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iMac with 2 hard drives

I recently bought a second hand iMac for my Mrs that came with 2 hard drives installed.

1. Macintosh HD = 251GB flash storage

2. FireCuda 1TB SSHD


I’ve never used a Mac with 2 drives before.


I want to be able to store all files (photos, music, doc etc) on the 1TB, and run the OS from the flash drive.

I want to use Time Machine to back up the 1TB onto a WD Passport drive.


At the moment, the 1TB drive has one folder for “My Music”. 

This was already configured when I received the Mac.


Can anyone please advise on how to set things up so that photos, music, docs etc are confined to the 1TB drive?


The Mac is mid 2010 running High Sierra.


Thanks

Dave

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Sep 19, 2021 7:09 AM

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Posted on Sep 19, 2021 8:13 AM

Hello, lilleshall.


This new (to you) iMac is going to be a little bit of a challenge to properly setup and use as far as file management goes.


Your wife's user account will remain on the startup drive "Macintosh HD". But you want her music, photos and documents to live on FC (FireCuda). Okay. You'll have to tell iPhotos and iTunes apps to locate their libraries on FC. Easy enough, but a little bit of a process.


You'll also have to create a folder on FC for her docs etc and she'll have to remember to use that when she creates and saves stuff.


IMHO, it would be easiest to clone the current startup drive to the FireCuda and use that as the main drive. I think the Macintosh HD boot drive, being flash storage, is faster than the FC, but the data management will be much easier if the OS and user files are on the same drive.


Optionally, since the iTunes and iPhoto libraries are often the biggest consumers of storage space, just locate those on FC and leave the OS and the rest of her files on Macintosh HD.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 19, 2021 8:13 AM in response to lilleshall

Hello, lilleshall.


This new (to you) iMac is going to be a little bit of a challenge to properly setup and use as far as file management goes.


Your wife's user account will remain on the startup drive "Macintosh HD". But you want her music, photos and documents to live on FC (FireCuda). Okay. You'll have to tell iPhotos and iTunes apps to locate their libraries on FC. Easy enough, but a little bit of a process.


You'll also have to create a folder on FC for her docs etc and she'll have to remember to use that when she creates and saves stuff.


IMHO, it would be easiest to clone the current startup drive to the FireCuda and use that as the main drive. I think the Macintosh HD boot drive, being flash storage, is faster than the FC, but the data management will be much easier if the OS and user files are on the same drive.


Optionally, since the iTunes and iPhoto libraries are often the biggest consumers of storage space, just locate those on FC and leave the OS and the rest of her files on Macintosh HD.

Sep 19, 2021 8:59 AM in response to lilleshall

The easiest, dead simple way to clone the startup drive to the FC drive is to use CarbonCopyCloner from > bombich.com. The trial version is all you need for this one task. Since you are running High Sierra, you need to download the older CCC5, not the newest version 6.


CCC will copy the data and the macOS making the clone bootable. After the task is complete, you will also have the option to install the recovery partition to the new startup drive. You should do that as it would be useful in case of future trouble. The CCC website has easy to find help if you have questions about the software or process.


Sep 19, 2021 9:23 AM in response to lilleshall

Yes, disabling the current startup drive would simplify things, but there is no easy way to do that permanently. The drive would have to be removed.


Once you have FC setup as the startup drive, you can simply ignore the smaller drive. I admit it seems a waste of an apparently perfectly good drive, but for casual users there's no need to complicate things by splitting the locations of user files. And I suspect the 1TB capacity of FC will be more than enough for your wife for some time, unless she's a power user of some sort.



Sep 19, 2021 1:26 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thank you. I'm going to us the FC as the main hard drive and ignore or possibly remove the flash drive.


I've already downloaded CCC5 trail, and I'm going to clone it now.


From there, what is the best way to use the cloned FC as my start up drive, and make sure that the Mac boots from that drive and stores to that drive instead of the flash?


Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for your help!


Sep 19, 2021 2:10 PM in response to lilleshall

When the cloning is complete, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk. Unlock the panel and then select FC as the startup disk and close the panel. The next time you restart your Mac it will launch from the new startup selection.


As a user tip, I'd also advise you to rename the drives. Rename the small drive first, something like "iMac SSD", and then for the sake of clarity and standards, change the name of FC to "Macintosh HD".

iMac with 2 hard drives

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