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Ask TUAW: How do I setup a Mac with both an SSD and a regular hard drive?
Reader Mark R. Friedman wrote in to ask about setting up a Mac Pro with an SSD in the second optical drive, keeping the /Users folder on another drive; he wasn't sure how to do it. Macworld just discussed one method, using the built-in home folder path controls in System Preferences. The magic begins with right-clicking or Control-clicking the user name in the Users preference pane, which allows you to access the Advanced Options that control where the home folder lives on your drive. This was the same approach my friend Jon Deal detailed in an article explaining how to Move Your Home Folder Off Your SSD Boot Drive in OS X way back in November 2009 (because he's a huuuuuge nerd. I kid because I love, Jon) but his information is still relevant. If you want to move your entire /Users/ folder to another drive, or to a different partition on the same physical drive, Jon's instructions will work fine. There are, of course, other ways to do it. Matt Legend Gemmell rightly points out that while moving the entire /Users/ folder is straightforward, it may not be your best option. He recommends only moving some specific folders to the non-SSD drive, specifically Downloads, Movies, and Pictures (for some users, Music may also fit in that category). Those folders tend to be the largest ones, and can easily be symbolically linked from your non-SSD drive. (A symlink is the UNIX equivalent of an OS X alias or a Windows file shortcut, but in some edge cases and for some applications it behaves more predictably than an alias would.) Having used a MacBook Air for about a year now, I can't stand to use a non-SSD drive anymore. Even accessing files on an HDD is slow enough that I want to avoid it whenever possible. Another option for setting up your new SSD-based Mac Mark asked for instructions for setting this up on a Mac Pro, which has plenty of drive bays for additional hardware. Laptop users (who ordinarily would not have space for two fixed drives) may be considering replacing the SuperDrive with an SSD. The user folder process is the same for any of them. Step 0: I'm borrowing this from Jon, but before you do anything else make sure you have a working backup of all of your stuff. Check to make sure. Disconnect any drives which don't need to be connected during the install to reduce the chance of accidentally installing it on the wrong drive. Step 1: Install Mac OS X directly on your SSD (if it isn't already). With Lion this will mean downloading the Lion Installer from the Mac App Store and following the steps to install it on your SSD. Step 2: Don't migrate your apps and settings. If you're switching to a completely new drive, now is a good time to make a clean break from cruft you don't really need: apps you installed but never used, leftover project files from 2007 that you'll never look at again, that folder of animated GIFs from Geocities, etc. Start with a clean installation of OS X. Only install apps as you need them. Step 3: Use your non-SSD as a reference drive. It will appear as /Volumes/{drive name} and you can access your old files as you find you need them. For the purposes of this article, let's assume that your old drive is /Volumes/OldDrive. You will see a bunch of folders in there, including /Users/ which is where your old home account is located, including your old iTunes and iPhoto libraries, if you use them. Matt Gemmell explained how he linked some folders to their usual spots (if you want to do that and are not comfortable with using Terminal.app, I recommend SymbolicLinker which will make it easier to manage.) One potential tricky part is that OS X does not want you to delete some "default" folders, so it makes it difficult to do so. You can either fight it, or you can just leave the system folders where they are and just tell various apps to look elsewhere for their data. For example, if you start iPhoto or iTunes while holding down the Option/Alt key, it will ask you where to find their library. If your libraries have gotten out of hand, this is a good time to start over. It is particularly easy in iTunes to put the media (songs, videos, podcasts, etc) on an external drive, but keep the actual library files on your SSD. Having the library files on the SSD will makes iTunes faster than you've ever seen it before (iTunes is still one of my least favorite apps, but at least it's faster). Most Mac web browsers will default to saving files to ~/Downloads/ but you can change that in preferences to /Volumes/OldDrive/Downloads or anywhere else on the non-SSD drive. The same goes for movie/video files. They don't have to be in ~/Movies, that's just where OS X defaults to putting them. Which trade-offs do you prefer? Now you have are three options for using an SSD plus HDD: Move Your Home Folder Off Your SSD Boot Drive in OS X as Jon Deal suggested. Keep everything on your SSD except for a few linked folders as Matt Gemmell suggested. Use the SSD and change applications to point to your HDD as I have suggested by changing preferences where possible. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Jon's is the easiest, but you lose some of the advantages of the SSD for applications which store library/cache files in your $HOME. This is probably the best solution if you have a small SSD. Matt's method has you tinkering around with folders Apple really doesn't want you messing with, but it will work with all applications, even ones which don't let you define where their data is kept. If you want to dive in, set everything up, but then not have to worry about changing much after the initial setup, Matt's ideas may work for you. If you have specific applications that you use which cannot change where their files are stored, this is your best option. My suggestion tries to maximize the SSD benefits for those willing to change some app settings. It works especially well if you've been lugging around a bunch of files that you don't really use that often and are ready for a clean start. I've done this with a 250 GB SSD, and currently have 168 GB free. My large downloaded files, movies, music, and pictures are all on external drives. I use DiskAlarm (US$2, Mac App Store) to keep an eye on available space on the SSD. When it starts to get low, I go through ~/Downloads and ~/Desktop delete files I no longer want or need, or move them to external storage if I no longer need them. Of course, I am also using a MacBook Air, which means that I don't have the option of a second internal hard drive. If you do, you may want to do things differently.
