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raynebair · Jun 22, 2005, 09:43 AM

First of all I'm a newbie to Macs, just switched over in October 2004, so I'm still trying to figure things out.

Here's my issue:
I have an eMac with 40GB HD. It currently has about 19 GB free. Because of this, I'm having to store most of my files on a Windows PC and access it all across the network. This is becoming a pain. The connection to my Windows machine isn't constant, so I always have to make sure I'm connected before I try to do anything. And when I go to the PC and look, I've aquired a multitude of additional hidden files (I guess the Mac put them there at some point). Also, I can't just jump to Documents/Photos or anything of that sort because that's on the local drive and I can't have anything on it. I don't like storing my Mac files on the PC because of the file compatibility, but currently have no choice. But if the PC reboots or something, my connection is lost and I have to go manually reconnect. So I can't always count on being able to get to my files on the network.

I am considering a external HD to add more space that is always available and exclusive to the Mac, but can I move my home directory to the external drive? I'd like to be able to use my home directory to actually store my music, photos, etc. in the designated folders.

Big Mac · Jun 22, 2005, 10:07 AM

Yes, you can move your Home folder to an external drive, but you have to be prepared to do some heavy lifting to get things configured properly. Why not just store things like your iTunes and iPhoto library on the external drive?

turtle777 · Jun 22, 2005, 10:28 AM

Storing your complete homefolder on an etxernal drive is possible, but requires some hacks.

A much better option would be to clone / backup your complete internal HD to the external drive and use it as the boot drive. If you get a FW 7200 RPM you will even see a substantial speed increase for overall system performance.
Use apps like SuperDuper to clone / backup your complete system.

-t

CatOne · Jun 22, 2005, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Storing your complete homefolder on an etxernal drive is possible, but requires some hacks.

A much better option would be to clone / backup your complete internal HD to the external drive and use it as the boot drive. If you get a FW 7200 RPM you will even see a substantial speed increase for overall system performance.
Use apps like SuperDuper to clone / backup your complete system.

-t

It's awfully easy if you understand symlinks.

I ran this way when I was using pre-release versions of the OS for 4 months, with no incident. I actually booted off an external firewire HD and symlinked back to my home directory which was on my laptop. I could reformat the external HD on a weekly basis with the newest beta OS... setting up the symlink took about 4 seconds :-)

raynebair · Jun 22, 2005, 10:38 AM

Is there a way to keep my home directory where it is, but just move Documents, Photos and Music?

turtle777 · Jun 22, 2005, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by CatOne

It's awfully easy if you understand symlinks.

Pfff, I know. I did it myself.

The problem is that the average user doesn't even understand the difference between symlinks and aliases, so they shouldn't mess with it. Especially if you move your ~/library folder.

-t

turtle777 · Jun 22, 2005, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by raynebair

Is there a way to keep my home directory where it is, but just move Documents, Photos and Music?

Yes, by using symbolic links.

Make sure you understand the concepts behind it first.

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...s/Aliases.html

How to move your documents / photots / music folder:

1) Copy them completely to you external drive
2) create symbolic links to them, storing them in your home folder. The symlinks must be named *exactly* the same as the original folders.

In case you still want to move the whole home folder:

http://maczealots.com/articles/home/

-t

raynebair · Jun 22, 2005, 12:45 PM

turtle - Thanks. I read that article and it explains it well, but someone mentioned that they logged in before the drive mounted and it created a phantom users folder on the local drive.

How do I insure that the external drive will mount before I log in? Or is this something that will just happen? I'm a total newbie (switched from PC in October) at this and I want to make sure I got everything right. I just ordered my drive.

Also, is there somewhere that explains installing an external drive? There probably won't be a PC connecting to it so it doesn't have to be formatted for PC access. I'm not even sure where to begin to format it.

turtle777 · Jun 22, 2005, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by raynebair

turtle - Thanks. I read that article and it explains it well, but someone mentioned that they logged in before the drive mounted and it created a phantom users folder on the local drive.

On the external drive, create two partitions. One small (5 GB) and one for the rest.
Use the small to create a standard OS installation.
Then boot into that OS. You can then use SuperDuper to make a complete copy from your use folders on the interal HD to the large partition on your external drive.
Once you got that ( and you are sure everything worked fine), rename the folders on your internal HD (like Documents -> Documents2), create the symbolic link to the Documents folder on your external HD. That's it.

Originally Posted by raynebair

How do I insure that the external drive will mount before I log in? Or is this something that will just happen? I'm a total newbie (switched from PC in October) at this and I want to make sure I got everything right. I just ordered my drive.

You go to preferences and chose your start-up volume there.

Originally Posted by raynebair

Also, is there somewhere that explains installing an external drive? There probably won't be a PC connecting to it so it doesn't have to be formatted for PC access. I'm not even sure where to begin to format it.

Just connect it and use the DiskUtility found in the Utilities folder under Applications.
Do you need it to be read- / writeable by a PC as well, or only connected to the Mac ?
There are different formatings for that.

Read this:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ighlight=FAT32
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...d-PC-use-.html

I would recommend to format it only for Mac use, because there could be potential issues.

-t

raynebair · Jun 22, 2005, 01:05 PM

I will format for Mac. If I need to access from a PC, I will do it with file sharing, not direct access. But my reason for getting the drive is to eliminate having to use the PC at all.

sspire · Jun 22, 2005, 04:18 PM

I find it interesting you want to mirror your home directory. I personally don't like the home directory and always make sure apps like itunes, etc are not automatically storing files in their default locations because they end up being all over the place. I just create one separate folder (called something like any of the following: media, downloads, incoming, etc).

For example,
Media (folder) contains:

Pics (folder)
Audio (folder)
Video (folder)

Pretty simple. Fewer folder heiarchies, etc. Everything in one place.

As for your last post raynebair, formatting in HFS+ is the way to go especially if you don't need the PC anymore. Keep in mind that you wouldn't have to go thru the network, you could just hook up directly to the PC in a pinch with MacDrive or TransMac. (I'm content with MacDrive.)

MacDrive 6.0.5.0
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6

TransMac
http://www.asy.com/scrtm.htm