I've got my entire home directory on a hard drive, whilst the rest of my installation lives on an SSD. Works perfectly (and has done for nigh on six years, including before I upgraded to an SSD). Don't follow those instructions, though - they won't work. You need to preserve permissions and so on when you copy your home folder. To do this, you use a command-line program named "ditto".
Copying the entire lot is a better idea (IMHO), as it means that you don't lose your preferences, mail messages and so on if you reformat. And it also means you don't have to keep copying folders over if you decide you want to shift them in the future: they'll all in the same place.
This is what I do (warning: try at your own risk):
1. Launch the Terminal application. At the prompt, type the following:
Code:
sudo ditto -rsrcFork -V /Users /Volumes/XXX
Replace "XXX" with the name of the hard drive to where you want to relocate your home folder. For example, if your drive is named "Barry", type:
Code:
sudo ditto -rsrcFork -V /Users /Volumes/Barry
This will move the entire "Users" folder, preserving any permissions that are set. Depending on the size of your home folder, it may take a while.
2. In System Preferences, click on 'Users and Groups' and then click on the lock to allow changes to be made. Type your log-in password at the authentication prompt.
3. Right-click on your user name in the list and click on 'Advanced Options' in the context menu.
4. In the dialogue that appears, update the text in the "Home directory" text field accordingly. For example, if your hard drive is named "Barry" and your user name is "Fred", change it to:
5. Click on OK.
6. Restart your computer.
7. Once the machine has rebooted, run Terminal and type:
Code:
sudo mv /Users /Users.old
This will rename the existing "Users" directory, and allow you to create a symbolic link to the relocated one.
Next, type:
Code:
sudo ln -s /Volumes/XXX /Users
Again, replace "XXX" with the drive name, for example:
Code:
sudo ln -s /Volumes/Fred /Users
8. Reboot again to be on the safe side.
9. You can then delete the "/Users.old" folder if you want to, using the Terminal:
Make sure there is no space between / and Users, else you'll delete everything!
If you do a search for "move home folder ditto" on Google, you should find other instructions if mine don't make sense,