Ask TUAW: Shopping for new Macs, iPhone home screens, home folder on external disk, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about whether to buy a 27" iMac or a MacBook Pro, increasing the number of iPhone home screens, moving your home folder to an external disk, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Mac 101: Protect your data with FileVault
If you use a notebook Mac, then the risks are higher for getting your computer stolen. However, Apple has included a tool to protect your entire home folder (documents, pictures, movies, etc.) right within OS X. FileVault protects your computer against stolen data by encrypting/decrypting your home folder each time you login and logout. To use FileVault, you must first set a Master Password. This password is a fail-safe if you forget your user login info. However, if you lose both your user login info and the master password, you will not be able to decrypt your home folder and your data (if not backed up in unencrypted form) will be lost forever. To set the master password, navigate to System Preferences > Security > FileVault > Set Master Password. Once you have the master password set, you will be able to turn on FileVault and begin protecting your data. Click the "Turn on FileVault" button in the FileVault section of the Security preference pane. You will be asked for your master password, and a disclaimer will be displayed explaining the process. Please note that you will not be able to login to your Mac via SMB (Windows file sharing) after turning on FileVault. FileVault provides a high level of data security, but some applications have a history of incompatibility with the feature; it's also very important that you have a secure and solid backup strategy if you choose to use FileVault. For best results with Time Machine, make sure that your FV home folder is upgraded to the Leopard image format (if you were using FV under Tiger, you may have to turn it off and back on to convert your home folder) and log out of your account periodically to allow backups to run.
Mac 101: How to go Home
More Mac 101, the TUAW answer to the unasked questions of novice Mac users. You've certainly seen the little house in your windows, but do you know who lives there? You do -- at least, your stuff does, and if Carlin said it that's enough for me.Unlike Mac OS 9, which pretty much let you put your files and programs wherever you wanted as long as you left System and Finder inside the System Folder, Mac OS X has certain expectations regarding paths, the hierarchy of folders leading to a particular spot on your startup disk. The distinction between your personal files -- your documents, music, email, bookmarks, preferences & settings -- and everything else that helps your computer run can be stated simply: if it's in your Home folder, it's "your stuff," and if it's outside your Home folder, it's universal to the computer (or it belongs to your spouse/kids/etc.).To get to your Home folder quickly, you can click the house icon in the sidebar of any Finder window; choose "Home" from the Go menu in the Finder, or hit Cmd-Shift-H. Once there you'll notice a few folders, including Documents, Desktop and Library. You may think "I don't like books. Why do I need a whole folder for a Library?" and be tempted to tuck it away in a "Misc" or "Stuff To Throw Out" folder. Don't be surprised, if you do, that you can no longer log into your computer -- Library has to stay exactly where it is, since it contains all your preferences and application settings. Likewise, there are some folders in Documents that have to stay put, particularly (if you use Microsoft Office) the Microsoft User Data folder.Other than the preconfigured folders, your Home folder is pretty much yours to manage as you choose; you aren't limited to storing documents in Documents. Need a folder for Projects? Go ahead and make one (Cmd-Shift-N for a new folder), just don't get funky with the original items unless you know what you're doing.One more tip on home folders: sometimes you'll see the notation "~/Desktop" or something similar in documentation for software, telling you where files will be installed. That "~" (it's called a tilde) is UNIX shorthand for the active user's home folder -- it expands to "/Users/myname/" when used in the Terminal, and whenever you see it you should assume it's talking about the place for your stuff.
TUAW Tip: Put your apps wherever you want
When you download a new application, its installation process typically tells you to either drag it into your Mac's Applications folder, or it has a full-blown installer that takes care of this process for you. But who says you have to keep all your apps in the Applications folder? Many applications, from Firefox to Quicksilver and even FCP and Photoshop, can generally be run from nearly any folder on your Mac, allowing you to organize your applications any way you see fit.Why would this matter, you ask? Well, if you're anything like me, you've built up a healthy collection of 3rd party apps that you use on a regular basis. If you want an easy way to either backup all these apps or quickly bring them all over to another Mac, you can simply keep them in a folder in your Home folder. This way, you can still use them and call them with tools like Quicksilver, OS X can still find them, and you can easily keep track of just your apps that matter most. This also saves a lot of time if you ever decide to do some serious "spring cleaning" and wipe your entire Mac.Now, one word of caution with this tip: as a general rule, exercise care when moving around any of the big apps, as well as the apps that used a full-blown installer. I had no troubles moving the entire Photoshop CS2 folder and Final Cut Pro.app to my desktop and running them, but I have no idea if a move like that could affect the functionality of things like plugins or other addons. My personal rule of thumb (which hasn't failed me yet) is that if an app is a simple drag and drop install, it doesn't necessarily have to live in the main Applications folder. If you've been using a similar trick like this, TUAW readers, feel free to discuss your ideas in the comments.
