Q: Moving Files off Hard Drive

Clone and backups?

Invest in some new drives. One for TimeMachine should be 350% total capacity of all files and system, one or more for cloning your drives.

Install a small emergency Mac OS to use instead of your "work" system to use for maintenance.

A copy of Carbon Copy Cloner. Enable checksum on copying to check each file for integrity.

Assume your drive has a bad directory? check it.

Does the drive have bad sectors? maybe. How old are they? In 6 yrs should have replaced and upgraded drives every 2-3 yrs,

Multiple redundant backups are a must.

If you still have trouble, a demo copy of Data Rescue 3 and a drive to recover files to

Don't use a drive now until you have assured it is "healthy."

General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form

General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Creating a temporary account to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account

Memory limitations: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity

To identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware Test.

To resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance, use Disk Utility.

Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57603361-263/how-to-move-a-home-folder-in-o s-x/

http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/

http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html

http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner

http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html

Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy