Moving user home directory to another partition on same hard drive

I would like to find a way to move the user home directory off the OS partition and over to a new partition on the same hard drive. I then would want to create a time machine to back up the new partition containing the user home directory to a 3rd partition called "backup". I have partitioned the hard drive as follows 1. OS, 2. DATA, 3. Backup. I copied the user home directory to the DATA partition but do not have access\permission to the files\folders now on DATA partition. After getting this permission issue resolved, I would like to create a time machine using the DATA partition as the source that needs to be backed up to "backup". How can this be done? I have 20 of these MacBook Pro's that I need to do the same config for. My company will not allow external drive for time machine\data storage. In a real bind. Appreciate any help.

I would like to find a way to move the user home directory off the OS partition and over to a new partition on the same hard drive.
That's possible, with some moderately low-level hacking of your system, and some people do it, but IMHO it is an extremely bad idea. It increases complexity with no positive benefits, which is never a good thing. Leave the user folder where it is.
I then would want to create a time machine to back up the new partition containing the user home directory to a 3rd partition called "backup".
You could call it "trout" instead. 'Cause it's just as much a trout as it is a backup! If you store the backup on the same physical device as the original, it's not a backup. What happens if the drive fails? Both are gone. What happens if the machine is stolen? What happens if there's a fire? A power surge? Someone spills coffee in it? You get the idea.
See my [Mac Backup Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/backups> for some help figuring out a decent backup strategy.
My company will not allow external drive for time machine\data storage.
Your company is managed by fools, then. Sorry to be so blunt, but if they are prohibiting you from backing up company data, it's the unvarnished truth. Feel free to tell them I said so.
Sooner or later, someone will lose data because of something as simple as a hard drive failure... and who do you think will take the bullet for that? The guy who denied you resources for backups, or the guy who set up the machines (ie, you)? You really don't want to be left holding that bag. Go on record saying that backups are needed. If they are denied, document it and then go over his head.
If you've got 20 company machines, all containing company data, then there needs to be a centralized backup scheme... probably a tape drive and something like Retrospect to coordinate and maintain backups across all machines through the network. Nearly two decades ago I set up a system like that to keep about 50 Macs backed up... it wasn't cheap, but nobody lost data on my watch!

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Moving Events and Projects from one location to another on the same hard drive.

Hello.
I've searched in the FCP X User Manual, on this forum and in Google, but have found no explanation of how to do this, so I'm posting this here in hopes that someone in our community will be able to help.
I've previously stored my FCP X Events and Projects folders on an external 3TB hard drive, because there is more room on it than on the internal 1TB hard drive, but, since then, I've worked with other media apps, for video, photography and audio, the files for which are also stored on the external hard drive, and this has created a bit of clutter with no folder structure to keep it tidy.
I like an organised file structure on my system, to keep it uncluttered, easy to navigate and efficient to use, so I put all the files for my photography, video and audio apps into their own folders, which are, in turn, stored in their appropriate folders for Audio, Photography and Video, and those three folders are stored in a folder called Media, and then I directed each app to its own files.
The only app with which this has been a problem is FCP X. While there is a way of relocating projects and events from within FCP X, it allows the user to move them from one hard drive to another, and not, as I want, from one place to another on the same hard drive.
I'm not sure if it matters, but perhaps it's relevant to mention before the next paragraph that the files that had previously been imported as events are, to save hard-drive space, stored in the events folder as shortcuts to the original files, which are stored elsewhere on the drive, rather than as duplicates of those files.
In Finder, I copied the Events and Projects folders to their intended new locations and tried in the app to link the events and projects to their new Finder location. It seemed to have worked, until I moved the original folders to the Trash. On re-opening FCP X, it was clear that the linking hadn't worked. I returned the original folders from the Trash to their original location, but that didn't entirely reverse the problem. I noticed also that, in the original and duplicated Events folders, the shortcuts had lost their links to the original files stored elswehere on the drive.
Fortunately I had run a backup before starting, so I restored the original folders and the app from the backup, and all was back to normal.
I'd be grateful if anyone could advise me on whether or not it's possible to move FCP X events and projects from one place to another on the same hard drive with the app's compliance.
Thank you.

Ludio wrote:
I'd be grateful if anyone could advise me on whether or not it's possible to move FCP X events and projects from one place to another on the same hard drive with the app's compliance.
I
Message was edited by: Russ H Apparently mis-read the questions.

Re: Lion Update 10.7.2 Home Directory on another volume

Hi all,
Fought this for a few days.
Machine MacMini 2007 with 500GB Hard drive installed.
On OS X 10.6.x and OS X 10.7.1.x I had moved my home directory to another volume, as my Home directory was initially as big, and is now bigger than my boot drive. Installed 10.7.2 upgrade and after macine rebooted told me it could not find my home directory.
1. External volumes were not showing on left panel of Finder or on desktop as was in previous version.
      Problem: Obviously 10.7.2 did not preserve previous preferences and machine setup. Did not see that notice in release notes.
      Solution: went into finder preferences and selected options to set those.
2. Ran Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility on all Volumes.
     Solution: some drives had some errors, but everything repaired just fine.
3. Opened Terminal and checked external volume with my home directory on it /Volumes/Users/<HomeDirectoryName>, all files seemed to be there and intact
4. Opened Settings/Users & Accounts, right clicked on login, Home directory was set to the correct location.
5. In Terminal performed the following steps, and verified directories:
         >cd /
         >ls -la
         > cd Volumes
         > ls -la
         > cd Users
         >ls -la
       Directory showed Login Name symbolically linked to location on external drive
        Problem:   No home directory files (i.e. Documents, Pictures, Movies were all empty) Dock showed up as if new install, no preferences remembered
6. Called Apple support line, finally got senior technician on line, and had to argue a bit with the technician that I wanted to have my Home Directory on another volume. After we settled on that fact, and review of previous steps, he had me change the Home directory setting which we did several times. After changing /Volume/Users/<LoginName> a couple of times and getting Users1 and Users2 directories created he convinced me that the problem was using /Volumes/Users/ anything for my external volume. We then created a new partition by splitting the drive, and I proceeded to copy to a new partition called MyUsers. Left apple support while approximately 700 GB were copied to new partition.
7. Let computer cook until next morning. Tried setting home directory in Users Accounts/Login/Advanced to /Volumes/MyUser/<LoginName> still no joy!
8. Took Shower -- always get best ideas in shower! went back re-read MacWorld Articales on moving Home directory, and TUAW article.
9. Determined the problem.
10. Problem: OSX 10.7.2 creates a new home directory on the boot drive, even if you symbolically link to another one. Thus the Users1 and Users2 directories on the boot drive root directory. Settings/User Accounts/<login>/Advanced does not do this properly
      Solution: Delete the boot drive login directory, no matter what it points to and symbolically link to external directory.
          Open Terminal Session:
             >cd /
             >sudo rm -rf <LoginName>
             >sudo ln -s /Volumes/<VolumeName>/<LoginName> <LoginNme>
            Restart computer
            Note: VolumeName =Users works just fine.
If Engineering will check to see if an existing directory exists for the Home directory and set it up, then the problem would not have happened.
Hope this helps Engineering and others with this problem.

I tried something a bit different that worked (so far). I always have a second Admin account that has its home directory still on the main Mac HD. I logged into that account and opened system prefs. Then I found my account and right clicked on it to get the "Advanced options." I reset the account's home folder (which said it was on the external drive) to the internal Mac HD.
Logged out of Admin account and back into my account, which showed as a new user account. Logged out and back in as Admin, then back to system prefs and "Advanced options" for my real account. Changed the path to my home folder on the external drive. Logged out of Admin, back to my account and it was fixed.
Hope this helps anyone having the same problem.

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

Moving User Home Location

I am trying to set up a new iMac with SSD and HD. I have just migrated from another iMac. The migration moved everything to the SSD which is now quite full. I need to move my data and user folders to the HD. Can anyone advise how this should be done.
Regards

Contrary to what others might say there is no problem moving a home dir to another volume. I've been doing it since 10.1.
Here's some references:
Relocating the Home Directory Off the Boot Drive
How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why
I use an SSD as a boot drive and would never consider putting my home dir on there. Ok I didn't do it before SSD either. By placing your home dir on another drive you can interchange boot drives while continuing to use your same home dir.

Why can't a new folder be created within my user home directory when using 'Save As' in Mountain Lion?

Hi,
So I want to create a new folder within my main user home directory (not the root directory) just for my developer-related files? I can do this from Finder, although it does prompt me for my password to do so. However, when using 'Save As' from any app, the 'New Folder' button is greyed out when I select my user home directory. So I have to create the folder in Finder then Save As.
Is this normal behavior? Is OSX discouraging me from adding things to my user home directory by making it less convenient? Is there a good reason it would be discouraging me from creating new folders there? If not, is there a setting that I can change to allow the creation of new folders from the Save As prompt?
Thanks for your help,
B

You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type: ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.
Repair User Permissions

[User home directory property not found.]

Our Roaming Profile policy does not work but exits with the following error message in the log file:
RoamingProfile Policy] "...[POLICYHANDLERS.RoamingProfile.ErrorInEnforcement] .... [User home directory property not found.] ...."
We are running ZCM 10.3.1
We have the exact same environment at another customer where everything is just working fine. We compared the user properties and could not find any differences. eDirectory is fine, too
Does anybody have the same problems or a solution to it?
Thanks,
Sebastian

Yes, home directory is defined in eDir.
In Novell Client for Windows XP there is no "Allow Roaming User Profile Paths to non-Windows servers" attribute, it is in Client for Win 7 only.
In roaming policy, if I type the path to home directory manualy, it works fine.
In our original environment I have ZfD 4 on Netware, roaming profiles save to home directories normally, without errors.

AES-256 user home directory sparse image bundle in Lion?

Snow Leopard and previous had file vault to protect users' home directories as, I believe, AES-128-encrypted sparse image bundles. As I understand it now, under Lion, the options are to enable AES-128 whole disk encryption, or, if upgrading an existing snow leopard machine with a legacy file vault user account, to maintain that legacy file vault user home directory. However, under this second approach, additional users' home directories cannot be individually "file-vaulted" and instead, would require that legacy file vault be decrytped and then the entire disk be encrypted.
I am thinking that it would be advantageous from a security standpoint if an individual user home directory could remain encrypted, if that user were not actively logged in. Then, all contents would be inaccessible to other users, including administratively privileged users, and also that user's home directory would remain encrypted when the computer was turned on and booted up because as I understand it, file vault 2's real strength lies in protecting "data at rest" versus "data on a powered up and mounted file vault 2 volume".
To that end, I am wondering, regardless of whether file vault 2 is enabled or not, whether an existing user home directory and all of its contents be converted to an AES-256-encrypted sparse image bundle, using Disk Utility, and exist at the /Users directory space, mounting and decrypting "on the fly" from the login window at user login just like how a legacy file vault home directory is treated under snow leopard, independently of whether file vault 2 was enabled on the whole disk or not. This would also permit later addition/conversion of another "file vaulted" user account whether fle vault 2 were enabled or not.
To recap, an AES-256-encrypted sparse image bundle that would mount upon user login just like a legacy file vault user home directory does. Does anyone know if something like that is doable, and has that road already been travelled successfully? If so, I'd love to read a step-by-step, play-by-play, set of instructions on how to do just that.

I think I got a solution worked out. I don't mind if things get installed in /opt as long as pacman tracks it, and I found ruby-enterprise-rmagick in the AUR as an orphan. I adopted it, updated it, installed it, and it's working great with my code.

