higgsy Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Well hello there I have been watching the forums closely and thought I should post. I have successfully managed to get my OSX86 installation going. I am dual booting with Windows XP. I currently have: 1. 80 GIG HDD which dual boots windows XP and MAC (10GB partition for MAC install) - IDE 2. 300GB SATA 2 HDD NTFS which contains data only. My question is, am I able to have my MAC home directory stored or link to the 300GB data drive? If not am I going to be able to store and write data to the sata drive formatted as NTFS. Currently I can see the drive in OSX and read files..... My main concern is that if I want to re-install OSX in future, e.g. upgrade versions I would like to be able to restore all my OSX data (settings, bookmarks etc) I dont want to start again each time. If anyone would be able to share their current process that would be helpful. Thanks Tim By the way, I find OSX great, I have been a windows user for too long and OSX is awesome Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18798-location-of-home-directory/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouch Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Short anwer no. Mac's can't write to NTFS volumes. However if you re-install mac os x use the archive and install custom option during setup which preserves your old home directories and applications and copies it to the new installation. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18798-location-of-home-directory/#findComment-123064 Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgsy Posted June 2, 2006 Author Share Posted June 2, 2006 Ok, Do the majority of users here format with FAT 32? Using the method suggested above will it be safe to re-install a different ISO directly over the top of this one? (So long as I have "archive and install" checked....) Regards Tim Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18798-location-of-home-directory/#findComment-123601 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouch Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 Can't speak for the majority of users - personally i like to keep windows and mac os separate so i use ntfs. As for it being 'safe' - in theory yes - i've used it once without any problems. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18798-location-of-home-directory/#findComment-123651 Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonicbuddha Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 Although the sort answer is no, the long answer is yes. I see your reasoning. Even though with a new install there is the possiblity of archiving and saving your old install, often there is a benefit to a completely clean install, particularly with all the hacks that are put into some of these installations. First of all, I recommend creating a seperate account, one you don't use normally, with admin privs, just in case you really flummox it all up and have no other way of getting into your hackintosh. This is ALWAYS a good idea. You have to create a small partition on the 300G drive for the home directory. This partition will end up being HFS+, unreadable by your Windoze partition. You don't want to go with FAT32 since it doesn't support user permissions, which, of course, is what a home directory is all about. I'm assuming that you already have data on the 300G drive. Using partition magic or its equivalent, reduce the size of your NTFS partition leaving you the space that you want to use for your home directory. Reboot into OSX, log in as your "admin user", created above, and format the new partition using Disk Utility. I'd recommend calling this new volume "Home". Once you've formatted the partition and mounted it, you can start copying your current home directory to the new partition. Personally, I don't recommend doing this through the finder. There are "hidden" files in your home directory that are required for setting up your environment that you will need that might be missed by the finder or a clumsy copy. So, launch Terminal and type: rsync -av /Users/<your user name> /Volumes/Home/ You should see a rush of file names go by as they are copied to your new Home volume. Once you are certain the copy is done, launch NetInfo, in your Applications/Utilities folder. Click on users and find your username. One of the properties is your home directory. Change the path to match the location of your new home directory- it should be /Volumes/Home/<your user name>. Done. See? Long answer. Is it still worth doing? Of course, you can just do what I and others who want to save data between reinstalls do who are ok with local logins: create archives or backups to a seperate drive or network volume, wipe, reinstall. This might be simpler. In your case, do step one and two and stop. Call you new volume "Data" or whatever you want. Store your app installers, kexts, patches, documents there. I must have been bored this morning.... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18798-location-of-home-directory/#findComment-123752 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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