoshHD/users 1TB
Drive 3 Data Folders, used for import of video, music and data before inport to Aperture/iPhoto/ Final Cut etc 1TB
Drive 4 Time machine backign up Drive 1 and 2 1TB
All drives as stndandard from Apple Caviar Black
Drive 3 is backed up via ChronoSync to a remote NAS box.
In the need for speed I removed the 500gb drive No. 1 and fitted a 120Gb SSD drive...and although it is quicker, it is not as good as expected, no doubt in part to the fact that the User Home folders are on a standard drive
I can't jsut move the user Home folders back to the SSD, due to space of the Aperture, iPhoto and iTunes Librarys in the User Home folders.
Iphoto 110Gb and Itunes 440Gb
So I was thinking Use my Drive 2..that is currently the 'Home Folder drive" as a shared data store for the iPhoto Itunes and other librays.
But need help to do this and advice on how to go about it
I will leave this post here for now as I have just had an energency work callout. But any suggestions or advice before I start will be very much appreciated.
I do not want to risk the iPhoto database/faces etc with a move form one drive to another and have it all go sour
Thanks
Neil

"Leave just the /Users/my_account/Library on the SSD" Yes...that is what I want to achieve...at the moement it is not on the SSD it is on the seperate Users HDD ( No. 2) I want the User folders back on the SSD No luckily did not buy from Apple..just bought the same type as fitted...Think I bought them from Dabs. but itwas 2009, so can't remeber now "Use preference to tell iPhoto etc to use another hard drive, same for iTunes media " So can i just copy the iPhoto and iTunes bundles across from one drive to another ? or are permisions etc going to get screwed, depending on the permissions of the drive I copy too? I do not liek to stripe drives , create arrays ..OK HDD space is relatively cheap now so the loss of space caused by using a RAID array ios not a major issue, but OI like to keep individual drives as individual drives...so no re build is needed if there is a crash. I rather keep three indepant drives ..all with same data on them and rotate the drives on a weekly /monthly basis.. I have two FreeNAS boxes with identicla drives in them and use them as indepandatnbackups...Backup is not the iissue here, it is the moving of iPhoto librarys etc and the possible confusion the databases get into when moved with permissions etc

Cannot copy file from backup DVD to HD folder

Whenever I finish a project, I had burn the various files (movie, text, pictures, pages, etc.) onto DVDs to free up hard disk space for present projects. Usually, I would use a disk image to burn those DVDs. Recently, I needed material from those DVDs and I found that I could not copy them from the DVD to my work folders on my hard disk by dragging them from the DVD window to another open window. I could only do it the roundabout way of opening those files individually using the programmes (like pages, iPhoto, etc) and then use the 'Save As ...' option in the File Menu. It was a huge hassle. I then looked into my other DVDs and found that they were the same way. I find DVDs easier to manage. Is it because I am using disk images or is there something wrong in the way I burn the DVDs. Please advise

When I try to move the files from the Finder Window with the files on the DVD, I do not get the plus sign when I try to drag it to the desktop or any other window. Even when I try with the option key pressed, there is no plus sign with the mouse arrow. Someone suggested to use the terminal and I did. It was a hassle, though.

User folders and password file

How do I copy all the user folders and the users' passwords from ServerA to ServerB?
Both are running Solaris 10.

Why not having these user directories shared with NFS ?
or may be ftp

I have many hours of home movies copied years ago to DVDs. Can I edit them using iMovie? All the Help instructions assume that you will be transferring info from cameras.

I have many hours of home movies copied years ago to DVDs. Can I edit them using iMovie? All the Help instructions assume that you will be transferring info from cameras not from DVDs.

See my User Tip here.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3951

How to place User folders on another HD than the system?

Sorry for this perhaps ignorant question: I am contemplating to get a Mac Pro with two disks. Having heard about speed gains, I am thinking of having the system and applications on one HD and all the users' stuff (folders) on the second. In this respect I have two questions:
1) do you think this might really help with access speed?
2) how would I make the system to place the users' folders on the second disk?
Thanks...

