Partitioning SSHD for 2 users

[andrewoleynik]

What I would like to do is buy a SSHD for my mac and partition it. I am looking at 1TB. So I am thinking of doing 500gb for me and my current content which is sufficient. My wife has a old macbook and I would like to compl her content over to the other 500gb so that we can both use my mac. I think I can do that part, my question is, can I choose what account to use and which part of the SSHD I use on login? Or how does that work? Would I have to hold a key down to boot to another partition?

Using a 13 inch MBP early 2011 on El Capitan

 

[Kevin Webb2]

If you want to use a 2 partition scheme in that manner you would need to install OSX on both partitions and then boot to it on startup.

The much easier way is to simply setup 2 user accounts, you wont be able to see each other's content unless you are admins. You can also drop content into a shared folder if you need to do so.

 

[andrewoleynik]

Thanks for the feedback! Do you know of a tutorial for the 2 partition scheme?

 

[Kevin Webb2]

Log into your machine as an admin and set up the new partition in the "Disk Utility".

Next step is to install OS X onto your new partition. Follow the steps outlined in this article. Note you can use the latest OS and use these steps.

How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive | Macworld

Now just boot the machine into the USB install stick you made and install OS X onto the newly created blank partition.

At the end of the process, you have two completely independent instances on your laptop. One of you works on the machine, and the other turns it off and holds down the option key to boot into the other partition. Name the partitions after each of you for clarity.

 

[andrewoleynik]

thanks so much! have not decided what to do yet. Waiting for my new SSD to come in and then I'll set it up