Lion Update with Home folder on another disk

Currently with Snow Leopard I have my home directory on another disk.  If I update to Lion, will I have problems?  Or will it just work.  Or will I have to redo the moving of the home folder?

Should work. Do retain a bootable backup/clone or Time Machine backup of your current Snow Leopard installation to ensure you can work if the upgrade goes awry.

Similar Messages

  • Home folder on another disk wont mount every other startup

    I have a Macbook Rev B that I recently upgraded with a 50gb SSD drive and an internal 640gb 7200rpm drive in the optical bay.
    My OSX installation resides on a partition of the SSD and my home folder is set up through the Accounts control panel to load a folder on the exFat 640gb drive. I've only become really aware of the problem recently as I've been rebooting often while visiting my mom's house for the holidays but could have been occurring far longer since reboots are normally very scarce unless I'm booting into Windows 7 bootcamp.
    Every other boot into OSX will bring me to login, I enter my password on my user Account and the bar will 'scroll' for near 5 minutes, then a plain osx background will appear along with an error dialog that reads something like 'your home folder could not be opened so we made this default setup for you'
    I'll enter disk utility and my 640gb exFat volume will not be mounted. I've tried repairing permissions on the Startup Volume as well as repairing the exFat volume and neither make any difference. So I mount the exFat volume in DU and restart. This time logging into my UA will work fine and bring me to my desktop in a split second. At some point I will shutdown and next time I go to restart this will happen again. I have tried force shutdown in the middle of the 5 minute 'scrolling' time bar but this doesn't fix the problem.
    The only cause I can think of is having previously created and edited an fstab file. I have an external backup/repair drive that I don't want to have all my repair volumes mounting when I plug the drive in. So I disabled their automounts in the fstab file however have not made any edits on the startup or exFat volumes I'm having trouble with. Maybe explicitly stating the exFat volumes automount preference in the fstab file will help but how is an exFat drive described in a fstab file?
    also i'm running 10.6.5 with native exFat support so comments like 'just make it a Mac disk' is of no help to me. I used exFat so both the mac and windows partitions can easily share the drive.

    I have found the issue that caused this and solved the problem...
    The issue arose when deleting files from my windows partition from within mac os x. This created some permission inconsistencies for both mac os x and windows so that neither OS was able to delete the files properly. This somehow resulted in my secondary Media drive (on which my home folder lies) to not mount properly as described above.
    What I did that solved the problem:
    I first ran chkdisk while booting into windows (this actually happened automatically)
    Then I navigated to C:/.Trashes/ (you must set up your explorer to view invisible files)
    Some of these files were able to be deleted but others stayed.
    I found the issues with these files to be:
    Some were marked read only
    Others had incorrect ownership permissions (found in properties of the file or folder)
    Others had to have their sharing option set from nobody to everyone
    And some were a combination of these
    While setting new permissions I got many error notifications just ignore them, try multiple times using both apply and ok. If the file is nested try setting the sharing on each container folder one by one (do not try deleting the folders as you do this as it will reset sharing to nobody)
    Conclusion: It may have just been chkdsk that fixed the issue though I don't believe it ran on the Media drive (the one with the mounting problems) or it may have been an issue with the "deleted" files and their permissions (Mac OS X not being able to delete them because they had incorrect permissions per its OS and Windows not understanding what to do with the files once OS X got to them and threw them on an invisible .Trash folder and tagging the files up with its own permissions.)

  • How do I move my home directory to another disk?

    I want to find out the "standard procedure" for moving my home directory to another disk.  My current system disk is getting quite full, so I have purchased additional storage.  The issues I am concerned about are the following:
    Preserving the file permissions
    I have used rsync and ditto commands to copy the file.  Does rsync preserve the permissions like the ditto command?
    Updating the System to use the new home directory
    I have used the Ctl-Click on the accounts control panel to update the location of the home directories.  Do applications use "~<username>" or /Users/<username> to find the home directory of the user (obviously this is limited to Apple Controlled software).
    Understanding the /Users and /home directories
    Since Apple is no longer using netinfo, I wanted to get a better understanding how these directories are set up.  Is the /home directory exclusively for network mounted home directories.
    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    I disagree with Linc Davis on whether to move the home folder, But I think you are going about it the wrong way. 
    Having a Boot drive with only System, Library, Applications, and the hidden unix directories including Paging/Swap on it is one of the best ways to speed up routine disk Access for all your other files. The system keeps "snacking" away loading and reloading bits and pieces of System and Applications as you work, and that System activity slows "regular" disk access way down by moving the drive heads away from the files you are processing.
    Giving System files their own drive speeds up everything.
    Here are two good recipes and discussions about how and why to do this, and how to make it happen without a single line of Terminal code:
    http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/
    http://jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F598E A.html

  • How do I relocate part of my home folder onto another drive

    Hi all
    I am about to take delivery of my new Mac Pro, but with only 512MB of startup SSD I don't have room for my whole home folder. I have found plenty of info online about moving my whole home folder onto another drive, but as my external drive is only USB3 I don't want to do that. Instead I want to move my Movies and Pictures folders only and then tell my system to forget about the old location and treat the new location as though it is the home folder just for those two bits.
    Sure I can just copy them over and delete the old folder contents, but as soon as I want to do something like save a pic or movie the system defaults to the old empty location.
    It's not the end of the world, but if I can fix it, I'd like to. The plan is to sort this on my current Mac Mini before the new toy arrives, so I can easily set up the new one.
    All guidance gratefully received.
    Regards
    Tim

    Hello,
    You can use some basic unix wizardry to make this happen.  What you will be doing is creating a unix "soft link" from your home directory to the actual location of the directories, wherever they may be.  This link serves as a "behind-the-scenes redirect" to the actual location to which you link.  For example, with the soft link in place, if you
    Here's what you do:
    Use Finder to move your directories of choice from your home directory to the external HDD.  This will require your admin password.  Now you should see the folders on your external HDD, and NOT in your home folder.  For purposes of this procedure, I will assume your external HDD is named "Storage".  Wherever you see "Storage" in the following steps, replace it with the actual name of your external HDD.
    Open the Terminal app.
    From the command prompt, type the following commands (with a <return> after each) to create a soft link (in this example we are using the "Movies" folder.  The "Movies" folder must have been moved in Step 1 to the external HDD):
         cd
         ln -s /Volumes/Storage/Movies Movies
    Repeat the "ln -s" command for each folder that you have moved in Step 1.
    Here's what's happening in Step 3:
    The "cd" command just ensures that you are in your home directory.
    The "ln -s" command creates a link from the external HDD directory, to a directory in your present location (i.e., your home directory)
    There is one side affect that I don't know how to get around.  Once you do this, the icon that shows up for the "Movies" folder in your home directory will no longer be the fancy system icon for the Movies folder.  It will be a vanilla folder icon, with an curved arrow.  The curved arrow is a visual indication that the file/folder is link to somewhere else.
    Hope this helps.

  • How do I move the /Users folder to another disk

    I have a shiny new MacPro, dual proc, with four, one TB hard drives in it, running OS X Server on Mountain Lion.  The first disk is the startup drive, the other three are simply empty, partitioned drives.
    I am to be the sysadmin for this machine (and a half dozen Macbook Pros) for my organization.  I don't want user data to exist on the startup disk on this machine.  Right now, the only user that exists is my sysadmin account.  I want the three non-startup hard disks to hold the user data.  I think that what I want to do is map the /Users folder to one (or all) of the other three hard disks, and get that data off of the startup disk.
    How do I change the location of the /Users folder?
    Assuming this is possible, or desirable, the next question would be about RAID.  I have not created any RAID arrays using disk manager yet (this Mac Pro does not have a RAID card).
    Should I first create a concatenated RAID set from the three additional disks?  I see no advantage to striped or mirrored sets, I will have a HUGE external drive for TimeMachine, and disk access speed is just fine.  But, I think I'd want drives 2, 3, and 4 to act as one big drive.  I think the concatenated RAID set is the answer to that.
    Thank you,
    Jess

    How to relocate system and user data to another drive:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4337
    http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/
    I would only use TimeMachine as an add'l, not primary, or only method for backups.
    How to clone your system:
    http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
    http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
    http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html
    With drives of 2, 3 or 4TB now why use three and the one time I used Apple's concatenate, no I didn't like the way it made use of drives. So I would either stripe or mirror, and maybe not even  using  Apple Disk Utility.

  • About to fit SSD to take OS & Apps - can I locate my Home folder on another drive?

