will Users folder on a different volume work with Catalina upgrade?

[blackdir]

Hello,
I'm happy with my current mojave build but I'm getting ready for an upgrade to Catalina in near future.
Currently I have mojave installed on an SSD and I moved Users folder to a real HD (and put a symbolic link from the original position)

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 19 Mar 10 2019 Users -> /Volumes/DATA/Users

I read about the changes into Catalina with readonly system and so on... will my setup cause problems with an upgrade?
If this is the case is there anything in particular that I should do to avoid problems?

Thanks in advance

 

[blackdir]

sorry to bother... if this is a stupid question or mentioned in other threads, can anyone give a hint, to a newbie like me, pls?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

sorry to bother... if this is a stupid question or mentioned in other threads, can anyone give a hint, to a newbie like me, pls?

Hi there.

Not stupid at all. And I don't think you are a newbie. That's quite some Terminal code there!

While I can understand the desire to put data storage on a separate drive, I struggle to see the advantage of moving the User folders off an SSD.

You are right, this may confuse Catalina, however once installed it is true you can enable read/write using Terminal commands. Doing this might not be healthy in the long term, only time will tell.

A lot of user files are cached, a lot of programs use Containers, Application Support is in the User Library ... Why give yourself the headache?

 

[semaca]

Hi ,

I'm using this setup sinds ever ( 10.4 I guess ). Never a problem. And always updating the system never clean install.I'm om Catalina now and its just working...
Instead of Terminal I used System Preferences - Users and Groups then right click on your username and choose Advance Options..

 

[blackdir]

thank you @UtterDisbelief & @semaca for your feedbacks!

A lot of user files are cached, a lot of programs use Containers, Application Support is in the User Library ... Why give yourself the headache?

how do you suggest to proceed then? is there a preferred way to put back Users and leave my data on the DATA disk

 

[UtterDisbelief]

thank you @UtterDisbelief & @semaca for your feedbacks!



how do you suggest to proceed then? is there a preferred way to put back Users and leave my data on the DATA disk

Hi there.

I don't think there is a "preferred" way, it's just a matter of your choice. You may do something a particular way for your own, valid reasons

For example, in the old days when we just had HDDs, defragmentation was a real issue and it made sense to separate apps away from system-files so that the OS could be kept lean and tight. I installed all my 3rd-party Windows applications on a separate drive partition, to do this. Running a defragmenter also often helped. Modern SSDs don't work the same way, and don't need defragmenting.

However, if you have a specific reason for whatever you decide to do, no-one is going to say you can't do that. The Hackintosh world is built on compromises.

Going back to your original question about Catalina - the new "read-only" scheme Apple is implementing clearly still allows apps by other companies to be installed and a lot of those write info to themselves and to their internal structure. So it seems logical to assume either method - on-drive or off-drive - should work.

Trial and error seems the way forward.