Move Documents folder to an other partition or drive.

Hello,

I want to move some user folders, like Documents, images, music, video and downloads folders, to an other partition or drive. I am using Mac OS X 10.5.2. I would like to move only those folders and not all the Home user folder.

I would appreciate a lot all the help you could give me. Thank you for your time,

Marcelo.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 15, 2008 4:01 PM

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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 15, 2008 4:35 PM

If you move all those folders there won't be much left in your home folder so it might be easier to move the entire home directory. But if you insist you can do this by creating symbolic links.

here are the steps for moving the Documents folder. the rest are handled similarly. (I would advise you to first try them on a test user account).

1. Run the following commands in terminal

*cp -Rp ~/Documents /Volumes/"diskname"*

Put the name of the disk you are moving it to instead of diskname in the above

2. make sure that everything copied correctly and run

*chmod -R -N ~/Documents*

3. next, delete the original documents folder:

*rm -rf ~/Documents*

4. And finally, create a symbolic link.

*ln -s /Volumes/"diskname"/Documents ~/Documents*

again, put the name of the disk you moved Documents to in the above.

I believe, that covers it.

Message was edited by: V.K.
P.S. i believe you'll loose the special system icons on the Documents folder when you do this so you might want to copy that icon and paste it onto the folder /Volumes/"diskname"/Documents before deleting the original Documents folder.
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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Apr 15, 2008 4:35 PM in response to Marceloc1972

If you move all those folders there won't be much left in your home folder so it might be easier to move the entire home directory. But if you insist you can do this by creating symbolic links.

here are the steps for moving the Documents folder. the rest are handled similarly. (I would advise you to first try them on a test user account).

1. Run the following commands in terminal

*cp -Rp ~/Documents /Volumes/"diskname"*

Put the name of the disk you are moving it to instead of diskname in the above

2. make sure that everything copied correctly and run

*chmod -R -N ~/Documents*

3. next, delete the original documents folder:

*rm -rf ~/Documents*

4. And finally, create a symbolic link.

*ln -s /Volumes/"diskname"/Documents ~/Documents*

again, put the name of the disk you moved Documents to in the above.

I believe, that covers it.

Message was edited by: V.K.
P.S. i believe you'll loose the special system icons on the Documents folder when you do this so you might want to copy that icon and paste it onto the folder /Volumes/"diskname"/Documents before deleting the original Documents folder.
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May 2, 2008 3:07 PM in response to V.K.

I've used your technique to move several folders to a second hard drive in my MacPro (in a test user account) - it worked fine. I tried copying the special system icons as you suggested without success. What am I doing wrong?
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Move Documents folder to an other partition or drive.

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