[sapporobaby]

One last try, how do you make the link back. Do I need to do it via the command line or can I simply open two Finder windows and make an alias using the "Option and Command" keys? I am so close, yet so far. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Dr-NiKoN]

You need to use the command-line.
Here is the syntax:
ln -s /Volumes/yourvolume/Mail ~/Library/Mail
You only need to change the part in bold.
Edit: The dumbed down way.
- Open 2 finder windows.
- Open a Terminal window
- Navigate to your partition where you want your mail to be
- Navigate to ~/Library in the other finder window
- Move the ~/Library/Mail folder to your partition
- In the Terminal window write: ln -s
(make sure there is a space after -s )
- From the finder window with your partition, drag the Mail folder into the Terminal window
- Something like /Volumes/partition/Mail should show up in your terminal window
- Activate the terminal window and press space
- write ~/Library/Mail
- hit enter
- Start Mail.app

[sapporobaby]

Ok Dr. I will give it a try and thanks for the help.
I will let you know if I was successful.

[car1son]

Interesting, Dr.
I tried relocating my library/mail folder once, some time ago, and Mail simply refuse to follow either an alias or a symlink. (My intent was to store it on an encrypted disk image. It would just remove the alias/link and create a new Mail directory.) But I just tried it again under Panther, and it seems to work just fine, now. (I guess I haven't tried it since Jaguar.)
In anticipation of Spotlight, I thought I might try moving my Entourage stuff to Mail, Address book & iCal. More and more, Apple has been making this application suite an attractive alternative.

[Dr-NiKoN]

In reply to:

---

In anticipation of Spotlight, I thought I might try moving my Entourage stuff to Mail, Address book & iCal. More and more, Apple has been making this application suite an attractive alternative.

---

FYI, Apple and Microsoft is actually working together trying to get Spotlight to index Entourage's huge database-file.
Don't hold your breath though /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[sapporobaby]

Another question. When I copy the mail folder, you mean, the mail and only the mail folder, not the entire library right?

[sapporobaby]

Hello,
Did you perform this the same way as described by the good Dr. or did you do it differently? TIA

[car1son]

I did just what the Dr said.

[sapporobaby]

Hey Dr. Got this far:
- In the Terminal window write: ln -s
(make sure there is a space after -s )
- From the finder window with your partition, drag the Mail folder into the Terminal window
- Something like /Volumes/partition/Mail should show up in your terminal window
- Activate the terminal window and press space
- write ~/Library/Mail
I hit enter and got the error: Command not found.
Is there an easier way to do this? You feel like coming to Finland? My wife is a gourmet chef. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[sapporobaby]

Maybe it is me then. Question. Did you move only the mail folder in /library/mail or did you move all of library, including mail and all of the other folders.
I really am not dumb. Honest. I design GSM networks, but I just switched from Windoze to Mac and so my learning curve is not as steep as the good Dr.

[Dr-NiKoN]

The command you want is: LN
you need to write it in lowercase letters though.
First of all, the folder:
/Users/yourUserName/Library
contains almost ALL user-configuration and user-information.
(Some Applications are stupid and writes to ~/Documents, but I won't mention names) /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
You don't want to move your whole ~/Library folder as that would cause breakage.
Mail.app stores it's mailboxes and certain other configuration-data in ~/Library/Mail, this is the folder you want to move. Not ~/Library, but the folder called Mail inside it.
And again, the command you write FIRST in the Terminal is LN -S
with lowercase letter. ie.

code:
ln -s

---

The next part of the command is the source-directory. This is your physical Mail folder. To get the path of this folder, you can just drag the Mail-folder(after you have moved it) into the Terminal window and it should appear on the command line.
Your command-line should now look something like this:

code:


ln -s /Volumes/yourPartition/Mail

---

The next argument is the Target-directory. This is not an actual directory, it's just a filesystem-level symbolic link that points to the source-directory(/Volumes/yourPartition/Mail).
The Target-Directory you want to use is ~/Library/Mail.
~ denotes your home-folder
So, the full command should look something like:
ln -s /Volumes/yourPartition/Mail ~/Library/Mail
The only difference you should see is the name of your partition, and possibly any subfolders, this depends on where on your partition you put the Mail folder.
I'm not sure I can explain it any better than that, without actually learning you the "fundamentals of Unix" /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[sapporobaby]

Once this is done, I can delete the mail that is on the original partition right as it is now on the second partition.

[sapporobaby]

Dr. It worked. Mail opened, I imported my mail from Entoruage (yeah, its gone). I wish that Open Office was up to speed and I would dump MS all together. Anyway, Mail opens fine. Now that I have moved the Mail folder from partition A, to Partition B, should I remove the mail on partition A, or is that the alias/symlink that I just created?

[Dr-NiKoN]

The physical folder and all your physical data is located on your other partition. ie /Volumes/partition/Mail.
The folder inside ~/Library/Mail is just a symbolic link to the above mentioned folder. Deleting this folder is not dangerous, because it doesn't actually contain any data. But, deleting it will break Mail.app, which looks for this folder in ~/Library. If you delete the link, Mail.app won't find it /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Basically:
Don't delete /Volumes/partition/Mail and don't delete ~/Library/Mail
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif