How can I access my user folder on a second boot partition?

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Level 1

4 points

How can I access my user folder on a second boot partition?

Hi there. Thank you for reading this. I am at a bit of a loss although I have searched several forums to find someone having the same problem:

I use my Macbook Pro in the office and at home. To keep things strictly apart and have to separate Time Machine backup procedures, I have divided my harddrive into two boot partitions ('office' and 'private') and installed Mountain Lion on both of them. Now occasionally when I am at the office I would like to access my user folder on 'private' to retrieve a file from the documents folder there (e.g. a paper I gave in my free time but would like to send to a colleague). Now although I see the 'private' volume, and the other user folder and the Documents folder in it with a red 'No Access' badge, even when I set read/write permissions via Command-I > Permissions for my current account, I do not see any files in it apart from Microsoft User Data. I have tried enabling the root user but with the sam result.

Do I really have to shut down the computer and boot with the 'private' boot volume in order to access the files on 'private'>user?

Looking forward to your suggestions! Thank you in advance!

Christian

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 7, 2013 6:37 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 7, 2013 7:02 AM in response to chkoelzer

When booted to one partition, select the volume of the other partition and press Command-I to get information on it. Then check the box that says "Ignore ownership on this volume" (you may have to first click the lock to authenticate), and see if that allows you access to the volume.

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Answer 2

ds store

Level 7

30,695 points

Jun 7, 2013 7:29 AM in response to chkoelzer

To solve this issue permanently, is to first disconnect both TimeMachine drives.

Boot into one partition and consider it history, make a note of everything, apps, export bookmarks, serial keys and files to a regular external drive. (non TimeMachine)

If on a hard drive, consider the first partition for performance, the second one is going to be slower. (SSD no need)

Next what you do is boot into the first partition and use Disk Utility to erase (with zero option if a hard drive) the other partition. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the first partition to the second. (should be about equal sizes or tweak before cloning.)

Repair permissions on both partitions in Disk Utility.

Next boot into the second partition and install/uninstall apps and files. etc and set it backup up the way you had it.

Once your sure, then update TimeMachine for each one.

Now you will be able to easily access the other bootable partition as long as your logged into the same account name on the first partition., in other words you can access the same named account on both partitions and trade files without rebooting.

Because it's a clone, you have the same access privileges to the files on the other partition.

If your a power user, your going to find bootable clones are a much superior option than TimeMachine

Most commonly used backup methods

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Answer 3

Oct 23, 2013 8:24 PM in response to Topher Kessler

I'm running OS X 10.7.5 and this helped me, I will have to unlock some of the documents if say I would like to edit them or anything, but I do have access to all my stuff! Tyvm🙂

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