While here, note your User ID and Account Name. Click Choose next to Home Directory to select your user folder on the data partition. open System Preferences again, but this time select Accounts or Users & Groups.Ĭlick the lock to make changes, enter your password, then right-click your username and choose Advanced Options. Allow it to copy the files rather than move them. Open the Users folder and drag your user folder to the data partition. Once done, open two Finder windows, one pointing to your main partition, the other to your data partition. Untick iCloud Drive and choose Remove from Mac when prompted.ĭisable journaling on your data partition if you want to write to the drive in Elementary. we recommend temporarily switching off iCloud Drive if you use it: open System Preferences from the Apple menu and select iCloud. Next, you need to move your home folder to your data partition, so you’ll be able to share its contents with your Elementary installation. Be sure to replace disk0s4 with the identifier you made a note of for your partition. This disables journaling for the partition. Locate your data partition in the list and note its identifier. To write files to the drive – for example, through a shared Documents folder – open Applications > Utilities > Terminal on your Mac and type: Then partition your drive following the advice in the box (below).īy default, your data drive has journaling enabled – this means you’re restricted to read-only access in elementary. We ll tell you when it’s safe to move them back.
move files inside your home folder to a backup drive temporarily to free up the space (or – if most of your files are in iCloud – temporarily switch that off following the advice in the next section). If it’s at least 2GB more than the amount you wish to allocate to your new partitions, skip to the next step: if not. Next, check to see how much free space is on the disk. Ironically, the older your version of OS X, the better the Disk Utility tool is.
You then need to add on additional space for your Elementary installation – a bare minimum of 12GB (8GB plus 4GB swap partition), but we recommend hiving off 24GB or even more if you plan to play games in Elementary. Make a note of its current size, and ask yourself how much extra space you’ll need – say another 20GB on top of the current figure. Open Finder, right-click your user folder under Favorites in the navigation pane and choose Get Info. the better the tool is.įirst, ascertain how much disk space you want to allocate to your data partition. Partitioning can be done within OS X itself using the Disk Utility tool – ironically, the older your version of OS X. Step one is to partition it in two by hiving off enough space to create both your shared data partition and – further down the line – the partitions for Elementary. This involves partitioning your hard drive. We’ll then move your Mac user folder to the data partition. We’re also going to set up a shared data partition between the two OSes, so you have easy access to your data. We’re going to set up Elementary in a dual boot configuration alongside OS X. We’ve chosen a flavor of Linux that has been designed to appeal to Mac switchers. Once that’s done, start reading the next page to get started.
One last thing, because we re always saying this, it pays to take a full backup of your Mac using Time Machine before you begin.
In our feature, not only do we show you how to access your Mac’s home folder from Elementary, we also reveal how you can create symbolic links from your Elementary user folders so they point to your Mac folders on a shared data partition.Įverything you need to set up your Mac old or new, install Elementary and get started with it is covered in this feature. There are some caveats: it doesn’t like the Mac’s built-in FileVault encryption, so make sure that’s switched off before you begin, and you also need to disable journaling on the data partition – we step you through the quick process of doing so.
We’ve also chosen a flavor of Linux – Elementary OS – that has been designed to appeal to Mac switchers, boasting a beautifully styled desktop with familiar elements, including a dock at the bottom, menu bar and minimalist design.Įlementary’s a particularly good choice for Mac switchers because it has built-in read/ write support for the Mac’s HFS+ file system. Our dual-boot approach ensures you won’t lose access to OS X, and we ll even step you through the process of setting up a shared data partition -and moving your Mac home folder to it – so both OS X and Linux can easily access key folders.