Unknown folders in Macintosh HD

When I boot my iMac from the external HD, two extra folders show up in my Macintosh HD: "home" and "net". Are they supposed to be there? Are they normally hidden?
Thanks in advance.

Thank you for your quick reply
It's just that I recently installed Snow Leopard on an SD card (to be used for troubleshooting purposes) and I wanted to make sure I didn't stuff anything up!!!
Thanks again.

Similar Messages

Yosemite slow to open external HDD AND expand folders on Macintosh HD

After updating to Yosemite, the folders on my Macintosh HD are very slow to expand. We're talking minutes. Also, my two external HDD's are the same. No such issues with Mavericks. Suggestions?

Hi
Looks like a HDD malfunction head crash, etc
In my opinion there are no many options.
If the warranty is valid then you should visit your dealer and ask for the replacement, fix, etc
If the warranty is not valid then the dealer would not replace this part.
What to sayin such case you could try to remove the HDD from the bracket (dont ask me how, I dont have this HDD) and could try to connect it to a desktop PC using a IDE or SATA cable (this depends on the HDD) to ensure if it's possible to get a access to the HDD

OS X and Ubuntu sharing media folders on Macintosh HD?

I'm gonna install Ubuntu on my MBP and dual-boot. Have tried Virtualbox, but I want a native install after all.
I have a 250GB drive, and I thought I'd make an ext3 partition of 15GB to install Ubuntu on. What I'm unsure about is where Ubuntu should read/write media and documents. I believe OS X is fond of having the User folder on the same partition as the rest, so I thought maybe I could just mount my OS X /home with read/write support in Ubuntu, and let it work with the Documents/Photos/Movies/Music-folders there.
Do you see any pitfalls with this? As long as it's mostly media and stuff I access, I shouldn't screw up permissions or other stuff for OS X, I hope/think.

we have a problem.....
another solution - buy a hard drive and a usb external enclosure (not an external hard drive).......
take your old hard drive out and install it in your usb external enclosure.
install your new hard drive in your macbook.
connect your usb external to your macbook's usb port.
power up your macbook and keep your finger in the option key until you see the apple logo....
you'll get a boot menu, choose your external drive as the boot drive - when ML installer pops up, direct it to install it in your new hard drive....
once the install is done, restart your macbook and open migration assistant and use that to bring your files and apps from your bad hard drive over...

Mail database error and unknown folders - what are they?

Hi - Forgive an elementary question: I administer a small office network, but am NOT an IT expert!
We've been running OS X 10.5. server for quite some time and are now on 10.5.8 with client workstations all running 10.6.1. We've had a problem with a corrupt cyrus database reporting (amongst other things):-
"DBERROR db4: Database environment corrupt; the wrong log files may have been removed or incompatible database files imported from another environment"
This is well covered elsewhere, but despite downloading and running mailbfr I have not been able to get rid of the problem. However, my question is this: whilst rooting around the mail database I have found the following folders:
var/spool/imap/^-^_-+^_-+^_-^-obscure
var/spool/imap/^_-bingey
var/spool/imap/^_-delegating
var/spool/imap/^_-moustache
var/spool/imap/^_-obscure
var/spool/imap/^_-plebes
var/spool/imap/^_-reinserting
Each of these folders has a cyrus.cache, cyrus.header and cyrus.index file inside. I can find no relevant search results when I check these folder names out with an internet search, so I'm wondering whether these folders should even be there? Have they been installed covertly, and if so can I remove them without further damaging our database?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4275025

Unknown Folders, an idots quest

Mornin' all. I have read through a raft of questions ref "unknown albums" and how its a tag issue, but I would like to ask if there is a way for a ZEN just to read the folder name for the album title or does it HAVE to read from the tag's the songs are holding?
I'm not overly concerned about song names
I could really do with an idiots giude to all of this as I can see people talking about tagging etc but I really do not know that much about MP's on MP3 players as opposed to video etc.
Thanks in advance guy's n gal's.
The Mutz..!

