claudetools/temp/t7-migration-plan.md

T7 Home Directory Migration - Analysis & Plan

Generated: 2026-03-02 by remote Claude session

Context: David's MacBook Air, Samsung T7 external drive

Problem Summary

The previous attempt to move David's entire home directory to /Volumes/T7/Users/David failed because macOS does NOT mount external USB drives before login. The disk arbitration daemon (diskarbitrationd) runs in the user session context, which only starts after authentication. Setting NFSHomeDirectory to /Volumes/T7/Users/David will NEVER work reliably.

The plist was reverted to /Users/David to restore login. Do NOT change it back.

Current Disk State (2026-03-02)

Data Volume (/System/Volumes/Data): 189GB used / 228GB total (94% full, 13GB free)

Internal /Users/David - 27GB total

• Music: 20GB
• Pictures: 1.8GB
• Library: 1.8GB
• Dropbox: 1.3GB
• Evernote: 1.2GB
• Dropbox (Old): 656MB
• Applications: 211MB
• .local: 183MB
• iCloudDrive: 32MB
• Desktop: unknown (TCC blocked from SSH)
• Documents: unknown (TCC blocked from SSH, 307 items)
• Downloads: unknown (TCC blocked from SSH, 169 items)
• Movies: 136K
• 3D Objects: 3.6MB

Internal /Users/Shared - 46GB total

• Shared Files From PC: 20GB
• Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic: 7.7GB
• Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic: 7.7GB
• Session Bassist Upright Bass: 6.2GB
• Ample Sound + NI Resources: ~900MB

T7 (/Volumes/T7) - 472GB used / 931GB total (459GB free)

• /Volumes/T7/Users/David already has 182GB of data from previous migration attempt

New Volume - 348GB used / 1.8TB total (1.5TB free)

Solution: Verify T7 copies, delete internal copies, create symlinks

The previous migration already copied data to T7. We just need to:

1. Verify T7 has the data
2. Remove the internal copy
3. Create symlinks from internal -> T7

All commands MUST run from David's terminal (TCC blocks T7 access via SSH).

What STAYS on internal (required for login/system)

• Library/ - keychain, preferences, app configs needed at login
• .CFUserTextEncoding
• .DS_Store
• .zshrc, .zsh_history, .zsh_sessions
• .claude/, .claude.json, claude-sessions/ - active Claude tooling
• .cache - 8K, trivial
• .sentry - 20K, trivial
• .Trash/ - managed by system
• nohup.out, testfolder, Sites - negligible

What MOVES to T7 (symlink back) - everything non-essential

These folders should all be verified on T7, deleted from internal, and symlinked:

• Music 20GB
• Pictures 1.8GB
• Desktop unknown size, 16 items
• Documents unknown size, 307 items
• Downloads unknown size, 169 items
• Movies 136K
• Dropbox 1.3GB
• Dropbox (Old) 656MB
• Evernote 1.2GB
• Applications 211MB
• iCloudDrive 32MB
• 3D Objects 3.6MB
• .local 183MB
• BLUE SKIES PT1 .pdf 40K
• License.pdf 40K

Procedure for each folder

For each folder listed above:

1. Verify it exists on T7: ls -la "/Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME"

2. Compare file counts (quick integrity check): find "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" -type f | wc -l find "/Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" -type f | wc -l

3. If counts match (or T7 has more), remove internal and symlink: rm -rf "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" ln -s "/Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME"

4. If folder is NOT on T7, move it there first: mv "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" "/Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" ln -s "/Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME" "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME"

5. Verify symlink: ls -la "/Users/David/FOLDERNAME"

   Should show: FOLDERNAME -> /Volumes/T7/Users/David/FOLDERNAME

Phase 2 - Move Shared music libraries (saves ~46GB)

These are in /Users/Shared, not David's profile:

sudo mv "/Users/Shared/Shared Files From PC.localized" /Volumes/T7/ sudo mv "/Users/Shared/Session Guitarist - Strummed Acoustic Library" /Volumes/T7/ sudo mv "/Users/Shared/Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic Library" /Volumes/T7/ sudo mv "/Users/Shared/Session Bassist - Upright Bass Library" /Volumes/T7/

Ask David if music apps need symlinks back or can be reconfigured to T7 paths.

Expected Result

• Internal Data volume: freed ~70GB+
• 13GB free -> 80GB+ free
• Login works normally
• All data accessible seconds after login when T7 auto-mounts

Important Notes

1. DO NOT change NFSHomeDirectory in the plist. Keep it as /Users/David.
2. DO NOT use fstab for pre-login USB mount. It will not work.
3. TCC blocks T7 access via SSH. ALL T7 operations from David's terminal only.
4. T7 already has 182GB from previous migration. Verify before deleting internal copies.
5. Symlinks will be "broken" at login screen - this is fine. They resolve once T7 mounts.

SSH Access (for non-T7 operations)

• User: guru @ 192.168.4.132
• Auth: SSH key (no password needed)
• sudo: NOPASSWD configured
• Can do everything EXCEPT access /Volumes/T7 or TCC-protected folders (Desktop/Documents/Downloads)