    Hi community.
    I am shortly to fit a new SSD (probably 240GB) in the primary bay of my MacBook Pro (17", 2.66GHz i7, mid 2010, model MacBookPro6'1). I'm going to retain the existing 500GB drive and mount it in the optical drive bay for data. I will be installing Mountain Lion as the OS on the SSD to begin with (I may upgrade to Mavericks). I will then be running Boot Camp to partition the SSD (probably 120/120) and install Windows 7 (I am doing this to run Autodesk Revit for a course).
    My current drive has some 150GB of space used, 107GB of that in the Users folder. What I want to do is locate all of that data on the drive that will be in the optical drive bay. I assume that's feasible enough? Any reason I shouldn't do it? Any other wisdom to offer?
    Thanks in advance.

    You can and should.
    How to use an SSD with your HDD
    If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do.
    After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume.
    Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu.
    You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed.
    When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD.
    Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently.
    Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it.

  • How do I Rename Mac Hard Drive with Home Folder Only?

    Hello,
    I have a Macbook Pro with an SSD which has OSX Snow Leopard and my Applications, and the other hard drive has my Home Folder. I replaced the optical drive with the SSD.
    The other hard drive has the standard name of 'Macintosh HD'. I need to change it to something without spaces in order to get some developer software to work (i.e., it can't have spaces in the workspace name, and now that my Home folder is on a drive that doesn't have OSX, it refers to it as '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/.../...'
    I ran into a disaster by simply changing the 'Macintosh HD' name to 'MacintoshHD' - It prevented me from logging in and I had to use the OSX Install disk to use the command line to rename the hard drive back to 'Macintosh HD'. My guess is because my account was referencing a home folder location that no longer existed.
    My question is how can I rename my hard drive with my Home Folder? Can I change the hard drive name, and then immediately change my Account to reference the new hard drive name (and thus the new location of my home folder), and then reboot? Will this work if I do this in this order? Or is there another way to handle this entirely?
    I'm very hesitant to try this again as I don't want to have to go back and use the OSX install disk - my SSD took the place of the optical drive and I have to go and take it out, put it back in...etc.
    Any help is appreciated.
    Regards
    Chicago29

    I don't have a setup to test this, but you might try the following:
    Create a second "normal" admin account with its home folder on the boot drive, then log out of your regular account and log into the new one. From there you could rename the large hard drive, then go to System Preferences>Accounts, select the first account, then right-click>Advanced options to change its home directory path to match the new HD name. That way you're not changing the home folder path "in mid-air."
    It's probably a good idea to keep a tiny "self-contained" admin account on the boot drive anyway, so you don't get locked out in the event of future trouble accessing the large disk.

  • Backing up a HOME FOLDER on another volume

    i am on lion on a mac pro and for some reason i am getting a bit clutched here redoing my backup routine after having MOVED MY HOME FOLDER to a NEW DISK (it is in bay 3).
    "SELECT DISK" is to select the destination (i.e. the Backup HD that the data goes to) - and then -
    do i just make sure that the NEW DISK with the newly located HOME FOLDER is simply not listed in OPTIONS > "Exclude these items from backups"??
    also, if i /also/ want to BACKUP the disk that i am booting into (it is in Bay 1) do i just make sure that this disk is not listed either??
    thanks for any help as my brain is not working very well with this.
    - jon

    No. I can't even back up a mounted drive that's attached to a Mac Mini. Whatever you back up must be attached (internally or externally) to the Mac that runs TM.

  • Multi-OS installation and one home folder on another drive?

    I wish to use Nikon Scan with my film scanners I need to install Snow Leopard because it is the last supported OS since it includes Rosetta.
    I currently have Lion on the boot drive of my Mac Pro and will install Snow Leopard and Nikon Scan on a dedicated drive.
    My homefolder is on yet another drive.
    My question is if this setup will cause any problem for my home folder?
    I would have thought no, but want to be sure.
    Many TIA
    Philip

    If you desire different backgrounds, screensavers, network, etc. You also cannot have any preference panes installed in the /Home/Library/ because they will not all work on each OS. Same for any Application Support files, possibly Mail data/configurations, and Safari. Anything in the /Home/Library/ folder that may be OS dependent cannot then be used by both OSes.
    I don't think it's a good idea. Doing this is mostly intended for different versions of the same major OS version. For two different Snow Leopard versions, for example. I do it when I'm testing a new OS seed. But for separate OSes I would not.
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  • How to reformat secondary drive with Home folder on