Hello MutzNutz, the Zen will read your music information from the tags, it has nothing to do with your folder it is placed in. Album arts, however, is a different story.
The tags are simple to use, the more essential ones are:
Title, artist, album and genre. To update these tags, edit them by right clicking on your music and then properties. An easier way would be to use the Creative Mediasource Organizer.
Hope this helps!?

User State Migration Tool - unknown folders from %userprofile%

Hey,
I try to configure USMT currently.
It works really fine. Unfortunately only for specific folders & files.
I got it working to define USMT to backup files just for "My Documents", "My Pictures" etc. in MigUser but I have problem that users created custom folders like e.g. %USERPROFILE"\MyCustomFolder. Unfortunately I do not
know name of these folders.
How can I define USMT to migrate files/folders in %USERPROFILE% I do not know name from, but not migrate folder e.g. "My Music" and %AppData% etc.?
Thank you for help.
Kind Regards
mk-maddin

Hey Torsten,
Thank you for help - I think we are talking about different topics :)
I know I can specifiy another XML in tasksequence.
My problem is the XML-file itself.
In MigUser are entries like:

<component type="Documents" context="User">
<displayName _locID="miguser.mydocs">My Documents</displayName>
<paths>
<path type="File">%CSIDL_PERSONAL%</path>
</paths>
<role role="Data">
<detects>
<detect>
<condition>MigXmlHelper.DoesObjectExist("File","%CSIDL_PERSONAL%")</condition>
</detect>
</detects>
<rules>
<exclude>
<objectSet>
<pattern type="File">%CSIDL_MYMUSIC%\* [*]</pattern>
<pattern type="File">%CSIDL_MYPICTURES%\* [*]</pattern>
<pattern type="File">%CSIDL_MYVIDEO%\* [*]</pattern>
</objectSet>
</exclude>
<include filter='MigXmlHelper.IgnoreIrrelevantLinks()'>
<objectSet>
<pattern type="File">%CSIDL_PERSONAL%\* [*]</pattern>
</objectSet>
</include>
<merge script="MigXmlHelper.DestinationPriority()">
<objectSet>
<pattern type="File">%CSIDL_PERSONAL% [desktop.ini]</pattern>
</objectSet>
</merge>
</rules>
</role>
</component>
All these entries are using %CSIDL_XXX% like defined in following Microsoft article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff383238(v=WS.10).aspx#BKMK_MigUser
But there is no value for %USERPROFILE% to be able to specifiy %USERPROFILE%\*.
Thank you for help.

IFilter 9 64-bit deletes files and moves them into idividual folders

Our fire department scanned thousands of documents using Adobe Capture and stored them on a Windows Server 2008 R2. We then installed iFilter 9 64-bit so Windows Search could make these documents searchable. The second day iFilter was installed I noticed some unknown folders in the root of c: with names such as A9R2f4-115f67e8. By the third day these had grown to thousands of folders, each with one PDF document in it. I recognized the files as the ones that had be captured with Adobe Capture and checked their original location and found the files missing. It appeared that in indexing the files Windows Search with iFilter was moving each file into an individual folder. I removed iFilter and the problem stopped. Luckily I had a backup and was able to restore the files to their original location.
Months later I installed a new server at a different location. Thinking this was possible a conflict with another program or service on the original server I copied the adobe documents onto this new and clean server and installed iFilter 9 64-bit. Again, the first day things look fine but on the second day the folders once again started showing up in the root of C:, again I removed iFilter 9 and the problem went away.
This would appear to be a bug in the program since it has happened to two server, one a brand new Dell R710 with nothing on it except the server software and Adobe iFilter and the PDF files that were captured using Adobe Capture. I have called Adobe and I was told they do not provide support for iFilter other than this forum. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate the help.

