Linux Tip | Moving to a New /home

In this video I show you how to add a new hard drive and make it your default /home drive. WARNING! This may or may not work for you depending on hardware and distribution. BACK EVERYTHING UP FIRST!
Check out www.ezeelinux.com for more about Linux.

[@MikeGarcia1Putt]

5 February, 2022: After an update of my Ubuntu 20.04 machine, the machine failed to boot. Instead I got - "Welcome to emergency mode". Fortunately I had moved my "Home Directory" to a large drive using the instruction in this video. Long story short - I was able to restore my machine to working order (without losing data), in part because I had my home directory on a separate drive. Thank again Joe!

[@EarnestRedwoodLINUXMASTER]

Joe just want you to say again, you are a excellent teach. When you can put the information out there so simple to understand you will have a great following. You my friend make Linux fun and exciting to learn.

[@martinboone1043]

Joe, this "...not a guide" video is one of the best and most used tools I have to upgrade my system hardware while maintaining my most important data. Thank you.

[@MikeGarcia1Putt]

As of March 2019 this video is still awesome. It took me a few times to get my setup of SSD for the Ubuntu 18.04 operating system and old fashion spinning disk for the home directory, but I got and it's beautiful. I would only add to make backup copies of the fstab doc before you get started. Thanks Joe!

[@Sparkslinger]

Thank you for make this video. As a novice Linux user, I was able to follow it step-by-step and make the changes with no issues.

[@daveprice9128]

Joe It did exactly what you showed in this video and it worked...I wanted to thank you

[@stevenbruley]

Really great video! Thanks for the tutorial, will come in handy for sure!

[@teddraper1746]

Great video. I have been looking for just this sort of information so I can transfer my large home folder containing all my games to a larger drive without having to start all over again.

[@lesliesavege1206]

Awesome, on Linux Mint 1-3-20. I did it as I watched your video, and it did not boot all the way in. I rebooted with the CD, edited the stab file again, and rebooted. Everything is working better than expected, and with over twice the room I had before!!!

[@TheBrimurray]

Nice well presented tutorial making this subject less scary.

[@danhardisty1]

Cool stuff Joe. Thank you very much.

[@craigw4644]

Old video, but still relevant.

[@matthewbennett2844]

i had a drive setup with 4 partitions so i had a /boot / /home and swap. so for my case i had to comment out the original line in the fstab file that pointed to the home partition to get it to work but it has worked for me !

[@yosoyelsupremo]

Awesome!! Worked great also in my Slackware distro.

[@briianhebert]

Thanks for the video! It was very info-taining!

[@LLPOF]

You saved me gobs of time with this. I about pooped my drawers when it wouldn't let me back in after reboot but after the initial panic left, I popped in a mint live usb and used that to correct my fstab file. Worked like a charm. I changed a couple of things around. I made a copy of my original fstab file first and then edited it with kwrite before I "sudo rm -rf *" (I just hate programs like nano. I feel like I'm back in the stone age when I see them). I also used labels instead of uuids. I don't know if there are any drawbacks to that, I'll have to research.

[@gaiusbaltar7122]

I think you can use labels or /dev/sdx path in fstab. It can make things easier.

[@alrotem]

Thank you. This technique worked great.

[@gfodale]

Joe, I've learned a lot from you. Thanks. On to the question... You deleted the entire contents of the /home directory on the original volume, but not the /home directory. The new volume mounts at /home. Obviously it worked, but why would you not delete the /home directory on the original volume when you're replacing it with the new volume? ( probably ocd of me, but I'm curious.... ) Thanks again.

[@gradek6349]

There is one more method. To save my sdd I've used bind option in fstab for my often used folders Downloads Documents etc so all data is saved on my 1TB mechanical drive. To do this mount you hdd to /mnt/hdd , create folder Downloads, in fstab put the line like /mnt/hdd/Downloads /home/User/Downloads none bind 0 2. Now everything you save in /home/Downloads will be save on you 2nd hdd. I'm not the expert but I think this method is also good. If I made any mistakes sorry for my english.

[@Faks_Ar]

Very nice video !

[@Ismael-iw4tm]

Great my Man U have tough me today.

[@hectorcasiano7469]

joe is the man!

[@sepulati0n]

you Make Awesome Videos Man! Keep it up! However this one Broke my Arch Linux Install.. ;( I probably missed a step or something... I got stuck in a Login loop that ended with a black screen after few login attempts..I was able to Log into tty and edit the /etc/fstab to fix it..I just deleted all the new text in there and rebooted, I didn't delete the original home partition thats shared with root, so maybe thats why the home switch didn't work, but because It was still there, I was able to boot back up like normal...guess I'll just use the HDD for something else for now..

[@Hvtesla]

Very interesting exercise

[@NinjaGamerow]

Thank you!

[@rkyle5678]

Outstanding job. Very easy for me to follow. One question; I'm not sure why I would want Home in another partition. Can the same Home partition be shared by multiple releases of the same Linux distro like Linux Mint 17-1, 17-2, and 17-3?

[@EzeeLinux]

Yes, you can share the /home between different installs but you'd get conflicts if you were using different desktops or different versions of the same desktop. The main reason for having a separate /home partition is to make upgrading or re-installing the OS easier because you can do it without having to replace all of your data from a backup each time. :)

[@bblnr88aka25]

Thank you for this fantastic tutorial, however | need some help! I have my home folder on the same drive as my Linux mint operating system. I have another partition called /home on /dev/sd3. How do I move the home folder from the root /dev/sd1 folder to the /home partition which is on /dev/sd3. there is a swap partiion of 2gb /dev/sd2

[@someoneyoudontknow106]

i like that title!

[@fredmiller1347]

$ cd - after changing directory to /home you could have returned to previous directory by using a dash as argument to *cd*

[@ronnierush9379]

Great Thanks

[@tarmotyyri6733]

Could you just use a symbolic link to link your new /home to your old /home?

[@HektorBandimar]

Why doesn't my Linux mint have home partitions , just swap partitions, I do however have a home folder on the desktop, so I have a home folder, but I guess I'll lose it if I do an upgrade. 17.3 has lost support so I need to upgrade before I get security issues.

[@antipodesman]

At 19:26 you say the "Drive" has to be completely empty. I hope you meant the home folder.

[@jerrysaldana7601]

can you put the commands you type

[@vishal00747]

Hi, by mistake I turn off Automatic Mount option to my home partion and now I now able to use the OS, can you tell how can I remount my /home partion?

[@EzeeLinux]

Boot from the USB or DVD and edit the fstab file... :)

[@CutePuppy351]

Do you need to go to device and then click on "Create a new partition table"? I have a lot of stuff, I dual boot windows. There is another guide that wasn't using a VM that also said to do it.

[@EzeeLinux]

Don't do that unless you want to completely wipe the drive. If so, then yes. :)

[@CutePuppy351]

@@EzeeLinux Alright, thanks. I ended up reinstalling Linux Mint with 500 gigabytes shared between /home (mostly home) and /root lol

[@BPAvt]

Joe, I just did this and was not able to use my password to log i after the reboot??? Ant idea what might have gone wrong?

[@EzeeLinux]

Since I wasn't looking over your shoulder, I don;t know. Do it again and then try. :)

[@colostomybag9367]

Hahahahaha I wish I found this yesterday I realized that my username wasn’t what I wanted it to be so I just opened the usr file as riot and changed the name... I broke Linux mint It’s ok though cause I’m running fedora on the Machine. Thank you so much for you knowledgeable videos.

[@daveprice9128]

Could you just specify /home on sdb on install of distribution.

[@EzeeLinux]

Yep. You can manually partition the drives through the installer. It's the preferred way to do it but it's not the default. :)

[@dhafarbelaty9239]

Dear Joe is it possible to do this on the windows OEM Image that come pre installed on the laptop?? I have a HP laptop that I'm planing to replace its HDD with SSD and it came with this original windows that is mounted in a small fraction of the HDD that you can restore the system to its original state in case some thing wrong happen

[@EzeeLinux]

Windows? I don't do Windows. You can move documents and such to another partition or drive but you'll have to figure that one out for yourself.

[@jonspoonamore3721]

As far as I know, you can't mount a partition as a folder in Windows. But.... You can do folder links in Windows just like in Linux. I've done this for friends when they needed more space and the software they were using could not be relocated to another drive. Just Google "Windows file folder linking". Just move the folder in question to its new location. And where the folder used to be, create a link pointing to the new location.

[@dhafarbelaty9239]

Dear Sir I do both Linux & Windows the thing that I'm facing is there is a kind off hidden partition that contain a Windows Image of the laptop when I open that partition in windows system it shows nothing! absolutely nothing its almost empty drive yet its holding about 10 GB in the hard so I boot in to Linux System and try to list whatever is there in that partition using the ls command and it shows nothing again its very mysterious thing so the question here is this method you're describing can copy a hard without seeing its contents ?? from the first words of your respond "I don't do windows" I can Imagine the bitterness you probably faced with this windows thing I do that too everyday believe me but there are some property softwares that always keep me forced to used it again and again because o he lack of equivalents for the Linux system but you no what though Linux has a long journey now since I first installed it for the first time long time ago This video was very helpful in lots of ways and for that thanx I guess I will try it in the windows and see where its going My regards

[@dhafarbelaty9239]

but John how can I link it if the hard will be removed see I'm planing to replace the laptop's HDD with SSD because its faster the HDD will no longer be in the laptop after this process What I was thinking if the Linux booting and copying didn't workout is to make a new Image for the whole windows and install it later but I might loose the effectiveness of the windows key in process because this what OEM's do 1 Windows for 1 machine thanx for replay though

[@jonspoonamore3721]

Sorry... I did not read your entire message. If the new SSD has plenty of room (same size or larger than the original), I would just do a drive-cloning and resize partitions later on the SDD. I would suggest Miray's HDClone software. I still use this CD-based cloning software and it works great. It can even auto resize partitions for you during the cloning process. With that being said... We are talking about Windows. IMO, you would be better off doing a fresh install. You can request a CD/DVD of the OS from the laptop manufacture. Having the only way to reinstall your OS from the harddrive is a VERY BAD IDEA!!!! If that drive ever dies, you are screwed!!!!

