

If it isn’t, you can format it with the Disk Utility application.
#Mac move file terminal mac os#
The HDD you are moving your user folder to should be formatted as GUID partition table, Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Instructionsġ) Ensure the SSD and the HDD are both mounted and ready. Its only use is to troubleshoot and restore my other user account, in case of the other HDD failing or the link between OS and external user account being broken for any reason. I therefore move my large, personal user account to an HDD, and leave one unused user account called “Spare” on the boot drive. If you move all your user accounts to another HDD and the OS loses track of them, you will not be able to log in to any accounts, and this is difficult to troubleshoot without technical expertise. One important note: it is very advisable to retain one user account on the boot drive for troubleshooting purposes. An HDD (internal or external) to move your user folder onto.
#Mac move file terminal free#
(It could be an HDD, but then what is the point of moving your User folder to another HDD to free space? You may as well house both on the larger drive…)

If any of them apply, then this could be a useful endeavour for you.

Why would you want to do that?īefore we begin, let me outline a few of the use cases for which this guide is perfect. This will free up space on the boot drive and allow large media folders like Music, Movies, and Downloads to reside on a larger capacity drive. It is possible to move your entire user account onto another drive, completely separate from your macOS boot drive. If your user folder is filling up your SSD and you want to keep that high-speed storage for the operating system and applications, then this guide is for you. For most users, by far the largest thing saved on their boot drive is the User folder, which contains their user account. If you only have a small SSD in your Mac or Hackintosh, then storage space can be at a premium.
