MacOS – Deleting home folders ~symbolic links in Mac OS X

foldersmacossymlink

I bought an SSD, so now I have SSD + traditional HD on my Mac. On SSD OS + Applications. On HD data.

I wanted to keep applications and library on the SSD and move my home folder from SSD to the traditional HD.

I used this solution of creating symbolic link on the HD to follow my purpose.
I opened the terminal and in my /Users/Homefolder I've typed

 sudo rm -rf examplefolder 
 ln -s /Volumes/nameofHD/pathofexamplefolderontheHD

So one after one I deleted all folders on my home folder on the SSD and created symbolic links on the HD.

The problem for what I'm requesting Super User's help:

One folder, exactly the one named "Download" any time I reboot the system reappears. So now I have two "Download" folders and I'm not able to delete the one on the SSD (the original) anymore, precisely anytime I use 

sudo rm -rf examplefolder

After rebooting it magically reappears. Sometimes using terminal it says to unlink the folder but after some time I'm able to delete it

For trying deleting the file I've also used this app/script called Trashit, but that didn't work either.

Best Answer

That’s not the recommended way of configuring a two-disk OS X install. Steps:

  1. Make a clean install on the SSD. Or you can just copy over the System Files. This would make steps 2 and 3 unnecessary.
  2. Create a temporary admin account on the SSD.
  3. Add a new account in the Users and Accounts preferences. It should match the credentials of your old account on the HDD.
  4. Right click on the account after it has been created, then click on Advanced Options.
  5. Set the home folder of this account as the previous home folder on your HDD.
  6. Transfer the necessary apps, libraries, etc by using a disk cloning app or good old copy-pasting.

The Download folder reappears because OS X thinks that the home directory is on the SSD, not on the HDD.

Source: http://macintoshhowto.com/hardware/how-to-speed-up-your-mac-with-a-ssd-drive.html

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