Erwin,
I was not able to systematically examine this issue, because it occurred on a production system and, of course, I uninstalled the Adobe iFilters as soon as I read that they may delete pdf files. Before the uninstallation I noticed the AR9 folders appearing on c:\ and moved them from time to time to another folder. Using the search function inside this folder, I found that all files were present in duplicate at least. I concluded, that after moving the AR9 folders they were recreated containing the same files. Consequently, these files cannot have been deleted. Searching for the origin of these files I found that they were part of pdf portfolios, therefore my conclusion that they are part of the indexing mechanism of the portfolios. What I have not done (and what I am not going to do since it is a production system) is to fill a folder with pdfs and track what is happening to the files.
In case of my server, I think that the iFilters did not delete any files. Of course I cannot say what happens on other systems. I am definitely not going to reinstall the iFilters before knowing what they a really doing to the files.
Not sure if this is of much help
Michael

How do I resolve 43+ GB of missing storage on the Macintosh HD?

I seemed to be running out of space on my MacBook AIR, so I used Get Info to retrieve Size data for the HD and main folders.
Macintosh HD shows:
     Capacity: 120.15 GB
     Available    12.03 GB
     Users              46.14 GB
     System             5.57 GB
     Library              6.74 GB
     Applications      6.45 GB
     Total Used      64.90 GB
120.15 - 64.90 = 55.25 -12.03 = 43.22 GB
So more than 43 GB of space is lost/missing!
How could this happen?
How do I recover the lost/missing space?
- Tom

Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To really see everything, you have to run it as root.
First, back up all data if you haven't already done so. No matter what happens, you should be able to restore your system to the state it was in at the time of that backup.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
After installing ODS in the Applications folder, drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. When you're done with it, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Can't rename newly created Folders

I updated to Tiger 10.4.9. Now I cannot rename any folders, new or existing. If I do "Get Info," the screen goes blank then returns to regular without changes to the folder.
regards, Gordon

Gordon,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It sounds like your problem may be either a Finder or Contextual Menu issue.
Before you try anything else, Repair Disk Permissions.
If it is a Finder issue, it may be helpful to find the com.apple.finder.plist file in your Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences Folder. Drag it to your Desktop, log out/in or restart and check for normal finder behavior.
If it is a Contextual Menu problem, can you identify any corrupted or incompatible third party files in the following folders:?
Macintosh HD/System/Library/Contextual Menu Items
Macintosh HD/Library/Contextual Menu Items
Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Contextual Menu Items
If so, you may be able to uninstall/reinstall the associated application.
Consider temporary sequential manual removal/isolation of the suspect file to verify CM functionality and finder stability
;~)

"Macintosh HD" name changed on its own, is this a virus?

Hey everybody,
for some unknown reason my Macintosh HD in the finder and on my desktop changed names from "Macintosh HD" to "are you gone now". There is no possible way I did this, and no one else had used my computer. Everything else seems normal, but I was concerned that this could be a virus or something. I have not heard of any serious Mac OSX viruses before, so I am hoping this is some random thing. I am running latest version of Leopard, and the name change occurred on May 13. Has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks for the help

It sounds as if the MBA user has been using his Mac foolishly, by downloading applications from a p2p service. That is a very high risk activity that will compromise any computer's security. I don't know if your Mac could have become infected through the MBA. It seems unlikely, but I can think of no other explanation.
Back up all your user files. Time machine should be fine for this, but a simple drag & drop of all your documents to a burned DVD or external drive would be easy too.
Then completely reformat and reinstall everything from scratch on both computers. Reinstall your third party apps from the original CDs or fresh downloads only. DO NOT restore any applications or system components from your backups, unless you are 100% sure you are retrieving them from a backup made before the intrusion began. Only recover your personal data from backups.
Change all your passwords. Don't use the admin account for anything except tasks that really need it (of which there are very, very few.)
Make sure the MBA user gets a lesson in safe computing. NEVER download any software from a p2p service.
Are you absoutely certain that the MBA user is not playing a practical joke on you?