Leave a "/Users" on the boot drive. Some applications don't like there not being one, even though technically having a symbolic link pointing to another drive should work.
having your home directory on another drive is easy to accomplish by changing one entry in NetInfo Manager (in /Utilities).
Find "Users" and click on there and then your own 'short name.' Down below will be "Path" entry as /Users/short-name
Change that to be /Volumes/vol-name-2/Users/short-name
where "vol-name-2" is actual name of the other drive or volume.
I would use some software to copy /Users to the 2nd drive, or create a folder there and copy. And copy your media and data files.
Might want to leave a small basic home folder /Library just to have one with prefs and such if needed. And always have backups.
There are a number of sites and books (David Pogue's Missing Manual covers it in less than two pages).
Gains are two forms. Free up space on boot drive. the system can access two or more drives concurrently without any contention over access or seeks.
I've always had my home directory on a RAID in this manner (since 5 yrs ago or more when Mike Bombich first mentioned and showed how to do so form the command line).
http://www.bombich.com

Applescript copy Files-Folders help.

Hello everybody,
I need your help on a copy files – folders script issue. I have two folders A and B, I need a script that every time I drop a file or folder on A to copy the files or folders on B.
I am new on this Mac amazing world, so, I really need your help.
Thanks,
Andy
p.s. Sorry for my English, is not my native language..

Hi Andy
Try the below folder action script, as the code stands it will not replace any folders/files in "B" if they are the same uncomment the "with replacing" to replace folders, files that are the same in "B".
Also as the code stands it will leave the origional copy in folder "A"
You will need to save the code to:
Macintosh HD:Library:Scripts:Folder Action Scripts:
and attach it to folder "A" , making sure to enable folder action scripts.
on adding folder items to thefolder after receiving theseItems
tell application "Finder"
duplicate theseItems to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:Andy:Desktop:B:"--with replacing
end tell
end adding folder items to
----------

Replace copied user folder

My mother's HD became currupted after a software update, I ran repair disk and it failed, tried to reinstall Lion in revcovery mode and it failed as well. Now I have her computer in target disk mode to copy her user folder over to my computer. I am going to erase and reinstall Lion. Can I just "drop" this copied user folder back on to her computer? Or is there another way of going about it? Also, filevault is/was on for this user account.

alazahee wrote:
Hey forum,
I recently change my hdd for my macbook and backup my user folder, now i wanted to drag it in and replace my new user folder, but i drag it in and it says mac os x is using it thus action cannot be complete. So forum, what can I do? Any troubleshooting ways?
Try dragging individual folders within the saved user folder to the new user folder. There are some files, such as in "yourhomefolder"/Library/Preferences, that you won't be able to replace that way. Start with folders at the top of your user folder. For ones that you can't replace, open each one, then start moving files and folders within each one. You'll finally reach a point where you have a few files that you can't replace. Move them onto the Desktop, then move the saved files into the user folder. Once you reboot, you'll be able to trash the files on the Desktop.

Reports, Universe, User folders backups

hi All,
We have a scenario here, could you please give some lights on this.
We used BO 3.1 for our client reporting and our one of the important task was to back up all components in the repository
We used to take weekly backup of all reports, universe and user folders as biar files and keep them in safe location, so that we can retrieve as and when required.It was very useful couple of times when users lost their reports by mistakes.
We have moved to BO 4.1 now.
Same procedure followed using promotion management and we took biar files and kept those in safe location . But when we tried to retrieve one of the report the promotion management window, it didn't showed any option to select any component to be promoted else all components where default selected and i can prompt the whole bunch together.
Could you please suggest a proper solution to resolve this backup issue, also let me know if we have other options for the same

Hi Manesh,
Try to copy the folder where you save the backups in the BO server, in order to acces from the CMC to the folder structure and you would be able to copy and paste the files or open it in Rich Client and check it.
Regards