    Hi guys, I have an issue and Im getting myself confused as to how to go about this.
    Basicly, I have a 250 GB SSD bootdrive and a 750GB HD data drive.
    On the SSD is Mavericks and a couple of apps, on the data drive is eveything else, home folder, apps etc.
    I have just bought Adobe's creative cloud subscription and it wont allow me to install anything because the data drive is case sensitive. So I need to reformat the data drive to non case sensitive, it wont allow me to install it onto the SSD which is already non case sensitive, as it only allows instalation where the libary and home folder is, stupidly.
    So far Ive backed eveything up both though a network time machine and also Ive backed up all my documents from the home folder, the libary and system folders and a few apps onto an external USB drive. However I cant backup my movie folder with all my final cut pro stuff on, because its too big for the external drive, it is however backed up through time machine.
    Now I need to format the data drive, but Im not sure how to go about this without messing up the home folder and user aspects, as surely as soon as I format it, Ive bascily lost myself as a user.
    I thought about moving the home folder back to the SSD temporailly, and then reformating,  But in order to do this, I'd have to delete the entire movie folder off the data drive first to get it to fit on there, which is only backed up via time machine. I know all the stuff on the data drive is going anyway, Im just a bit paranoid about deleting it all before doing anything else.  Is this the only way around it, or is there another way?
    Can I move the  bulk of the home folder back onto the ssd, but not the movie folder, to enable me to keep my user account and reformat the drive before putting the home folder back onto the data drive, or shoul Ijust delete the movie folder and hope I can get it back through time machine..
    Ive read using time machine to reinstate the whole drive will revert it back to case sensitive, is this true? Or can I just copy folders off time machine back onto the newly formatted non case sensitive drive? So my movie folder can just be copied back to the newly formatted data drive without issue?
    Thanks for any help, I dont want to mess up all my permissions and user accounts and my head just inst working right at the moment to figure out the best way.

    Your best bet is to clone both devices onto two separate drives, or together onto a larger external hard drive that can cover the capacity of both with its own separate partitions.  http://www.bombich.com/ Carbon Copy Cloner is able to do that for you.  Test your clone boots and is mapped correctly before erasing the drive in question.

  • HT3258 Will installing Lion affect 10.6.8 on another disk or partition?

    Will installing 10.7 and above affect 10.6.8 on another disk or partition?
    Will booting to a disk with Lion or above bother disks that are used when the computer is booted into 10.6.8?

    abcs04 wrote:
    I have 10.6.8 and two hard drives. I am reluctant to upgrade, even though 10.6.8 seems to give me an annoying "outbreak" of the black veil of death from time to time.
    I have an external hard drive, but I can't even copy the OS back to the internal hard drive! I'm wondering if it's not allowed.
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    Good Luck
    Pete

  • Backup system with home folder on separate drive

    I have a 13" macbook pro late 2011 and I have recently moved my 500gb hard drive to the superdrive bay and put an SSD in its place.  I have the operating system on the SSD and my user folder on the hard drive with the necessary changes made to my user account pointing the OS to the new location.  If I create a normal backup in say time machine or carbon copy cloner including my user folder in the backup, will the link to the second hard drive automatically work thus giving the backup the impression all is on the SSD or do I need to backup each separtely or something else...? I have an empty 500gb external drive for the backup.

    If you only backup the SSD, then the home folder on the HDD will not be automatically backed up, so you will want to assure that your backup method include the SSD and the home folder on the HDD.

  • How do I move users' home folders to another disk other than boot disk

    I would like to move all of my various users' home folders to a different disk. How is this done?
    Do I need to then have the disk mount before any users log in? If so, how do I mount it?

    But if you are using Leopard (since you are posting in the Leopard category) and simply forgot to update your profile, you can select the location of your home directory by going to System Preferences Accounts pane, and right (control) clicking on your user name to get the +Advanced Options+. You may need to +unlock the lock+ (give authorization) first.
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    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071025220746340

  • Mountain Lion update with problems!!!

    My new rmbp is sooo slow with this update!! I get a black screen after login, and some apps crash!! what's wrong  with OSX Mountain Lion? I never experienced these issues with OSX Lion,
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    I was told at the genius bar I could.  When I got home and tried it my computer would not let me.  It showed the message "need 2gb of RAM"

    No. 2 GB is a requiremeent for installing Lion. 1 GB is required to install Snow Leopard. Perhaps you misunderstood or were given incorrect information.
    Lion System Requirements
    Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
    2GB of memory
    OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
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