Data Loss following 10.6 Upgrade - HELP!!!

I ran through an upgrade to 10.6 from 1.5.8 on my 4-month old MacBook Pro 17"... everything went perfectly through the install with no issues until...
I logged in and suddenly realized that I was missing 60% of the items that were previously in my Desktop folder (shortcuts, files, folders). I then realized that some of the folders that were still there were missing subfolders...
All told, I'm missing somewhere 30-50GB of data that has just vanished! What I have done:
1) Rebooted
2) Ran a disk verify (came back fine)
3) Ran a repair on permissions (no issues found)
4) Checked my trashcan...
5) Called Apple tech support and rebooted into safe mode
6) Used spotlight to search for any sign of the missing data
7) Browsed around in terminal and looked for hidden files
From a file system perspective - this data doesn't exist! From what I can tell the only data i'm missing were files that were underneath the Desktop folder - everything in Documents, Photos, and other locations on my hard drive are all intact, making this extremely odd... In addition, since i'm missing not just items directly under my desktop but items in folders on my Desktop 1 and 2 levels down, this guarantees my mind that it wasn't an accident where I somehow deleted a bunch of items!
Has anyone else experienced something remotely similar following an upgrade?
Does anyone have any technical ideas on recovering this data (or third party tools)?
Much appreciated,
Keith

Looked with baseline while running as root - no dice... The reported size free on my HD right now is 155GB. I found the OSX 10.6 install.log under /var/log - my initial free size prior to the upgrade was:
Aug 31 18:20:17 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Initial free size : 65.38 GB
All told I'm down 90GB - perhaps 7-10GB of that is the smaller size of Snow Leopard. That still leaves 80GB unaccounted for.
I dug through the install.log and there are several items that concern me. The first is that it apparently creates a new set of Users to match your original installation and then 'migrates' all of the data to those users, as evidenced below... NOTE the 2nd to last line:
Aug 31 18:45:43 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Finalize disk "Macintosh HD" for OS Installation
Aug 31 18:45:43 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Finalizing Disk for OS Install
Aug 31 18:45:48 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Cleaning up mutable product directory.
Aug 31 18:45:48 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Removed mutable product
Aug 31 18:45:48 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Importing users and settings to new system
Aug 31 18:45:48 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Starting post-upgrade migration /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Recovered Items -> /Volumes/Macintosh HD
ault/config/KerberosKDC.plist
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:48:35.728 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] 2009-08-31 18:48:35 -0700 -[SMMigrateSystemInfo finishKerberosSetup]:1019 Kerberos setup for OSInstall from /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Recovered Items (10.5) to /Volumes/Macintosh HD
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:48:35.729 Mac OS X Installer[137:8c87] 2009-08-31 18:48:35 -0700 -[SMTaskManager _launchTaskSync:]:32 Launching tool /usr/sbin/chroot ((
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "/Volumes/Macintosh HD",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "/usr/libexec/configureLocalKDC",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "--source",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Recovered Items",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "--source-version",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "10.5",
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: "--plist"
Aug 31 18:48:35 localhost Unknown[88]: ))
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:48:48.188 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] 2009-08-31 18:48:48 -0700 -[SMMigrateFiles postProcess]:214 Starting postProcessing Files.
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:48:48.189 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] 2009-08-31 18:48:48 -0700 -[SMMigrateFiles postProcess]:224 (I) Kext cache is NOT up to date on /Volumes/Macintosh HD.
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:48:48.189 Mac OS X Installer[137:19b6b] 2009-08-31 18:48:48 -0700 -[SMTaskManager _launchTaskSync:]:32 Launching tool /usr/sbin/chroot ((
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: "/Volumes/Macintosh HD",
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: "/usr/sbin/kextcache",
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: "-system-caches"
Aug 31 18:48:48 localhost Unknown[88]: ))
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:49:13.324 Mac OS X Installer[137:1a01f] 2009-08-31 18:49:13 -0700 -[SMTaskManager _launchTaskSync:]:32 Launching tool /usr/sbin/kextcache ((
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: "-update-volume",
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: ))
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: /Volumes/Macintosh HD: no supported helper partitions to update.
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:49:13.405 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] 2009-08-31 18:49:13 -0700 -[SMMigrateFiles postProcess]:258 Done postProcessing Files.
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:49:13.557 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] (SleepLeo) machine ok to sleep
Aug 31 18:49:13 localhost Unknown[88]: 2009-08-31 18:49:13.558 Mac OS X Installer[137:15303] 2009-08-31 18:49:13 -0700 -[SMMigrateEngine(Private) startEngine]:580 Migration took 197.237245 seconds long. ( Copied 40963.55MB of 40963.55MB )... That's 207.69MB/s overall...
Aug 31 18:49:14 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Migration Engine Returned an Error Condition.
Aug 31 18:49:17 localhost OSInstaller[137]: Saving preserved user data to /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Previous System
Thoughts anyone?

