How to I migrate from a Mac to different Hard Drives on a Mac Pro?

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Level 1

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How to I migrate from a Mac to different Hard Drives on a Mac Pro?

Hi,

I just got a Mac Pro. Have been using an iMac for a few years but finally had to upgrade back to a Mac Pro. My question is... I ordered my new Mac Pro with a Solid State 500GB, and two 2TB Drives. The idea being that I would put all my music and apps on one hard drive and all my video on another. However, when I use my miration assistant I cannot tansfer to the different hard drives, by default it sends it all to the main hard drive which is the Solid State. The Solid State has no capacity so it will not let me migrate my stuff. Also Even if I migrates just user info and Apps it would be too much for Solid State.
Is there a way round this? Is there a away I can choose what goes to what hard dirve?

In case of Negative, is there at least a way I can mirgate user data to Solid State and install the apps on one of the hard drives? I can always manually move the Music and Video after.

Thanks,
Alex

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Dec 23, 2012 9:11 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Dec 23, 2012 9:39 AM in response to albalboy

Download and read the documentation for Carbon Copy Cloner which is handy and what a lot of us have used over the years to clone, migrate and backup or manage drives and storage.

I think 500GB is overkill for boot drive as most of your apps and OS only need less than 150GB, and all of your data and media and home folders can be anywhere you want and not on the boot drive. Also, Apple way over charges for 2TB drives and no reason or value to do so. That is history now but fwiw.

You could I guess setup one 2TB as boot drive easy enough. Then migrate etc. Make that a backup of everything. Then manually or with CCC or other you can clone just what you want to SSD and to the other 2TB drive.

Apps should always go to the boot drive, the SSD in this case, and not to other locations. No benefit putting them elsewhere.

When you migrate are your files on TimeMachine or just standard files and folders? and can't selectively copy? Honestly never found need to use M.A. more than once probably.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/

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Answer 2

albalboy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 24, 2012 11:26 AM in response to The hatter

Yeah youre right about the 500 being overkill I just ransfered all apps and user to boot drive and was about 150GB.

What I want to do now is trasfer all my music, photos and video to the other drives how can I do this? I need to transfer Apperture Library... I have to day Apperture file management has to be the most complex system out there.

As I now have USER un boot drive the main FILE for PICTURES and MUSIC etc are under the USER on the boot drive. If I move them to the HD 2 for example, it just creates another regualr file with the name. How do I move the Apple Master File to where I want? I want the USER/Pictures folder to be on HD for example not on the boot drive? Same goes for Music for iTunes..?

Thanks,

Alex

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Answer 3

Dec 25, 2012 12:10 PM in response to albalboy

How to Move the Home Folder in OS X - and Why - Chris Pirillo

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F 598EA.html

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Dec 25, 2012 12:26 PM in response to albalboy

The SSD is fast and nice place to leave

/Users/my_account/Library (which is now hidden)

And not move everything. So your boot drive always has an account.

Also that ~/Library is small, 1-3GB is all.

500GB might be nice for Aperture or scratch or something.

150GB is actually a lot for just the OS and applications, most get by with a 128GB SSD,

256GB SSDs have more channels for concurrent I/O so they do score and perform better than smaller.

A 128GB SSD is $100 / so would a 250GB 10K WD Velocity

A 500GB 10K WD VR is only $140

Those 10K drives come out about 180MB/sec and very solid

There are as you see though a lot of ways to setup your system and storage and make it work for you.

I use to prefer fastest 15K SCSI boot drive and then array of 2-3 drives for all the rest of data and media (and home) to get the most out of it.

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Answer 5

albalboy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 26, 2012 8:49 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Gant! Please Help! I followed the instructiuons you posted to move the user to HD 2 and I restarted. It started as a blank user and the problem is I cannot get back to my original as the BOOT HD is not visible???

Can you please help me get back to how it was? Ideally all I need to do is choose the Home Directory as the original HD which is the boot drive... but its no longer visible in the finder?

Thanks,

Alex

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Answer 6

albalboy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 26, 2012 8:54 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

A ha! just got it. Went back to old computer and copied and pasted root..

So what do you think I did wrong? How come in the link you send me its supposed to work yet I lost all my user info?

A

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Answer 7

albalboy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 26, 2012 8:56 PM in response to The hatter

Hatter, it seems you are right in the fact that maybe its best to keep it for the scratch of all apps and user info and just keep data on other drive, not move entire user to another drive.

Thanks,

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