Macos – Adding an SSD to a Mac – how to migrate the data

macmacosmigrationssd

What would you guys suggest as the migration strategy for this?

I have a 320GB HDD currently and will be adding an 80gb SSD. I'd like to keep my /Users folder on the HDD and move everything else to the SSD and boot from the SSD.

I'd prefer not to reinstall leopard to do this since I've installed so many programs (.apps and terminal/macPorts installs) and it would take me days to get back up and running. It would be great if I could copy everything except the /Users data to the SSD. Then boot from the SSD and mount the HDD as /Users. I have a feeling that the Mac won't like this at all though.

The other concern I have is when I do all of this how do I ensure that all of my "~/Application Data" will still point to the right location and that I won't be completely hosing all of my preferences etc?

Thanks

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Update:

Oh and I have seen How to make the Users Directory a different partition in Snow Leopard? but I can't just copy everything to the SSD first so I'm still unsure of how best to get there.

====Update===

How it went:
This went much smoother than I thought it would. Performance is incredible. Went from 3:30 for a login (opening a ton of apps mind you) to about 30 seconds. Quicksilver pops up immediately (if you use qs you realize how awesome that is). I get duplicates for some programs in the open with… dialog.

The biggest thing I'd say to watch out for is this. I had an account that was fileVaulted and wanted to leave it on the HD. This worked fine but some programs Application support files broke because it was looking for /Volumes/HDD/Users/. I originally had my files in /Volumes/HDD/ and this threw some of those off. Once I moved it I had my history and preferences back for those apps.

Best Answer

  1. Make a full backup and turn off auto login for your account
  2. Create a 2nd admin user for purposes of changing the path once you are booted into the SSD.
  3. Create a custom copy script in SuperDuper!
  4. Allow the user to select the script in the first tab. Include the script "Backup - all files.dset" in the second tab. On the third tab set an ignore for /Users/yourusername
  5. In SuperDuper! use this script to copy from the HD to the SSD. It will leave all data on the HD, and copy everything but your user folder to the SSD.
  6. Change the boot drive to be the SSD in System Preferences.
  7. Boot into the SSD, login to the account you created in step 2, and follow knweiss's advice from the page you linked to. You'll be right clicking on your account to change the path to point to the user folder on the HD.
  8. Reboot and login.

Be aware that you'll have a /Users folder on your SSD which will have /Shared in it, and new users will be created on the SSD unless you specify otherwise.

Once you are done you should delete everything on the HD except of course /Users/yourusername

Don't change the name of the HD in the finder or it will break the link to your User folder unless you edit the link again in Accounts. You can change the drive name before you start, but pick something you'll want to stick with.

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