Hard drive set up / re organise

Question

Level 1

0 points

Hard drive set up / re organise

Hi

I currently have an iMac with two internal hard drives. A SSD which I have my OS X and program files and a normal hard drive on which I have my active documents. I then have old documents and my large photo library on external hard drives.

What I now have is a NAS drive on to which I am putting all my documents and photo's etc so that I can get them anywhere. So I was looking at how to set up my two internal drives as the normal drive will now be free. My plan is to have OS X on the SSD and program files on the normal internal hard drive. I am looking at this so that with future updates of OS X or other issues I can do clean installs without having to mess around with my program files, etc.

1st, is this the right idea?

2nd, is there a way I move my program files and all their sub folders without having licensing problems?

3rd, is it possible for keychain files and such like to be stored on the normal hard drive so they too wouldn't be effected by a clean install?

4th, any other potential issues anyone knows with a set up like this?

Thank you.

Posted on Jul 23, 2015 9:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 23, 2015 9:50 AM in response to muscles1256

My plan is to have OS X on the SSD and program files on the normal internal hard drive.

Nope, applications must be on the startup drive that has the Mac OS installed.

Better to use the 2nd drive as the backup drive, you make no mention of what your backup plan is.

Reply

Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,550 points

Jul 23, 2015 9:54 AM in response to muscles1256

I have a similar setup, I have a SSD (256GB) and a 1TB HD installed in my iMac. I use the SSD as the boot drive and store critical data files there., I use the internal HD as a storage device for my photos. I use EHDs to store large libraries such as movies (close to 600 now), music, and of course my backups which are a SuperDuper Clone, Time Machine and EHDs to have redundant backup of the large libraries. To answer your questions though:

1. Yes, I think you are on the right path.

2. Not sure what you are asking, please describe more fully.

3. Keep Keychain and all other OS X system data on the SSD.

4. None really.

Reply