Mount Points for Internal Hard Drive

Question

Level 1

8 points

Mount Points for Internal Hard Drive

My new Mac Pro (2.66 Quad-Core) came with a single hard drive. Mount point is set to the root file system / with a link in the volumes directory pointing to /.

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 Mar 5 07:25 Mac HD 1 Bkup -> /

The problem I'm struggling with is when I add an additional drive, its mount point is set to a different location than the original drive under the volumes directory.

drwxrwxr-t 29 root admin 1054 Mar 4 22:22 Mac HD 1

The second drive has been formatted as a single partition with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table using disk utility.

My question I'm hoping someone has the answer to is how to relocate a mount point so both drives mount from the same location. My goal is to use the second drive as clone/backup to the primary drive.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 5, 2010 6:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Mar 5, 2010 7:21 AM in response to MJCola

all drives mount to /Volumes by default. the root system mounts to / and a symbolic link is placed into /Volumes. that last one can not be changed nor should it. what exactly do you want to change and more importantly why? there is absolutely no reason to change any mount points to clone a drive.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 5, 2010 7:21 AM in response to MJCola

Hi MjCola;

It sounds like you are looking for RAID1 or mirroring. This will cause two drive to be mirrored images of each other. This is NOT a backup solution. RAID1 offer only protection from disk failure and the data stored there should be backed up still.

TTBOMK this is not possible with mount points of the disks.

Allan

Message was edited by: Allan Eckert

Reply

Answer 3

MJCola Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2010 11:14 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Hey Allan..Wish I was looking at a raid setup but not yet.. What I am attempting to accomplish is clone my second drive so if it is put into service as the primary drive, the links to the document and library folders will still be intact. As it stands right now with the different mount point on the second drive the document and library link under "places" in finder are pointing to a different location then the actual document and library folders found off the actual drive itself. Maybe the mount point is not the problem but rather a procedural thing on my part when the second drive is added as the primary?? Thanks

Reply

Answer 4

MJCola Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2010 11:22 AM in response to V.K.

Hello V.K. So from what your saying my drive mount points look to be fine both on my secondary and primary drives. So how is the best approach then if I have to put the cloned secondary drive into service as the primary drive and have it assume the same mount point configuration as the original drive is?

Thanks

Reply

Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Mar 5, 2010 2:14 PM in response to MJCola

this is another internal drive, right? just go to system preferences->startup disk and change the startup drive to the clone. then reboot. you'll be booted from the clone. for one time change you can reboot and hold option at the chime. this will boot you into startup disk manager where you can choose which drive to boot from.

Reply

Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 5, 2010 4:21 PM in response to MJCola

If the clone (which software are you using to do this?) is a complete one, when you boot into the clone, it uses everything on its disk. There is no connection between it and the original source volume. When you check /Volumes, the clone will be shown as ->/ and the original as whatever its name is.

Reply

Answer 7

MJCola Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2010 10:18 PM in response to V.K.

V.K...Ah good to know...!! I had been told by many that placing a drive in bay 1 was all one needed to do for a primary boot drive. I tried your suggestion and low and behold we have synchronization and things look much better now!! Its the little things sometimes when your starting out. Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions, we'll know to start here first next time.

Reply

Answer 8

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Mar 6, 2010 6:21 AM in response to MJCola

MJCola wrote:
I had been told by many that placing a drive in bay 1 was all one needed to do for a primary boot drive. {…} Its the little things sometimes when your starting out.

A not-so-little thing when you are starting out is learning the correct terminology. Without that knowledge it is hard to search for help. For instance, if you had known that a "primary boot drive" is referred to as the default "startup disk" in Mac-speak, you could have searched the built-in help system on that (or just the word "startup"), which would have lead you to the help topic "Changing your startup disk."

It can be hard at first, but as you become more familiar with the terminology you will probably find the Help menu at the top of the screen & especially the contecxt-sensitive purple button with the question mark in it that appears in some windows is an amazing resource built right into your Mac for discovering all sorts of awesome things you can do with it.

Have fun! 🙂

Reply

Answer 9

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 6, 2010 8:21 AM in response to MJCola

Told by Windows users? The Mac and Mac Pro doesn't have primary etc.

Some people even go to the trouble to move a drive to bay #1.

using Option key will scan for all boot volumes and wait and let you choose which. A list of startup key commands is easy to find.

If so inclinded, David Pogue's $25 "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (SL edition, 940 pgs)" is really an excellent book - for anyone, new or old.

Being able to have multiple boot drives makes backups, testing, easy, but is also helpful for doing system and drive maintenance and repairs.

Reply

Answer 10

MJCola Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 7, 2010 12:00 AM in response to R C-R

Yes RC-R..Your correct, it would have made things much easier if I would have known what I was looking for exactly. We were on Windows a long time so it will take awhile to feel as comfortable with the Mac OS but even with that..we are enjoying and discovering new areas everyday and wouldn't consider going back. My only hope is one day to be familiar with all this enough to help the next new kid on the block..

Reply

Answer 11

MJCola Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 7, 2010 12:12 AM in response to The hatter

Hatter...it was actually Apple support who had me going down a different path and when it didn't work I never heard back from them. But that is how I stumbled on this group who has been a great help so all was not lost.

I am going to take a look at David Pogue's..The Missing Manual book see if its something that could help me down the road..Thanks for the tip

I am loving the ability to have multiple boot drives w/o relocating the actual physical drive now, which is also allowing me to get by backups back on track.

Reply

Answer 12

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Mar 7, 2010 3:18 AM in response to MJCola

I think you will find Pogue's book to be a great resource. As the hatter says, it has something for everybody, from beginner to advanced user. If you buy only one book about Macs, you can't do better than this one.

Reply

Answer 13

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 6, 2010 12:09 AM in response to MJCola

Thanks for the feedback. Good computing.

Reply