Clean Install Advice

[BobJones]

So the SSD and optical drive bracket arrived and the install was simple.

I put the SSD in the main hdd bay and moved my 500GB to the optical drive. Trying to figure out how to split my 310GB of data between the SSD (240GB) and the secondary HDD.

Any proponents of the clean install able to give some advice on how to achieve a clean install without having the SSD filled to capacity?

Also, anyone have an idea if I can get Mountain Lion to install directly to the bare drive? I've done migration assistant to larger drives before, this will be the first time I move to a smaller drive.

I already run my iTunes library (130GB) on an external drive - but to be honest, I made that move so long ago, I don't even remember how I went about it. I've got about 110GB in my iPhoto library which seems like a good candidate to have on the HDD.

Any takers with advice on what the best options are available to me?

[Mystic Twilight]

I assume your SSD is 240? Install Mac OS as per usual on the SSD. Once that whole setup is finished (you can skip the migration assistant during install if you want a clean, clean install. Migration assistant is still available under Apps/Utilities/), open migration assistant from utilities and run through it as it instructs you. When you are at the point where you can pick and choose your programs and data, select the ones you want. For everything else that you can't or won't do through migration assistant you can just freely browse the drive and move any data you want.

[BobJones]

Yeah, the SSD is 240GB and the HDD is 500GB. The method you describe is pretty much what I've done on previous occasions. At those times I've always been going from a smaller HDD to a larger one, so it hasn't been a problem to migrate everything.
My problem now is that the apps and data on the current drive exceed the capacity of the SSD.

Any suggestions on how to split the data?

[Synaesthesia]

If you can reduce your data to the size of the SSD, by copying photos, and music to an external, the quickest way is superduper, it's a free app that totally clones your whole hard drive, and makes it bootable.

[vinodh]

Write Mountain Lion to a USB drive, boot from it and install. Same as Lion. Thats for a clean install.

To install Mountain Lion on the empty drive, open the installer in Lion or Mountain Lion on an existing drive and select the new drive as the destination.

Also, you can install Lion or Mountain Lion to an external USB hard drive and boot from it to have an emergency operating system drive. Despite it being USB, its extremely responsive once its booted up.

[Synaesthesia]

Superduper, you don't need a clean install generally with OS X. It will save you time. But clean install also works. Just saying, it's an amazing app.

[BobJones]

Superduper, you don't need a clean install generally with OS X. It will save you time. But clean install also works. Just saying, it's an amazing app.

I'm not sure how superduper helps in my situation? I'm trying to find if anyone has any experience in running their data off a secondary or external drive, specifically iPhoto since that is where a large chunk of my data is.

Is it simple to get the downloads folder to live on a secondary drive?

[Mystic Twilight]

Yes and no. Migration assistant will work for procedures where the source drive is larger than the target drive, some obvious common sense required of course in terms of capacity. For iPhoto, iTunes, downloads, Plex, etc, you simply open the program and change the source folder in the preferences to the other directory (such as changing where chrome should save its downloads). Another obvious common sense, make sure that directory is available, as in make sure the drive is connected and powered up before using anything that requires it. Since you are using an opti-bay, your secondary drive should be available on a permanent basis.

As for whether its simple or not, that depends on your brain.

[Synaesthesia]

I'm not sure how superduper helps in my situation? I'm trying to find if anyone has any experience in running their data off a secondary or external drive, specifically iPhoto since that is where a large chunk of my data is.

Is it simple to get the downloads folder to live on a secondary drive?

Sure you can run iPhoto on a 2nd drive, it's very simple: Copy the library to 2nd drive, the double-click on it.

The downloads folder, well you just move the downloads folder on the 2nd drive to the sidebar.

Superduper creates a clone of your current OS X partition, so all your apps, files and settings are moved over perfectly.

[BobJones]

Managed to download Lion, do the install, and ran migration assistant. I have the primary drive at about 100 GB with iTunes on an external drive and my iPhoto library on the (secondary) HDD.

The SSD makes a huge difference. It's like I have a new machine.

[lumpyza]

iv just done the migration with 128GB SSD and 500GB normal drive and its pretty darn simple, all you do is copy you user profile over to your non SSD drive, then just go into your system preferences > Users & Groups > Click the padlock and authenticate > right click on your profile > advanced options > then change your Home directory to the new location.

You will need to do a restart for it to take effect but worked like a charm for me... Just make sure the non SSD drive is NOT Encrypted, i found this out the hard way and had to do a reinstall! just as a backup measure, create a second admin user account incase anything goes wrong!

This will put everything on your new drive and keep the OS on the SSD drive!

Enjoy!

[snugglez64]

iv just done the migration with 128GB SSD and 500GB normal drive and its pretty darn simple, all you do is copy you user profile over to your non SSD drive, then just go into your system preferences > Users & Groups > Click the padlock and authenticate > right click on your profile > advanced options > then change your Home directory to the new location.

You will need to do a restart for it to take effect but worked like a charm for me... Just make sure the non SSD drive is NOT Encrypted, i found this out the hard way and had to do a reinstall! just as a backup measure, create a second admin user account incase anything goes wrong!

This will put everything on your new drive and keep the OS on the SSD drive!

Enjoy!

Do the apps install on the SSD or secondary drive?

[lumpyza]

the apps stay on the SSD (or no real point as ur OS will boot like lightning but the rest is slow) so it moves your home folder (desktop, documents, downloads, movies, music, pictures and public) and the rest stays on the SSD...

Oh, you can select when installing your apps the location you want it to install to, so the option is upto you!