# Home folder on external drive (Mac) causing headaches



## ironbut (Mar 14, 2020)

Ever since I started using ssd's I've always had a small drive for Apps and System folders and moved my Home folder to another large drive. When I was still using my 5,1 all these were internal but now that I use an i9 iMac my Home drive and Library drives are in a Black Magic Multidock.
I never had an issue with this configuration before I bought the Ozone 9 advanced upgrade (I had Ozone 7 std). I couldn't get the installer to work correctly (kept having "error documents folder" or whatever) but I was able to download the presets and help links and manually install them.
So, it seems like everything works except I when I insert Ozone 9 in Logic or Reaper or open the standalone app I get a "Required resource files cannot be found" dialog.
I contacted iZotope and they said that because of the way I have my drives configured. They said, " several preference files lay out the map where the resources are located and if they point to a spot that does not have that reference file, you will get that same error".
I asked if there was anything I could do but so far, I haven't heard back.

So, am I the only one that moves my Home folder to a different drive these days? 
If not, are you guys having the same issue?
If so, have you found a workaround or just a way to get rid of the nag dialog?


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## charlieclouser (Mar 14, 2020)

ironbut said:


> So, am I the only one that moves my Home folder to a different drive these days?



Yes, I think you are the only one. I've never heard of anyone attempting this, and I think it's a very bad idea.

There are so many dependencies between files in the System, Library, and Home folders that you're bound to wreck something that can't be un-wrecked easily, and which would just re-wreck itself whenever an update is installed.

Drive space is so cheap these days that I just get the most massive internal drive that Apple offers, and let every app and plugin install where it wants to. Since I also keep copies of the installers for every app and plugin I buy inside separate folders in my Applications folder, having huge amounts of space on the internal drive isn't a luxury, it's a necessity - for me, anyway.

I also let things like Omnisphere put their massive content library where they want, which is inside the Steam folder buried somewhere in the Users>Library directory, and this has saved me a lot of headache. Besides not having to faff about with moving that content to an external drive or using aliases or symlinks or any of that mess, another benefit is that flipping through Omnisphere patches is lickety-split fast because the internal drive is faster than all those SSDs in my MultiDock.

My boot drive on my 2013 Mac Pro cylinder was 1tb when I bought it, and was hovering at about 90% full for a year until I bought a 2tb replacement from OWC a while back, and after updating to Mojave and installing some new goodies it's got about 1.2tb on it. No worries when I buy a new Omnisphere patch bank that includes 80 gigabytes of new samples and wants to put them in the Steam folder on the boot drive.

The only thing that I move from the internal drive to an external is the Instruments and Samples for my EXS24 library, which is nearly 3tb at the moment. That is one thing that I do use an alias in the default location which points to an external drive. This has long been proven safe and simple and is the one thing I fiddle with in terms of default locations.


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## jcrosby (Mar 15, 2020)

ironbut said:


> Ever since I started using ssd's I've always had a small drive for Apps and System folders and moved my Home folder to another large drive. When I was still using my 5,1 all these were internal but now that I use an i9 iMac my Home drive and Library drives are in a Black Magic Multidock.
> I never had an issue with this configuration before I bought the Ozone 9 advanced upgrade (I had Ozone 7 std). I couldn't get the installer to work correctly (kept having "error documents folder" or whatever) but I was able to download the presets and help links and manually install them.
> So, it seems like everything works except I when I insert Ozone 9 in Logic or Reaper or open the standalone app I get a "Required resource files cannot be found" dialog.
> I contacted iZotope and they said that because of the way I have my drives configured. They said, " several preference files lay out the map where the resources are located and if they point to a spot that does not have that reference file, you will get that same error".
> ...


Although I know of people doing this I don't think I've ever found a thread where it doesn't eventually end in flames for most people. Unless you get a thrill out of tinkering/programming/hacking, etc, it's a basically like asking to make yourself do too much work just to maintain a stable system... With drives as cheap as they are I guess I just don't see the point of this approach these days...


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## ironbut (Mar 15, 2020)

Thanks for the help guys!
I guess I was looking for a reason to reconfigure my rig.
Maybe this summer.


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## ironbut (Mar 19, 2020)

Just to update,..

Chris at iZotope was able to provide the right files so I was able to get Ozone 9 Advanced running without the error dialog at launch.
Cudos to Chris!
As I said, in 8+ years, this is the first issue I've had with this configuration (done in the Accounts page of Preferences) but IMHO it would be stupid to not take the advice given and avoid any future issues when ssd's are so feakin' cheap.


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## jcrosby (Mar 19, 2020)

ironbut said:


> As I said, in 8+ years, this is the first issue I've had with this configuration (done in the Accounts page of Preferences) but IMHO it would be stupid to not take the advice given and avoid any future issues when ssd's are so feakin' cheap.


As long as you clone your system regularly there's really no need for this these days... (I get why though...) Just get a dirt cheap huge spinning drive and clone your machine every few days, or weekly, etc...


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## Nmargiotta (Mar 27, 2020)

ironbut said:


> Just to update,..
> 
> Chris at iZotope was able to provide the right files so I was able to get Ozone 9 Advanced running without the error dialog at launch.
> Cudos to Chris!
> As I said, in 8+ years, this is the first issue I've had with this configuration (done in the Accounts page of Preferences) but IMHO it would be stupid to not take the advice given and avoid any future issues when ssd's are so feakin' cheap.




I am experiencing the same issue with Ozone 9 adv and have re-installed to no avail. Did he give you additional files? or was it instruction as to where to relocate files?


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## ironbut (Mar 27, 2020)

It appears that it's an issue with the Advanced installer for one of the modules (Master ReBalance). 
Chris gave me a couple of installers. The one for Ozone 9 Standard did the trick.


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