Lesson 7: User Home Folders

Question 1

What default folders make up a user’s home folder?

What are some optional folders in a user’s home folder?

Answer 1

The default folders in a user’s home folder are:

• Desktop
• Documents
• Downloads
• Library (hidden)
• Movies
• Music
• Pictures
• Public

Optional home folder items include:

• Applications
• Sites

Question 2

When deleting a local user account, what three options does the User & Groups preference give you for dealing with the user’s home folder content?

Answer 2

When deleting a local user account OS X can:

1. Archive the home folder content into a compressed disk image,
2. Leave the home folder content in the /Users folder, or
3. Delete the home folder content

Optionally, OS X can perform a secure erase on the home folder content.

Question 3

How do you make OS X associate a new local user account with a manually migrated or restored user’s home folder?

Answer 3

Before the local user account is created on a system, you must first copy the restored user’s home folder to the /Users folder.

Then once you create the new user in the Users & Groups preference with the same account name, the system will prompt you to associate the new account with the restored home folder.