Drag a file from a folder to my desktop

When I try to drag a file from a folder to my desktop, it gets thrown to the upper left-hand corner, almost all of it 'off' the desktop, not where I tried to 'set' it...wuwt?

In ~/Library/Preferences: Trash helpviewer.plist and helpviewer.plist.lockfile
In ~/Library/Caches: Trash all folders
In Macintosh HD/Library/Caches: Trash all folders
Restart iMac, and then Empty Trash.
The credit goes to whoever posted this on the net… it worked for me

Just Got an External Hard Drive

I bought an Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus, with 750GB of space. I pretty excited about having it, but I want to make sure that I'm doing things correctly, right from the go.
So far, I have:
1) Connected it
2) Reformatted it to Journaled HFS+ format
3) Installed the software that came with it. (Not that I need it, I assume.)
4) Created an archive of everything that came pre-loaded on it and put the archive on my desktop
5) Partitioned it into 7 volumes (Is this a bit too much?)
Volumes:
*System OS X 4.11:*
Capacity: 39.88 GB
Available: 39.84 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s10
Mount Point: /Volumes/System OS X 4.11
Home:
Capacity: 39.88 GB
Available: 39.84 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s12
Mount Point: /Volumes/Home
Movies:
Capacity: 199.88 GB
Available: 199.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s14
Mount Point: /Volumes/Movies
Music:
Capacity: 149.88 GB
Available: 149.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s16
Mount Point: /Volumes/Music
Photos:
Capacity: 149.88 GB
Available: 149.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s18
Mount Point: /Volumes/Photos
Documents:
Capacity: 59.88 GB
Available: 59.83 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s20
Mount Point: /Volumes/Documents
Free:
Capacity: 58.51 GB
Available: 58.47 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s22
Mount Point: /Volumes/Free
6) Tested it (It works!)
Now I'd like to know if I did what I was supposed to do when adding an external hard drive to your system.
Do the sizes of the volumes seem right?
I have all these disk images all over my desk top. I tried to put them into one folder. Ha ha! They do NOT want to go into a folder. So I don't think I'm supposed to do that. What AM I supposed to do?
Before I partitioned the drive, I ejected it and the icon disappeared from my desktop. I wondered how I could get it back on the desktop. Tried a bunch of things and nothing worked. Then I thought, 'I'll try a restart." Damned if that didn't work. Oh, happy! Happy! Now if I eject one or all of the volumes, will I have to restart to get them back every time I want to back up or store something?
I noticed that SMART status isn't supported. Does that matter?
I'd like to back up my OS on the Maxtor. Do I really need the software mentioned in other threads (Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner)? Can't I just drop all the folders from Macintosh HD in Finder to the appropriate icon?
I know there's a lot of question here. Sorry!
I'd really appreciate a review and advise.
Thanks!

