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Home-on-ipod?
- Thread starter Logik
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Logik said:
You could always just drag your home folder to your iPod, or am I missing something big here?
all you have to do is drag your home to your ipod, then go into NetInfo and tell it ware to look for your new home.
someone else will probably give a more detailed responce
someone else will probably give a more detailed responce
I think there's a bunch of other files created for a new user, as per OS X's Unix underpinnings, so while you could copy your home folder to an iPod, I don't think that it would necessarily function the same. For example, clicking on the Home icon in a Finder window would still take you to your home folder on that computer, not on the iPod. Probably there's a bunch of other stuff that would be affected too, like AddressBook not knowing which entry is you, Safari not grabbing your bookmarks from the iPod without specific manual steps, etc.
Right now, you can simulate this by symlinking your home folder to your iPod, but I don't recommend doing this since Mac OS X will get VERY confused if your iPod is disconnected for some reason.
I thought home on iPod was supposed to allow you to login on someone else's mac as if you were logging into your own computer.
ie, same preferences, bookmarks, desktop background, home folder, etc.
This seems to me to be quite different to just copying your home folder to your iPod.
ie, same preferences, bookmarks, desktop background, home folder, etc.
This seems to me to be quite different to just copying your home folder to your iPod.
woodsey said:
You'd really need fine control over enabling that as someone could just stick a root account on an iPod, connect to anyone's computer and do bad things.
Just make sure they default it to off. hehe
woodsey said:
This was my understanding as well. I think it has the ability to be very revolutional in the Computer industry. Something like that Apple prob wants to take time in developing and making sure it works correctly.
I hope we see this sometime soon, but not a rushed version.
Koodauw said:
Apparently it was in the early Panther builds, but for one reason or another it wasn't included in the final release. Hopefully we'll see it in Tiger, as it would be a fantastic feature.
It was described on Apples website but the page was quickly pulled there is a mirror of it here though!
I have indeed missed something big! I stand corrected and humbly apologise 
Could be really interesting and a lot more practical as the HD size of iPods keep going up and up, what would speeds be like? Has anybody tried cloning their HD using the iPod as a startup disk?
Could be really interesting and a lot more practical as the HD size of iPods keep going up and up, what would speeds be like? Has anybody tried cloning their HD using the iPod as a startup disk?
munkle said:I have indeed missed something big! I stand corrected and humbly apologise
Could be really interesting and a lot more practical as the HD size of iPods keep going up and up, what would speeds be like? Has anybody tried cloning their HD using the iPod as a startup disk?
iPods aren't the worst thing you could possibly be using as a boot disk, but it's really not a bright idea to be using an iPod drive for that much work - for some reason most of the people who are downloading copies of Tiger are testing it by installing on their iPods.
iPod drives are slower than iBook hard drives, and iBook drives suck (for the most part.) hehe
You'd be able to say what you wanted duplicated, similar to Backup if you've ever used it.
-Chase
-Chase
Yep, I was doing this for a while (20GB iBook, 30G iPod!) I was using SuperDuper (great program, by the way, easier GUI than Carbon Copy Clone) to clone my entire drive to my iPod, then working off of it at school. It worked great! And then when I got home I would just run Super Duper's "smart update" and it would sync the iBook back. It usually only took five or ten minutes.
I stopped doing it because I read that booting from the iPod could shorten your iBook's life. But it sounds as if this "Home on iPod" feature would not require you to boot from the iPod.
Hmm, where I work I think one of the machines has a developer preview of Tiger installed. I'll look around for that feature. I think someone would have mentioned it by now, though.
seeing as how it was a feature that was being written and announced for panther, and then not being used - i doubt it would make it to tiger since there aren't any announcements at all for it. but of course tiger is still a ways away.
as for possible solutions now, would the iPodBackup freeware app fit those needs at all?
as for possible solutions now, would the iPodBackup freeware app fit those needs at all?
I hope they include it. It'd be an amazing thing for users. I'd absolutely love it, and it'd boost some iPod sales (I'd consider getting a bigger iPod).
-Chase
-Chase
I've used it and it's great!
I've used it and it's great!
It was REALLY nice to have everything on my iPod while my PowerBook was being repaired. I could do my work at my parent's house, on my old eMac, or wherever a modern Mac could be found. All my files and settings were there--I felt right at home anywhere. AND I had all my applications with me too, to do my work.
But since "home on iPod" isn't here (yet?), I needed a little extra space to accomplish the trick... I copied the whole Panther OS to my iPod and booted from it. (Making the experience even MORE exactly like my PowerBook.)
All I did was drag System, Library, Applications and Users from my PowerBook to the iPod. I could have cloned, but I already had other stuff (music, photos) on the iPod that I wanted to leave alone.
A couple files said I didn't have permission to copy... I skipped them and suffered no ill effects. You SHOULD install Panther fresh on the iPod to do this I suppose, but what I did worked. It booted fine on a variety of Macs.
Plus, when I put a Pod-booted Mac to sleep, I can take the iPod away safely. Listen to music, then re-attach it before waking the machine. When I'm totally done, I reboot the Mac back to its own HD.
You need the machine's owner to LET you boot from your iPod, of course.
Good thing I bit the bullet and got the 60
I've used it and it's great!
It was REALLY nice to have everything on my iPod while my PowerBook was being repaired. I could do my work at my parent's house, on my old eMac, or wherever a modern Mac could be found. All my files and settings were there--I felt right at home anywhere. AND I had all my applications with me too, to do my work.
But since "home on iPod" isn't here (yet?), I needed a little extra space to accomplish the trick... I copied the whole Panther OS to my iPod and booted from it. (Making the experience even MORE exactly like my PowerBook.)
All I did was drag System, Library, Applications and Users from my PowerBook to the iPod. I could have cloned, but I already had other stuff (music, photos) on the iPod that I wanted to leave alone.
A couple files said I didn't have permission to copy... I skipped them and suffered no ill effects. You SHOULD install Panther fresh on the iPod to do this I suppose, but what I did worked. It booted fine on a variety of Macs.
Plus, when I put a Pod-booted Mac to sleep, I can take the iPod away safely. Listen to music, then re-attach it before waking the machine. When I'm totally done, I reboot the Mac back to its own HD.
You need the machine's owner to LET you boot from your iPod, of course.
Good thing I bit the bullet and got the 60