solarbike
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: time machine on system and user drive

Hello all,

 

I have a mid 2011 iMac with came with a stock 1 TB HDD, no SSD.  I am currently running Yosemite.  I am going to add in a new 500GB SSD which will host all the system file, and I will point the user folder to the old HDD using the "advance options" in "users & groups" in the system preference.

 

My question is regarding to time machine.  If I set it up to backup the entire system, will it be smart enough to follow the path to the HDD and backup the user folder as well?  Do I have to setup the time machine separately, one for the SSD and the other for HDD?  Suppose I have a catastrophic failure and need to restore the entire system from time machine, would time machine be smart enough to separate out the user and system folder and restore them back to the proper locations?  I ask this because my SSD is not large enough the store both the system AND user folder.

 

thanks,

Posted on Jan 4, 2016 8:34 PM

Close
solarbike

Q: time machine on system and user drive

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jan 4, 2016 8:41 PM in response to solarbike
    Level 10 (270,423 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 4, 2016 8:41 PM in response to solarbike

    Time Machine will do fine and will backup each drive in a separate folder on the backup drive. Please use an external drive for backup, not the system drives in your planned setup. Backups should always be kept on their own dedicated and separate HDD. You will be backing up potentially 1.5 TBs, so your backup drive should have a capacity of at least 3-4 TBs.

     

    How to use an SSD with your HDD


     

     

    If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do.

     

     

     

    After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume.

     

     

     

    Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu. You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed. When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD.

     

     

     

    Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently.

     

     

     

    Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it.

  • by solarbike,

    solarbike solarbike Jan 4, 2016 9:06 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2016 9:06 PM in response to Kappy

    Thanks Kappy for answering my first half of the questions.

     

    Right now my system and user folder only occupy 350GB.  I am planing to repartition my HDD to match the size of my new SSD and clone them using disk utility.  Afterwards I'll relink my home folder as you suggested.  After testing it thoroughly, then I'll remove the duplicate home folder in my SSD.  This way I hope to avoid reinstalling all the softwares.

     

    As regard to time machine backing up both the HDD and SSD separately in different folders.  May I assume during system restore it will also know which folder should be restored to which drive?