If there's a practical limit on the number of disk partitions, it's the number of drive icons cluttering up the Desktop (unless you set the Finder preferences to not show hard drives on the desktop). The correct size of disk partitions is whatever works for your personal use and preferences.
If you eject one partition on an external drive, all the partitions on that drive will also be ejected. You need to eject the drive before you physically disconnect it, or power it down separately from the computer; otherwise you risk damaging the drive by interrupting write activity (which includes system tasks beyond any overt copies or write that you command). It's OK to just leave the external drive powered up and connected to the computer. If you shut down the computer, the shutdown process will automatically dismount the external drive partitions; after the computer has shut down, you can power off the external drive. Turn the external on before starting the Mac. Restarts don't require dismounting or power cycling the external drive.
If you dismount the external drive, you can remount the drive partitions using Disk Utility, or unplug the external from the computer and then reconnect it. (Disk Utility obviously puts less wear on the connectors.)
A Finder drag-and-copy from the internal to the external drive will not capture invisible files (Unix systems quite literally have tens of thousands of invisible files), and copying the System and Library folders in particular will then yield unusable folders. Use SuperDuper or CCC. You can (probably) use the Finder to copy /Users if you like.
Non-support of SMART status is a pain if you ever need to troubleshoot the external drive but won't affect normal use.
Mounted disk images (which appear as drive icons on the Desktop) cannot be moved into a folder, only ejected from the desktop. If you're referring to the drive icons from the external drive partitions, those remain on the Desktop until the external drive is ejected. As mentioned, you can set the Finder preferences to hike all hard drive icons by unchecking the appropriate checkbox. If you're also referring to mounted disk images created after clciking on a disk image .dmg file, those also stay on the Desktop while mounted. You can move disk image files (the file icons, ending in .dmg) which when double-clicked create the disk images into a folder and copy that folder of .dmg files to where ever you have room to put it. Check that the copied .dmg disk image files will create a mounted disk image when double-clicked; you can then delete the original .dmg files to free room on the internal HD.

How to change the default location of 'Music', 'Pictures' in my home folder

IMAGINE I have 2 hard disk partitions on the SAME hard disk,
one is called 'Macintosh HD' and the other is called 'My Data'.
The Plan:
In the 'Macintosh HD', there are (1) system files & (2) users' settings.
In the 'My Data', there are all the music, pictures, etc.
For example, the 'Macintosh HD' has 40GB and the 'My Data' has 120GB.
All I want to do is to *separate the SYSTEM and my DATA* _without migrating my home folder_ inside 'Macintosh HD' which contains folders called 'Music', 'Pictures'... to the partition 'My Data'.
_+*I want to separate the system files and my data incase I need to reinstall the Mac OS X while leaving all my data untouched.*+_
So the way I should do (I guess) is to leave my home folder inside 'Macintosh HD' empty,
and create files called, for example, 'My Music', 'My Pictures', etc. in the 'My Data' partition.
Then _redirect the files 'Music', 'Pictures', etc. in my home folder inside 'Macintosh HD'_ to _'My Music', 'My Pictures', etc. in the 'My Data' partition_.
In Windows XP or Windows 7, you can redirect those as using the methods below:
(1) http://i41.tinypic.com/2rorkhx.jpg
(2) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location. html
But I just don't know how to do that in Mac OS X, it seems that Mac OS X doesn't even provide a way for users to do so:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=336192
I saw a reply in macrumors forum and tried to move the 'Music', 'Pictures', etc. folders,
but it turned out that those files were being copied, not moved.
So I can't move the 'Music', 'Pictures', etc. to the partition 'My Data' and make aliases of them which can be put in my home folder inside 'Macintosh HD'.
So, are there only 3 options for me too choose?
(1) stop trying to fight Apple and Mac OS X on where it puts things, just put all the things in my home folder inside 'Macintosh HD', using only 1 partition
(2) move my home folder to the other disk partition, in this case, the partition 'My Data'
(3) can't redirect the location of Music', 'Pictures', etc. folders in my home folder in the 'Macintosh HD', but just simply put things in the 'My Data'.
Thanks in advance!
Message was edited by: MicBook

