how to move OS from one drive to another?

Here is what I did:

1. Make sure the MAC is up to date in terms of OSX and applications.
2. Backup all my data online (Idrive) and locally using time machine.
3. Install SSD in MAC Mini, keeping the HD installed as well. There are instructions online in a few places.
4. Use Disk Utility to erase and format SSD (Journaled).
5. Reboot MAC requesting recovery by holding Command-r.
6. Install OSX on the new SSD. Set up a single admin user with same name and password as before. Use same Apple account for Icloud.
7. Reboot the MAC, update the OS to the latest version so it aligns with OS on old hard disk.
8. Reboot MAC, run migration assistant
   1. Select old hard disk with OSX as the source to migrate from, and the new SSD as the target to migrate to.
   2. Ask migration assistant to migrate applications and settings, NOT user data.
   3. This took a couple of tries but it worked.
9. Reboot MAC, then use settings, users and groups etc. as directed by BobHarris (Apr 14, 1127am) to set the user data to the directory on the old hard disk.
10. I ended up with applications and OS on the SSD and user data on the old hard disk (plus an unused copy of the OS).
11. Note that you will have to re-enter your key for Microsoft Office. You may have to update settings in some programs like online backups to point at your hard disk for user data.

Of course. To do it, you have to use Disk Utility:

1. Install the SSD in your Mac mini.
2. Turn on your Mac mini and hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up to start up in OS X Recovery, and open Disk Utility.
3. Choose your SSD in the Disk Utility's sidebar, and format it in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a GUID partition map > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
4. Use the Restore option to clone your HDD to your SSD > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU7.html
5. Go to  > Startup Disk, choose the OS X partition in your SSD, and restart your Mac.

I think perhaps the best course of action might be to first put the SSD into an external enclosure and use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to copy all the contents of the internal drive to the SSD, then put the SSD into the Macmini.

Michael Allbritton wrote:

I think perhaps the best course of action might be to first put the SSD into an external enclosure and use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to copy all the contents of the internal drive to the SSD, then put the SSD into the Macmini.

That's also an option, but Disk Utility does the same as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper :-).

To do what you want you need to install OS X in the new drive instead of transferring OS X from your existing disk. It is impossible to transfer only OS X without any file.

After installing the new drive, follow the same steps in my first comment to format it, and then, install OS X. By doing this, you will not have to modify the startup disk manually, because your Mac will set your new drive as the startup disk.

mende1 wrote:

That's also an option, but Disk Utility does the same as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper :-).

Indeed it does. You and I posted about the same time.

Along the lines of what mende1 said, install a new copy of the OS on the SSD, then you can use Applications -> Utilities -> Migration Assistant to transfer only JUST applications, or JUST network settings, while leaving user accounts and other files on the current disk.

If you do not want to that that route, you could use Carbon Copy Cloner, and modify the list of files to copy over to exclude the files you do not want on the SSD. You can disable entire directory trees (such as /Users/username) with a single click.

Since you now have split the files that Mac OS X expects on the same disk, you will need to do things to allow Mac OS X to find your files.

You could use Unix Symbolic Links to point from the SSD to the 500GB HDD, or you can if it is just user accounts, you can modify your System Preferences -> Users & Groups to point each user account to the 500GB HDD. Unlock the padlock in the lower left, then Control-Click on each User account and select Advance, and change the directory where the user account exists to /Volumes/500GB_HDD_name/Users/username. Be careful and do not change other fields in the advanced display.