Want to move "Home Folder" from SSD to internal HD

Question

Level 2

445 points

Want to move "Home Folder" from SSD to internal HD

I have a dual drive on my 2011 iMac. A SSD/250GB and a HD/2TB.

My SSD is almost filled and I want to move my Home Folder from the SSD to HD.

I have read how to do it, but not sure if it's the best way. Also, I'm afraid if I move the Home Folder and I buy a new iMac next year, will the automatic transfer of content from my current iMac get messed up?

1. Whats the best way to move the Home Folder?

2. Will it mess up a transfer of content to a new iMac?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 250GB SSD & 2TBHD

Posted on Aug 24, 2016 11:09 AM

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Answer 1

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

Aug 24, 2016 11:15 AM in response to Tom Charvat

it is advised you keep the accounts located where they are but your data for photo, music and other files that are taking up space can be moved to the other drive by pointing the applications to the new location from their respective preferences options.

In the screen shot below I have booted to El Capitan, but my music point back to my (far larger) Yosemite drive thus freeing up dozens of GB of music and allowing my home folder to remain on my boot drive where it belongs.

These folders do not need to track back to a home or account folder, they could be kept anywhere.

It is highly advised you backup with TimeMachine before you move files and redirect applications to their new locations in the event you loose track of something or loose files.

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Answer 2

Tom Charvat Author

Level 2

445 points

Aug 24, 2016 11:22 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Thank you, but I already have done what you recommended from the beginning of time. My Home Library folder has grown to 153 GB's and is the culprit. On the Daisy Disk App, it tells me that in the Home Library, 80GB's are Application Support, 35GB's are Containers... etc

I don't know if there is anything I can reduce further. I'm wondering if my thumbnails on my large photo collection could be taking up the SSD space? The photo's, music are already on the HD?

Tom

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Answer 3

MichelPM

Level 10

81,559 points

Aug 24, 2016 12:01 PM in response to Tom Charvat

What is in your Home folder, that you have stored there, yourself, that is taking up valuable storage space on the SSD?

Maybe you need to whittle this content down!

If you have applications that you no longer use or haven't used in a long time, if they are apps that you can delete simply by dragging the app to trash and emptying the trash.

Other apps that have an uninstaller app, you need to use the uninstaller app to uninstall that app from your system

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Answer 4

Tom Charvat Author

Level 2

445 points

Aug 24, 2016 12:12 PM in response to MichelPM

Michel, I have whittled down the App's and moved any games to the HD also.

Thanks for the idea.

I'm still wanting someone to tell be about the negative effect of moving the Home Folder to

the INTERNAL HD off the SSD. I'm pretty sure I know how to do it, but will that cause a future issue if I migrate to a new iMac in the future.

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Answer 5

cdhw

Level 4

3,594 points

Aug 24, 2016 4:56 PM in response to Tom Charvat

If you have reliable backups and an adventurous spirit, you might want to consider combining the SSD and HD into a 'Fusion Drive'. Google for instructions, but I've used these with success:

http://create.pro/blog/how-to-create-a-fusion-drive-in-os-x-from-a-hdd-ssd-diy-s shd-for-mac/

Be careful to replace the 'typographers' quotation marks "’" in the blog with straightforward ascii ones "'".

The advantage of a Fusion drive is that it looks like a standard volume but behind the scenes OS X is moving files around (based largely on how frequently they are accessed AFAICT) to improve performance.

C.

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