Here's the easy solution:
1. Copy the folders you want on the My Data partition.
2. Verify all files copied OK, then delete the same folders on Macintosh HD.
3. Make an alias for each of the folders you have moved.
4. Copy the aliases to your Macintosh HD/Users/Home folder.
5. Delete the space and "alias" from each of the aliases so the have the exact same names as the originals.
DO NOT do this with the /Home/Library/ folder as the above will not work with that folder.
When you attempt to delete the folders you have moved the OS will complain that it cannot delete them because they are needed by OS X. This is normal. In order to delete the original folders and rename the aliases you will need to boot the computer from another drive or from the OS X installer disc. But for the latter you will need to run the Terminal (from the installer's Utilities menu) and use Unix commands to delete the folders and rename the aliases. If you know how to use the Terminal then the entire operation can be done from the command line. See the following:
1. Boot the computer into single-user mode.
2. At the prompt enter:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Users/yourusername
mv /Documents "/Volumes/My Data/rest of path/Documents"
Repeat the above line replacing "Documents" with the names of the other folders you are moving. The "mv" command actually moves the folders rather than copying them.
ln -s "/Volumes/My Data/rest of path/Documents" /Users/Documents
Repeat this line for the other folders replacing "Documents" with the names of the other folders.
You may find printing out the command line routine using a large mono-spaced font useful in assuring you spot the spaces in each command line. Note that the quotes used in the command lines above are required.
Enter "reboot" without quotes to restart the computer.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Is there a way to identify which files haven't been migrated from a backup?

I've just upgraded my girlfriends 13" mbp from Leopard to Snow Leopard. It was behaving a little strangely and being sluggish so I erased everything before the upgrade. I've used Migration Assistant to transfer most files from a Time Machine backup but was a bit unsure about transferring everything blindly as I'm a little worried about what was causing the problems before the upgrade. The only items I didn't select in Migration Assistant were the 'All other files and folders' in the 'Users' drop box, and the 'All other files and folders on Macintosh HD'. I left these as I wanted to investigate what exactly these files were but now I have no clue how to go about this. Is there a quick way to highlight which files were present in the backup before the upgrade that aren't there now? Are any of these files likely to be hugely important?
Also, because I backed up again after the upgrade, Migration Assistant automatically selects the last backup to migrate from instead of the one that has the missing files. Is there a way to select which backup file to use from my external drive?
Thanks

Macademia82 wrote:
I've just upgraded my girlfriends 13" mbp from Leopard to Snow Leopard. It was behaving a little strangely and being sluggish so I erased everything before the upgrade.
It's usually not a good idea to upgrade a computer that's having problems. They may get fixed, but more often they'll get worse.
'All other files and folders on Macintosh HD'.
Those are other files, not in any user home folders, besides system files. On most installations, they're just a few Help files, but if you've installed things or created files at the top level of a drive, they weren't migrated.
Also, because I backed up again after the upgrade, Migration Assistant automatically selects the last backup to migrate from instead of the one that has the missing files. Is there a way to select which backup file to use from my external drive?
No, unfortunately. You can only do that with a full system restore.
If you used +Setup Assistant+ when the Mac first started up, the user accounts now on the Mac are the same ones, and you can use the "Star Wars" display to restore selected items from older backups. But you can't restore an entire home folder, or the default folders in the user's home folder (Desktop, Documents, etc.); you have to select the contents of those folders instead. See #15 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If you used the +Migration Assistant+ app, however, the user accounts may not be recognized as being the same ones, so may not have permission to see and restore from the backups.
It's a pain, but your best bet may be to start over: do a full system restore of the last Leopard backup, per #14 in the FAQ. Then try to address the "strangely and being sluggish" issue. Once that's either fixed or you determine it isn't a big problem, just install Snow Leopard over Leopard without erasing.

Unknown folders in Macintosh HD

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