User Home Directory Unavailable

I seem to have unmounted my home directory.
It is now an ejectable disk image, that only shows up in the finder with my other harddrives...
It does not show up in disk utility...?
Everything seems to be working fine still, except for Mail....?
Any ideas on how to remount?
I don't dare shut my machine down...
I was trying to access files on a remote hard drive that was formerly a mirror partition of a software RAID array for a machine running 10.4.11. It has been repeatedly crashing my new 10.5.5 system till today when I had reset the jumper pins to slave...
I was using Terminal to try and reset permissions/disable RAID, when suddenly I was told "User home directory ... is unavailable".
What does this mean? Can I remount somehow? I have my whole home user directory encrypted with file vault.
Please help. Lot's of very valuable data on this disk, in this directory.

If he is using FileVault, then I believe his home directory IS a mountable object. It is an encrypted sparseimage which mounts when he logs in, and unmounts when he logs out. Somehow or other it sounds like he got logged out and the sparseimage unmounted. I've never used FileVault, too dang many problems with it. If I had sensitive info on a laptop I would make an encrypted disk image to keep the info in. Take a look at GuyEWhite's post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5881960
Perhaps that will help. Or someone who is very familiar with the the oddnesses of FileVault may see this thread and be able to offer more specific information for this very peculiar case.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

User home directory at /var/imap is unavailable

We're running a single 10.5.7 server and recently migrated our mail to a new location from the default /var/imap and var/spool/imap. Since that time, I've been seeing the following log entries pop up when a user attempts to log in to the mail server. An example:
Feb 5 10:19:37 ServerName imapd: [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] username
[6608]: CFPreferences: user home directory at /var/imap is unavailable. User domains will be volatile.
We migrated the mail using a process nearly identical to the one found at:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6600016&#6600016
I have checked the settings and paths in:
cyrus.conf
imapd.conf
(postfix) main.cf
(postfix) master.cf
All of the paths point to the correct new paths, which are:
/Volumes/Resources/Mail/imap
/Volumes/Resources/Mail/spool/imap
All users are able to access their accounts and use the mail server. What we're seeing is periodic periods of high latency (messages taking minutes to send) and occasionally odd problems with users' Sent folders (a sent message appearing twice with the same timestamp, even though the outgoing mail filter indicates it was only sent once). I'm making the assumption that these intermittent problems are related to the user home pointing to the wrong path.
I've looked through the forums and googled the phrase, but haven't found anything that would point me toward finding the setting in the mail services that remains incorrect.
We also intermittently receive the following mail-related message in the mailaccess.log:
Feb 5 10:36:07 Rivendell master[865]: can't open com file: /var/imap/.smd.imap.com (No such file or directory)
This appears to be a similar problem, but again, the location of the setting I need to change eludes me.
Thanks for any help or pointers.

Here's the solution that finally fixed this problem and removed latency problems that seem to have been associated with it.
(1) Stopped mail services with terminal.
(2) Opened the Server Admin application.
(3) Under Mail/Settings/Advanced/Database I changed the path to the original location, /var/imap and /var/spool/imap.
(4) Clicked "Save."
(5) In the same spot, changed the paths back to the new location.
(6) Clicked "Save."
(7) Restarted the mail server.
I have no idea what hidden setting that's not in the conf files that this changed, but it removed the error messages and the latency.

User home directory on server over WAN link

Hello all,
I have a performance question about home directories. The situation is:
- 3 locations, 3 servers (OS X server 10.4.7 (Xserves))
- WAN connections are 1 Mbit/s
- All clients running 10.4.7 (imac G5 1.6/1.8 GHz.)
- User home folders are all located on one of the three servers
Two locations are OD replicas from the first location.
User home folders are located on the server at the location where they work most.
Some users work 4 days at location A, and 1 day at location B or C.
For simplicity let's say I have a user called A, with home directory located on server at location A.
User A is now working one day at location B. User logs in successfully, but everything is very slow (1 Mbit WAN link).
I really like the flexibility of server based home folders. Also the fact that there is no data on the local machines is very much appreciated (physical security, backup etc.). I was thinking about portable home directories, but that won't solve my problem, given the fact that all data needs to be copied once from location A to B (especially when users use different machines on the other location). Data will be stored on the local machines as well in that situation (but can be synchronized).
It is of course possible to synchronize data from server A to B and C when a user logs off (rsync). Is there any way to tell OD that it should pick a user home directory based on the location where that specific user logs in? Disk space isn't really an issue.
The performance is really awful using a 1 Mbit connection and upgrading the connections is not really an option (well maybe I could get it to 2 Mbit, but that won't solve this problem).
Thanks for any advice.
Jordi
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How about firewire harddrive or ipod-based home directories which the users could take to different offices with them?
If not... I really think that your best option is to work to get Portable Home Directories working. Remember it is only the data that has been changed that is synced each time. You mention you are concerned about backup, but this will be done from the server after user data is sync'd there. The physical security worries can be taken take of by using open firmware passwords.
Is there any way to tell OD that it should pick a user home directory based
on the location where that specific user logs in?
By using DHCP at each site to bind the clients you can force them to use the Home Diretory you specifiy at each site. But this sounds like a sync & backup nightmare to me and don't forget rsync will mangle your acl's and other meta data.
hth,
b.

Is it safe to move /usr/share/doc directory to another partition

Hi all;
Having / (root) partition full problem on Oracle Linux 5.8.
to be able to get some free space i want to move /usr/share/doc directory to another partition and make soft link to new path.
Is it safe to do this?

If it really gives you the space you need... I have never tried it, but I see no reason why it should not work.

How can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

Hello everyone, how can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

OK. Start with:
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Click on the Erase tab in DU's main window. Select one of the two partitions, preferably the first one, change the Format type: to MSDOS then click on the Erase button.

Bulk load users into Directory and Messaging at the same time

Can I bulk load users into Directory and Messaging at the same
time?
<P>
Yes, but you are not really loading users into the Messaging
Server. The Directory Server contains all kinds of information about
users, including information about their email. So if you want to
load user information into the Directory Server, including the users'
messaging infromation, you must install the Directory server first.
Configure the directory server. Then install the Messaging Server.
Then you can load users into both by loading an LDIF file with the
user information.

Hi,
You can check the documentation: Multiple Copies of RMAN Backups ;-)
When backing up datafiles, archived redo log files, server parameter files and control files into backup pieces, RMAN can duplex the backup set, producing up to four identical copies of each backup piece in the backup set on different backup destinations with one BACKUP command. (Note that duplexing is not supported for backup operations that produce image copies.)
There are three ways to specify duplexing of backup sets when using the BACKUP command:
Specify a default level of duplexing with CONFIGURE... BACKUP COPIESAll backup commands that back up data into backup sets will be affected if you use this option, unless you specify different duplexing options for a command using SET BACKUP COPIES or provide a COPIES option for the BACKUP command.
Use SET BACKUP COPIES in a RUN block All commands in the RUN block will be affected, overriding any CONFIGURE... BACKUPCOPIES setting, except those where you provide a COPIES option as part of the BACKUP command.
Provide a COPIES option to the BACKUP command For this specific BACKUP command, files will be duplexed to produce the number of copies you specify.
Cheers
Legatti

How do I import bookmarks from FF in one OS to another OS on the same hard drive?

I've installed ubuntu lucid lynx and want to move my bookmarks from hardy heron. Both OS are on the same hard drive on different partitions. I've tried using the import option in the library but can't find the appropriate HTML file.

You need to mount that other partition to be able to access files on it and then browse to the hidden profile folder on that partition.
/home/user/.mozilla/firefox
You can only restore a JSON backup, unless you export the bookmarks in that other OS to an HTML file.
See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

Moving user home directory to another partition on same hard drive

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