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I just finished a tough weekend of getting my Mac back. For whatever reason, it would no longer boot. I am running 10.6.8 on a 2010 MacPro.

I installed a new copy of the OS, and migrated, then updated the OS, and it froze. Back to the install disks, loaded, updated OS first via software update, then migrated and I'm back in action.

The migration took hours as the drive had a lot of data including large iTunes files, etc. 3TB drive is my main drive.

Is there a better strategy for one's OS drive and data files that would make a re-build less time consuming? e.g. Use the OS drive, and keep it smaller, say 1TB, just for the OS and apps, and then a second drive for data only?

I'm grateful Time Machine worked so well, just looking for a faster way to get going next time.

(Note - I have too many apps needing Rosetta to jump to 10.10 full time. Not ready to drop $hundreds on updated software.)

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  • Rather than installing then restoring, did you try restoring directly from the Time Machine backup? This is an option in the Snow Leopard installer and would cut out the 1 hour+ of install time.
    – douggro
    Commented Dec 1, 2014 at 5:12
  • @douggro - i didn't realize that was an option. I'll look for it next time. thx
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Dec 1, 2014 at 10:50
  • The Mac froze again last night. I recovered via the Time Machine backup as you suggested. My concern now is I still have no idea what's causing the Mac to freeze into a state where it can no longer boot from the OS drive. My next step is to load up the new large drives, and get the OS drive to be OS and apps only, using data off the new drives. Then reinstall fresh OS to a much smaller, probably SDD drive.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 12:57

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If you have a 3tb drive would you not partition it? 1tb would be HUGE for OS and apps, I can't imagine the number of apps you'd need to fill that much space. Do remember though, that you'd still need to backup your data (SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are sometimes more useful for data backup). As you have a MacPro then dropping a new, smaller boot drive in should be very simple and then you could use your 3tb drive just for data (iTunes etc). You might also think of a smallish ssd as a main boot drive (even 128gb is probably fine for all the OS and Apps you'd throw at it). This would boot very fast and apps also load a lot faster.

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    Yes, the Application folder is 46GB. I was thinking that very thing, a 256K SSD, and a drive for TM. Then another 2 drives for data and its backup. Thx.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Nov 30, 2014 at 23:46

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