I support the suggestion of dcstar to create a separate data partition. the other approaches are more complex to achieve and are only recommended if your know some linux system administration. It can be easier than what dcstar suggests, though. Instead of moving the home partition (also a quite technical operation), you can just move your user data, documents, spreadsheets, pictures, etc. to the new big partition. Most of it can be done just using the graphical tools, from within a normal Ubuntu session. Even when things can be done graphically with a nautilus instance with root privileges ("gksudo nautilus") I will give the commands because that is much easier for me.
1. Creating the partition
1.1 Install gparted if you did not already using Synaptic Package manager.
1.2 Start gparted: Alt+F2, type "gksudo gparted" <enter>.
The advantage of running gparted from a normal session is that there is no possibility for you to accidentely delete or harm your system partitions.
1.3 Create a partition filling the unallocated space. Format it in ext3 format. This can all be done from within gparted. Take note of the device name that is assigned to the new partition (e.g. /dev/sda7)
2. Mounting the partition
Here, we will need some command line work to obtain the needed information.
2.1 Open a terminal and lookup the UUID of the newly created partition: "sudo blkid". Along the lines, you will find one for your newly created partition. It will look like:
Code:
/dev/sda7: UUID="c9cb8b29-152a-47ac-b952-5b9909a290ba" TYPE="ext3"
You will need the UUID part for your /etc/fstab.
2.2 Open /etc/fstab for editing. At the terminal: "sudo gedit /etc/fstab". This opens the usual text editor gedit, displaying the current contents of your /etc/fstab. Add two lines for your new partition that looks like (the first one is just a comment and can be omitted)
Code:
# /dev/sda7
UUID="c9cb8b29-152a-47ac-b952-5b9909a290ba" /mnt/data ext3 defaults 0 2
(Just copy/paste the UUID from the terminal to gedit: that way, you won't make a mistake).
Save /etc/tab when done and close gedit.
2.3 Creating a mount point and mounting the partition
Code:
sudo mkdir /mnt/data
sudo mount -a
The last command does execute all mounts specified in /etc/fstab. It will therefore also mount the newly specified partition under /mnt/data. THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANY OUTPUT from the mount -a command. If there is, stop here and post the output: it means there is a mistake or something else in your /etc/fstab is not correct.
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3. Moving the data. Now you can move your current data to the new partition and create symbolic links in your home directory to them. The symbolic links will make sure that you can access the data just like before. In other words: as a regular user, you won't see that the data have actually moved to a new location.
You need to do this with a nautilus with root permissions. Load that with "alt+F2" "gksudo nautilus<enter>". Cut / paste your "Documents" folder (just as an example) to the /mnt/data partition. Next, create a symbolic link. That can be done with nautilus (right-click, Make link, then move the link to the location where your data were intially), or with the command "ln -s /mnt/data/Documents ~/. Now, your data reside on the other partition, but are accessible from within your home just like before.
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