[@2010stoof]

So from a live environment I can access all my files actually installed with no password when elevating to sudo? Essentially anyone with a live USB can access and change/copy all my data? That worries me I think you mentioned in another video the only way to stop that is set to encrypt home folder on install but causes issues when trying to change versions/distros with keeping your home partition. Is that right and was I paying attention? Lol

[@EzeeLinux]

If someone gets you computer, they can access anything on it no matter what OS it is. If you're worried about that then encrypt your data at install. You can't do what we did in the video to an encrypted system. You can only backup and start over from scratch. :)

[@2010stoof]

@@EzeeLinux ok. So I did understand your video then. Makes sense. Thanks again for the answer. And again, thank you for the videos. Helping alot. Getting my grip... Slowly but surely. I'm from the Ms Dos prompt days to some of the terminal is familiar but linux takes it to a whole other level that will just take time

[@chrisjackson1244]

I've been trying for a day to have my / on an encrypted ssd and /home on an encrypted hdd with a key file for the hdd in the root system to automatically unlock it with one password. Can't get it to work though.

[@EzeeLinux]

I don't think you can boot from an encrypted volume like that...

[@chrisjackson1244]

Joe Collins There's devs actually putting full encryption including the boot. I've seen a few of these builds that even span across multiple disks but that is out of my depth as far as installation and all the specialization going into something like that.

[@oneyaker]

I am confused by the mounting process in the fstab. What does that do? Is this like a pointer or some symbolic link to the Ubuntu/home/ directory even though the actual data is on a completely different drive? This Linux is some learning curve.

[@EzeeLinux]

fstab tells the kernel where to look for storage. It is not a link but an instruction set. Get it wrong and the system won't boot but it also allows much flexibility in how an admin can move data around in a system. :)

[@oneyaker]

@@EzeeLinux OK. Can you see the actual /home directory with the data on the second hard drive in the file manager? or is it just accessible through Ubuntu/home on the primary drive. Trying to wrap my head around this. Ubuntu/home has no data in it only a link to /home + actual data in another drive correct? Thank you

[@EzeeLinux]

@@oneyaker There are no links... The way Linux handles storage is to "mount" devices and locations into an empty directory on the file system tree. There is always a /home directory under / it doesn't matter whether user files are stored directly in the /home directory or if another device is mounted in/home. The system sees it the same way. You can mount anything anywhere -- a hard drive, network share , -- it all works the same way. :)

[@2010stoof]

Can this same idea be used during install? Like using a small 120gb ssd for root and boot and then using another drive as home? Or do you have to do it after install

[@EzeeLinux]

It's best to do this at install. There's a manual partitioning option in the installer. :)

[@jonathantx]

@@EzeeLinux Do you have a video to demonstrate how to do part installer?? Great videos, I'm new to linux but I have learned a ton from your videos. Thanks for your help.👍👍

[@EzeeLinux]

@@jonathantx What do you mean by "part installer?"

[@welur1125]

Hey, what is your weather app?

[@EzeeLinux]

It's in the Applets list for the Cinnamon desktop. :)

[@welur1125]

thx

[@thedude110]

Joe, you might want to review your definition of 'guide'... PS: this is not a comment

[@kikahaltd4557]

Am I the only one who doesn't really use the home partition for anything?

[@djsensacion7]

You must be running as root 24/7 then...

[@marwing1564]

Couple three days

[@rickgaine3476]

Much faster to just use the commandline for everything in Lenix.

[@marclili4491]

Oh so you are an expert.

[@rickgaine3476]

marc lili yes, I have been a Linux administrator for over 25 years now. I have worked with every flavor of Linux since it was released back in the early 90s. A Linux administrator should not have to install graphical based applications in order to perform a simple task like formatting a hard drive, making a new file system, or remounting that new file system in a different location.

[@rysieklee9866]

This video is not aimed at linux admins with over 25 years of experience.

[@meesiphht2769]

Lost me already, he's doing this on a virtual machine? How am I supposed to do this? He doesn't say.

[@EzeeLinux]

This is "he"... It would be the same whether it's a VM or real hardware. If you're confused, you may want to to do a bit more learning before attempting this yourself.

[@meesiphht2769]

@@EzeeLinux Lol, I took the chance and it did work so, thanks!!!

[@user-ef9tn6yj2e]

Linux SWAP !!! перевод СРАЛЛ