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View Full Version : [SOLVED] Keep separate /home or have a separate /data?



akand074
October 20th, 2011, 07:03 PM
I'm going to do a clean install of Oneiric within a few days on my desktop currently still running Natty. Currently I have the filesystem (/) installed on my 60GB SSD and my home folder (/home) installed on my 1TB HDD. I was just wondering if it would be better to have everything installed on my SSD and then make a separate mount point "/data" on my HDD to hold my data. Basically I was just thinking it'd be a cleaner this way and have everything related to the OS on my SSD. /home does start to get messy as old folders stay between new installs.

Would one recommend one or the other for my situation? Or does it really make no difference? Also, wouldn't /data then be owned by root by default and I'd have to change that? I only have one Ubuntu install and one user on my desktop at all times.

nothingspecial
October 20th, 2011, 07:11 PM
Well I use a seperate data partition but I dual boot.

Then I have a Music, Videos etc on the data partition and use fstab to put them in my /home like so


LABEL=Data /media/data ext4 defaults 0 0
/media/data/bin /home/ns/bin none bind 0 0
/media/data/Documents /home/ns/Documents none bind 0 0
/media/data/Downloads /home/ns/Downloads none bind 0 0
/media/data/images /home/ns/images none bind 0 0
/media/data/mail /home/ns/mail none bind 0 0
/media/data/Music /home/ns/Music none bind 0 0
/media/data/Pictures /home/ns/Pictures none bind 0 0
/media/data/source /home/ns/source none bind 0 0
/media/data/Videos /home/ns/Videos none bind 0 0

But it is personal preference really.

irv
October 20th, 2011, 07:11 PM
Here of late I have been getting tired of moving files/backing up so I just keep everything in the clouds. This way I can get to all my stuff from anywhere and that includes a new fresh install. Of course you still need a home to have all your setting but I just keep the default home and let the new install put my setting there.
I do have a dual boot with Win7, and I can get to windows data from Linux because I never touch that partition when installing a new OS.
Just my thoughts.

malspa
October 20th, 2011, 07:14 PM
Does seem like it'd be cleaner, in your situation.

I personally use a separate /home partition as well as a couple of separate partitions for my data. But different people have differing opinions about the need/usefulness of a separate /home partition.

oldfred
October 21st, 2011, 06:57 PM
I prefer the separate /data, but there can be issues when dual booting with UIDs & GIDS. But if only one system or all Ubuntu then that is not an issue.

I just installed a SSD and I keep /home in the / (root ) partition. But my /home is just settings. All data including some of the hidden files & folders that have data have been moved. My /home is now about 1GB with 3/4 of that .wine as that is not so easy to move.
I primarily mount it (somewhat hidden) in /mnt/data and link folders back into /home. I use the profile.ini to relocate my Filefox & Thunderbird locations so I can share with XP & other Ubuntus.

akand074
October 21st, 2011, 10:24 PM
Well I use a seperate data partition but I dual boot.

Then I have a Music, Videos etc on the data partition and use fstab to put them in my /home like so


LABEL=Data /media/data ext4 defaults 0 0
/media/data/bin /home/ns/bin none bind 0 0
/media/data/Documents /home/ns/Documents none bind 0 0
/media/data/Downloads /home/ns/Downloads none bind 0 0
/media/data/images /home/ns/images none bind 0 0
/media/data/mail /home/ns/mail none bind 0 0
/media/data/Music /home/ns/Music none bind 0 0
/media/data/Pictures /home/ns/Pictures none bind 0 0
/media/data/source /home/ns/source none bind 0 0
/media/data/Videos /home/ns/Videos none bind 0 0But it is personal preference really.

I actually love this idea. Does this make it so that the folders are seem like they are seamlessly within my home folder even though they are on a separate drive?

Did you make a new partition (or separate drive) mounted at /media/data? and then edited fstab? Also in a new fresh install, say when 12.04 is released. If I do a clean install again, I'd just do the same thing, put the same drives/partitions to / and /media/data and then redo the fstab?