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Got a rocket ship MBP. My VIs are currently on T5 ssds. I want to have all VI's, plugins, and programs on the new MBP 8TB SSD drive. What is the best way to do that? Do I need to partition? Do I just put everything on the drive where the installs default? I now this is going to be a day or two project. I would appreciate the help.

waxman wrote:Got a rocket ship MBP. My VIs are currently on T5 ssds. I want to have all VI's, plugins, and programs on the new MBP 8TB SSD drive. What is the best way to do that? Do I need to partition? Do I just put everything on the drive where the installs default? I now this is going to be a day or two project. I would appreciate the help.

I'll defer to MIke on this one, although I might suggest partitioning to make file management easier. With an APFS-formatted SSD, the partitions are flexible in size, so they don't really constrain where you put files.

I have used Migration Assistant successfully in past upgrade adventures, but my last round of updates I did a complete clean install of everything.

Once you get your machine up and running, you might want to create a boot partition clone on an external drive to facilitate reinstallation if your boot drive gets corrupted at any point in time.

Have fun!

I don't know that there is a lot of advantage to partitioning any more. And even if there is some reason to split up the drive, have a look at setting up volumes rather than partitions. There are some advantages, one being that all volumes have access to most if not all of the drive space.

bayswater wrote:I don't know that there is a lot of advantage to partitioning any more. And even if there is some reason to split up the drive, have a look at setting up volumes rather than partitions. There are some advantages, one being that all volumes have access to most if not all of the drive space.

Sounds good bays... whatever Apple calls 'em now, volumes/partitions strike me as an excellent way to manage contents on today's large APFS drives. The largest SSD I own is a "mere" 1TB, so I haven't needed to split up any of my drives. But it seems a good idea when your sole storage is a single 8TB SSD.

waxman wrote:Got a rocket ship MBP. My VIs are currently on T5 ssds. I want to have all VI's, plugins, and programs on the new MBP 8TB SSD drive. What is the best way to do that? Do I need to partition? Do I just put everything on the drive where the installs default? I now this is going to be a day or two project. I would appreciate the help.

APFS volumes

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/d ... e6a110/mac

Do not partition. Because of the way that SSDs work, the only thing you accomplish is to reduce available drive space.

Folders are fine for managing VIs. There are a few ways to make them always visible for easy file management. You should probably have a master folder for your VIs and then use sub folders as you would if storing them on a separate drive. Park an alias to the master on your desktop with another alias in the side bar and a third in the dock if you like.

If you decide that you don’t wish to include your VIs in a Time Machine backup, you can always exclude that master folder under Options. However, with 12, 14 & 16TB HDDs readily available, no reason to exclude them. Including them In a TM backup allows you instant restore via APFS Snapshots in case you have the need.

If you need to run a second OS (not recommended but if you need to…) create a new APFS volume.

I’m hoping for a minor update to the iMac Pro sometime soon. If it happens, I’d jump on it to have 8TB onboard. The nano-glass on my wife’s new iMac is very nice—I’d go for that, too. Although I’m happy with the AV rendering times from the Vega 64 in my machine, it’d be interesting to see if an iMP update would include some of the new GPUs as options.

Gentlemen... Thanks for the reply’s. All good stuff. I will clean install everything. Like the TM idea of everything on separate External drive. I’ll do that also. Mike your recommending refurb store and SSDs put me on this path. The master VI folder is awesome. Ok diving in.

Thanks so much!

waxman wrote:So my question is how to go about putting all the VIs, Plugins, and programs on the internal SSD. I use about 4 TB spread over 2 T5 SSD's. …

If you are blessed with an abundance of onboard storage on your System drive, here's the easiest way to manage it:

Store your VIs in the Default location (System drive name)/Users/Shared.

Yes, those of us who store those libraries off campus onto external drives pulled them out of there or told the installers to use a custom path to somewhere else don't recall or never paid paid attenten the fact that there is a Default. This is where most installers will park them given the chance (IK, NI, MakeMusic, Garritan, Steinberg etc.). If you've never opened that Shared folder, you'll be surprised by what you find—there may even be duplicates. This is also where VI installers store Receipts along with instructions if you have them going somewhere else.

You can create an Alias to this folder easily enough and drag it to your desktop. If you want to rename the Alias, do so — it won't change the pointer.

Consolidating them there from other locations is easy, just copy and paste. Since that's the default location, leave them at the top level.

Now the fun begins. You have to reset pointers from DP or any other app that uses those VIs plus you have to let updaters know where they are. The easiest—and far most time consuming method—is to re-run the installers from scratch. Although this takes care of the situation, it can take days.

With Native Access, you can have it find the new location by navigating to the new folder—stop there (it won't be found if you open the library folder). Only the first one is hard but you'll get the hang of it and the rest will go the same way. Unfortunately, each must be done one at a time. Took me a half hour last time I did it but a download/reinstall of Komplete 12 takes me a couple days with my internet speed.

With IK, you can reset the paths in SampleTank IV. UVI, Garritan and others are pretty easy. It ain't rocket surgery.

thanks Mike... I am going to just install everything from scratch. I know it will take days but I have a fast ATT fiber optics line. My current set up will not be effected. I really like the idea of everything being in the Users/Shared folder. I think in the long run it will make things more stable. I can't thank you enough for the input... I'll follow up when I got it working...

waxman wrote:thanks Mike... I am going to just install everything from scratch. I know it will take days but I have a fast ATT fiber optics line. My current set up will not be effected. I really like the idea of everything being in the Users/Shared folder. I think in the long run it will make things more stable. I can't thank you enough for the input... I'll follow up when I got it working...

Hi speed internet and 8TB onboard?

Oh man… I can’t even get the fast copper here in the middle of the Silicon Valley, let alone optical. Still there are parts of the Valley walking distance to Apple and HP (I’m 2 miles away) with dial-up only. Were it not for DirecTV (1/5 speed of mine), they wouldn’t have anything faster. Yikes!