Moving Filesystems from HDD to HDD

ElvisJones · 10-03-2012, 07:24 AM

Hi,

I was wondering, since the OS X is in its core a UNIX based system, would it be possible to move file-systems from the primary drive to a secondary drive? I have a Mac Mini Server 2011 (Lion) and I want to replace both drives to SSDs with a planning in mind to have the primary as a 256GB drive while the 2nd drive as 512GB, and install also Windows 7 64-bit on the 256GB drive.
So in order to do that I want to see if moving FSs to different drive (internal or external) is possible and if so, how would I be configuring this?

In case this is not possible, can I move the applications installation location from its default area to the 2nd drive and change the system's configuration file/s to look at the new place and also to have every new installation deployed onto the 2nd drive location? I'm pretty sure also the appstore would need to recognize this new area in order to find the apps to advise on updates etc.

Your advises are welcomed

Thanks

agentx · 10-04-2012, 04:00 AM

Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend but Disk Utility can "restore" a drive which does the same thing but just Limited copy options. There are also command line options using asr ( man asr in terminal). The ASR might be best option as it should restore the recovery partition too.

We tend to always have Applications on main hard disk as some things do not work quite right unless all permissions are perfect. You can use symbolic links to move folders and provide a hard link. In many respects you could be better off moving your User folder to the 512GB drive rather than messing with /Applications.

What programs are you running that could fill a drive up ?
If you are running things like Logic Pro, Spectrasonics etc you can move all Apple Loops, sound banks etc to 512GB drive too.

benwiggy · 10-04-2012, 05:19 AM

I used Disk Utility to restore the contents of my 120Gb HDD onto a 256Gb SSD. Very easy no problem. It even sorted out the Restore Partition, though I'm not exactly sure how!

There are quite a lot of threads about trying to fraction off different bits of the OS onto different drives, e.g. swap, tmp, Applications, and so on.

OS X is not like other Unixes, and it is not possible to split up many of these parts without major hacks. Some people have found that sym links to a different Application folder work; some have had problems.

The User account is the one part that is designed to be somewhere else. You can right-click on the User in System Prefs > Users & Groups to get Advanced Options, which include the location of the user account(s).

agentx · 10-04-2012, 05:32 AM

@benwiggy asr (Apple Software Restore) is very clever and sorts out the recovery partition as well when doing a restore of an OS X drive to another drive.

So i personally would restore to 256GB SSD, BootCamp for W7 then move home folder to 512GB disk. Just make sure you give W7 enough for what you want to do.

acme.mail.order · 10-04-2012, 07:53 AM

OSX spectacularly doesn't care which piece of hardware the boot volume is stored on - copy it where you like per the above recommendations.

Re-read Ben's note (#3) about moving parts of OSX around. It spectacularly DOES care where certain folders are within the boot volume. Specifically:

- Core applications must be in /Applications
- Home folders must be in /Users (but the user's folders can be symlinked elsewhere without complaints)
- /System should be left completely alone.
- Hidden unix folders must remain where they are, but /usr/local can be symlinked to Brazil if you wish.

The Unix subsystem and the Finder are separate systems, not layers on one another. For example, union mounts work just fine from the command line but the Finder doesn't recognize them. Tinker with file mounts at your own risk.

10-03-2012, 07:24 AM	#1
ElvisJones Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 1	Moving Filesystems from HDD to HDD Hi, I was wondering, since the OS X is in its core a UNIX based system, would it be possible to move file-systems from the primary drive to a secondary drive? I have a Mac Mini Server 2011 (Lion) and I want to replace both drives to SSDs with a planning in mind to have the primary as a 256GB drive while the 2nd drive as 512GB, and install also Windows 7 64-bit on the 256GB drive. So in order to do that I want to see if moving FSs to different drive (internal or external) is possible and if so, how would I be configuring this? In case this is not possible, can I move the applications installation location from its default area to the 2nd drive and change the system's configuration file/s to look at the new place and also to have every new installation deployed onto the 2nd drive location? I'm pretty sure also the appstore would need to recognize this new area in order to find the apps to advise on updates etc. Your advises are welcomed Thanks

10-04-2012, 04:00 AM	#2
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,811	Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend but Disk Utility can "restore" a drive which does the same thing but just Limited copy options. There are also command line options using asr ( man asr in terminal). The ASR might be best option as it should restore the recovery partition too. We tend to always have Applications on main hard disk as some things do not work quite right unless all permissions are perfect. You can use symbolic links to move folders and provide a hard link. In many respects you could be better off moving your User folder to the 512GB drive rather than messing with /Applications. What programs are you running that could fill a drive up ? If you are running things like Logic Pro, Spectrasonics etc you can move all Apple Loops, sound banks etc to 512GB drive too. Last edited by agentx; 10-04-2012 at 04:11 AM.

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10-04-2012, 05:19 AM	#3
benwiggy League Commissioner Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 5,040	I used Disk Utility to restore the contents of my 120Gb HDD onto a 256Gb SSD. Very easy no problem. It even sorted out the Restore Partition, though I'm not exactly sure how! There are quite a lot of threads about trying to fraction off different bits of the OS onto different drives, e.g. swap, tmp, Applications, and so on. OS X is not like other Unixes, and it is not possible to split up many of these parts without major hacks. Some people have found that sym links to a different Application folder work; some have had problems. The User account is the one part that is designed to be somewhere else. You can right-click on the User in System Prefs > Users & Groups to get Advanced Options, which include the location of the user account(s).

10-04-2012, 05:32 AM	#4
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,811	@benwiggy asr (Apple Software Restore) is very clever and sorts out the recovery partition as well when doing a restore of an OS X drive to another drive. So i personally would restore to 256GB SSD, BootCamp for W7 then move home folder to 512GB disk. Just make sure you give W7 enough for what you want to do.

10-04-2012, 07:53 AM	#5
acme.mail.order League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tokyo Posts: 6,046	OSX spectacularly doesn't care which piece of hardware the boot volume is stored on - copy it where you like per the above recommendations. Re-read Ben's note (#3) about moving parts of OSX around. It spectacularly DOES care where certain folders are within the boot volume. Specifically: - Core applications must be in /Applications - Home folders must be in /Users (but the user's folders can be symlinked elsewhere without complaints) - /System should be left completely alone. - Hidden unix folders must remain where they are, but /usr/local can be symlinked to Brazil if you wish. The Unix subsystem and the Finder are separate systems, not layers on one another. For example, union mounts work just fine from the command line but the Finder doesn't recognize them. Tinker with file mounts at your own risk.