[Editor's note: There's a previously published tip on moving the Users' folder - but I felt this alternate method merited posting on its own. Check both tips if you're interested in moving your Users directory to a new drive or partition.]
I have three partitions on my dual G4. One for OS 9.1, one for OS X, and one I wanted to use as some file repository. However, OS X does not allow guest-sharing of files outside of the Public folder. So, I decided to try and have MacOS X recognize the other partition as the Users directory. This is what I did:
- su-ed to root
- gnutar cf users.tar Users/
- mv users.tar /Volumes/TargetDisk/
- cd /Volumes/TargetDisk/
- gnutar xf users.tar
- rename original Users folder to Users-old
- cd /
- ln -s /Volumes/TargetDisk/Users Users
Now a symbolic link exists where the original Users folders resided. Then, you have to log out and log back in again. After re-logging, you should see that the system recognizes the Users folder on the other partition as the one with your home directory.
The only problem I had, was that some aliases may not work anymore. For example, I have an alias to the Favorites.html in OS9.1 in my Explorer preferences. That one, I had to reestablish. Apart from this, it works smoothly.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20010619195610633