Multiple user folders, only one user account

Hello everyone,
I recently had to reformat my Macbook and reinstall. In the Macintosh HD/users folder are three folders: one with an icon of a little house with my computer's short name, another called Shared and another with my first and last name.
In System Preferences/Accounts, I only have one user. Whenever I use the finder to drag and drop a file into, say, Movies, it drags it into the second user folder ie. not the one with the little house icon. Consequently, Front Row cannot find my avi's and iTunes cannot find my music.
While I can (and have) simply transfer all my files from one folder to another, it doesn't explain where this extra user came from and why it seems to have control over the Pictures, Movies and Music folders on the left hand side in Finder while the account that I'm logged in on is somehow secondary.
I really don't want to have to reformat my machine again. How do I delete this second user safely? Where did it come from?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a million
Dave

Some ways that you can end up with extra user folders are:
You migrated data from an older computer using the migration assistant or target disk mode.
If that is not the case then what has happened is that you done an archive and install not preserving user and network settings but then that folder should be located in a previous system folder.
The most likely scenario, is however, that you somehow managed to rename your home folder.
When that happens and you restart your computer the system will look for a folder with your username, that name on your computer, is the name on the folder that has the home icon.
If a folder with that name is not found a new user folder will be created, it will however, not contain any of your current data files.
Open the folder which does not have the home icon and check for your user data.
If it contains your user data you need to rename it back to the name of the home folder with the icon.
It is not that simple though since you can't have 2 folders with the same name.
So move the folder with the home icon into shared.
Now rename the other folder to its proper name.
Then log out and when you log back in you will be logged into the other user folder with your data.
If you created any files under the new user folder you can retrieve them from the folder you dragged into Shared and you will note that it no longer has the home icon.

Make copy of Snow Leopard DVD

Ok, so this question might be a little out of scope for these forums, but its worth a shot. I ordered my Snow Leopard update the other day, popped it in my macbook and tried to update. I got through the first couple of steps, then it said installing... (or something similar). The DVD drive mad a few weird sounds for about 10 minutes, all while the install status meter never moved. After the 10 minutes or so, I forget the exact message but it said something along the lines of it cannot read from the disc. Eject, clean it and try again. Which I did, but got the same message. I looked at the disc, and it did not have a flawless shiny surface, but nor was it scratched to **** either. I have seen discs in much worse shape that have worked perfectly.
I figured if I cant get the physical disc to work on my mac, i should try to make a copy or image of the disc that I can use. I tried using my Mac to make an image and copy of it, but i get a similar error stating it cannot read from the source disc. I also have a PC so I figured if I pop it in there to make a copy or image, maybe that optical drive can read the disc better.
So on to my question... My PC "seems" to read the disc just fine but being a Windows platform, it only "sees" Boot Camp installation files. Also, it says the size of the disc is only 780MB whereas on the Mac the size was 6+GB. I can make a copy of the disc, but it only copies those 750MB worth of Boot Camp files, so when I put the copied disc in my Mac, it "sees" only the windows files and not the Snow Leopard files. So, is there a way on my PC to make a bit by bit exact copy of the Snow Leopard disc? Or can it be that the Snow Leopard part of the disc is really scratched that bad and my PC can not even read it either?

The PC cannot read the HFS file system, so it only "sees" the
boot camp (joliet) file system (SL DVD's contain a hybrid file system).
I windows program such as isobuster can make a perfect iso file copy
(provided the DVD is okay) of the SL hybrid install disk that can be
used to burn a backup copy of your SL DVD, either in windows
or Mac (with a good DVD Burner). SL DVD's are Dual Layer 8.3 GB
DVD's, so you will need the equivalent blanks.
I suspect your Mac's optical drive is either dirty or failing, causing the
read problems on the Mac.
You can get isobuster here:
http://www.isobuster.com/

Copy user folders to DVDs

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