[GUIDE] How to Move the Home Directory "/Users" in OS X Lion

If you have a small SSD or simply a larger HDD and want to keep your data separate from OS X or other OS install this guide will show you how to do such a thing, handy if you are frequently re-installing OS X!

If you have read my UserBuild, you will see that I have three partitions on my 1 TB HDD.

1. Windows 7 - 150 GB
2. Mac OS X Lion - 150 GB
3. Data Partition - 700 GB

Having two OS's works together best if you can move all of the below data, to it's own partition. This means that you can access the exact same data from both OS's - very handy if the tools you need to edit something can only be found in Windows or visa-versa and you need to swap between the two frequently. Also it prevents duplicate data and more importantly loss of data

• Desktop
• Documents
• Downloads
• Movies
• Music
• Pictures
• Applications

You will notice the above list is exactly what is found in the /Users folder. So how do we change the location of the Home directory in OS X?

1. Start off by copying the /Users folder with all the contents inside to the new destination you want to have it, i.e. on the data partition. This may take a while to copy across depending on the amount of information stored.

2. Navigate to /System Preferences/Users & Groups


3. Ensure the padlock in the bottom left corner is unlocked so we can make changes. Also you need to be the "Administer for this computer". Now we can right click or CTRL + click, your admin profile in the list of current users and select Advanced Options...


4. You should be presented with a screen like so, the line we are after is 'Home Directory'. It should currently say something like /Users/CraigMetcalfe or /Volumes/Lion/Users/CraigMetcalfe. If you know the exact address of the new folder you can type it in here. If not, press ''Choose".


5. Now it is time to navigate to the Users folder you copied across to your data partition earlier. When you have found it select open. Note, I have already done this process so the folder is already displayed as the Home Icon.


6. You should now be able to access your data partition from the side panel in Finder! Before deleting the Users folder located on your startup drive /Users ensure you can access the folder.

If the finder sidebar is showing the link to the wrong directory, try adding in the new folders from the data partition.

Bookmarked!

Thanks man! If bits need changing or can be improved - just let me know

I did something similar... but in a slightly different way... if you interested have a look here (it's always good sharing ideas i think)

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=61232

(section #6)

This can be done on any disk (raid1 is not required). In this way you can have all users mapped on the new drive

Hey thanks for posting! I've just read through your guide, very comprehensive I like it :thumb up:
When I went to the genius bar to find out how to do my guide, I was told I had to enable the super admin mabob also. Turns out as long as you have administrive privileges it works all the same, but not sure for terminal only

No worries

The difference between your procedure and mine is that you're basically moving the home directory of one single user. All the other users (if there are other users) will get the home in the original place.

Mounting the filesystem of the second drive in /Users mountpoint will make "invisible" this to the system.

It's a "trick" based on my Linux background

Awesome guide! Well written and easy to follow! Thanks!

I'm amazed by OSX. Been a user for several years now, and I didn't know you can do this. -- instead I just keep upgrading my main MacintoshHD over the past 6-7 yrs.
Currently 700GB used out of 1TB.

This will come in handy when I switch to an SSD + HD setup.

I was just sure there must be a way to do it in OS X as I can do it in Windows! Turns out it's just a little bit better hidden so don't blame yourself haha

Craigrox said:

I was just sure there must be a way to do it in OS X as I can do it in Windows! Turns out it's just a little bit better hidden so don't blame yourself haha

Click to expand...

Actually the Windows method doesn't work for me - I edit the registry but it doesn't take effect. Anyways, the two-month period has been up for a while and I'm just too lazy to reinstall.

Seems like when I screw up OS X I can revert but the same doesn't apply to Windows. I'm currently having an annoying font rendering issue in my browsers that I can't seem to fix.