install ubuntu with a HOME partition and a separate DATA PARTITION

[steninj]

HEY ALL

I am going for a fresh installation of ubuntu..(ubuntu alone)

my plan is to install it with a separate home partition and a separate data partition...

so that i can either keep or avoid the application settings in my /home when i go for another installation


&
i always want to keep my datas like movies,music etc in an another partition...
i want this to be 100% untouched in every further installations..

how to create this data partition,,,,so that i can perfom read/write to this...

during an installation a "mount point" is must...

where it should be mounted?...

or how can i create that data partition..

please please please help!

[werty2010]

nice idea...
im interested in this too
+1

[Elfy]

As far as the data partition goes - create the partition and mount it in fstab. I do all of this after I've installed.

I prefer to have my data partitions mount in /mnt - this way I can allow removable drives to appear on my desktop - but not the data drives. If you want them to be on the desktop then mount them in /media

I've a music drive in /mnt/music

The corresponding line in fstab for my drive is

UUID=14ee47cc-54cb-4887-8773-fd53121efe10 /mnt/music ext4 defaults 0 2

You can find uuid for your partitions with

sudo blkid

To edit fstab after backing it up

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=872197

[frup]

Do you symlink in to the relevant home directory directories?

[The Cog]

It's a good idea. User settings tend to collect cruft with time, and this time round I'm going through a process of deleteing all my user settings except for a few select programs (firefox bookmarks, thunderbird email settings etc).

In addition to what forestpiskie said, all I can add is that I would have used /mnt/data rather than /mnt/music, but that just reflects what you want to keep in there. You can create the directory with the command:
sudo mkdir /mnt/data
You can make a symbolic link to this from your home partition like this:
ln -s /mnt/data ~/data
You will probably have to change the permissions of the folder (after mounting the partition to it) to alow the required user access.

[Paddy Landau]

What you want is this:

1. Partition 1:Your Ubuntu installation. You need roughly 20Gb for this (that's more than enough space for Ubuntu).
2. Partition 2: Your home directory, where you keep your data. This takes your entire disk except for partitions 1 and 2.
3. Partition 3: Your swap partition. You need the same amount as you have RAM (but no less than 1Gb).

Note that you do not need an extra partition for your music, etc. When you install a new version of Ubuntu, it will go into partition 1, while you leave partition 2 alone.

BTW, these three partitions can be in any order.

I suggest you boot from a Live CD. N.B. I assume you want to reformat your entire disk, and you have full backups of all your data. Let us know if this is incorrect.

Install Ubuntu, choosing the manual option for partitioning.

1. Create partition 1 for root (/), and format it as ext4.
2. Create partition 2 for home (/home), and format it as ext4.
3. Create partition 3 and format this as swap.

In future, when you install Ubuntu, again choose manual; but say that you want to format your root (/) partition, and you do not want to format your home (/home) or swap partitions.

I hope I've explained that clearly.

[Elfy]

Do you symlink in to the relevant home directory directories?

I don't - but then I just point my media players where they need pointing.

It's a good idea. User settings tend to collect cruft with time, and this time round I'm going through a process of deleteing all my user settings except for a few select programs (firefox bookmarks, thunderbird email settings etc).

Just an example - I have my spare mounting on /mnt/spare.

Effectively you can call it anything you want - I'd just not have spaces.

In addition to the additions - you can also not have a seperate /home partition and as long as when you reinstall you don't allow / to be formatted then /home stays. Done this once or twice.

Further -

so that i can either keep or avoid the application settings in my /home when i go for another installation

if this is the case then I would be inclined to not have a seperate /home and just backup the config's for those apps you did want to keep.

[candtalan]

I have used your approach for some years now, it is so useful to be able to keep /home/user clean, if I want. It is also simpler to decide about data backup.
However, I went onwards from the partition idea and used separate data drives. I think I usually mount these after an install process, I cannot remember. They are connected in anyway before installation begins, and I think they get auto mounted from Places or in file manager nautilus when I later use Ubuntu.

But because I use the two drives all the time, well one is, but the other is used to contain a complete copy of the first data drive, taken once per day, I
configure fstab to permanently mount them. My fstab entry is:

#data-a
/dev/sdb1 /media/data-a ext4 defaults,users 0  0
#data-b 
/dev/sdc1 /media/bak-data-b ext4 defaults,users 0  0

I also run more than one installation of Ubuntu on the machine (different versions, whatever, on sda) so the common data drive is even more useful with that.

An aside comment:
I know I am not using UUIDs here, but I do sometimes.....

[steninj]

As far as the data partition goes - create the partition and mount it in fstab. I do all of this after I've installed.

I prefer to have my data partitions mount in /mnt - this way I can allow removable drives to appear on my desktop - but not the data drives. If you want them to be on the desktop then mount them in /media

I've a music drive in /mnt/music

The corresponding line in fstab for my drive is

UUID=14ee47cc-54cb-4887-8773-fd53121efe10 /mnt/music ext4 defaults 0 2

You can find uuid for your partitions with

sudo blkid

To edit fstab after backing it up

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=872197

thank you for that valuable info..

but try to understand my situation...

i don't have much idea about ubuntu..

can u help me with step by step instructions..

situation is i have a live cd with me and all files in my system has back up...

i am ready for a fresh installation of ubuntu alone,NOt dual boot

[Elfy]

Assuming that you want to make a home and data partition then.

Boot the livecd.

Open gparted (or partition editor) from the system admin menu

Select all existing partitions - mark for deletion - apply

You now have a blank slate

Create your partitions.

right click the unallocated space - create an extended partition - apply

right click inside the extended - create a swap partition - read here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sw...do%20I%20need?


(also if you need hibernate or swap ignore that and swap should at least be equal to RAM)
- apply

right click inside the extended - create a logical - 10-15Gb in size - ext4 - apply

right click inside the extended - create a logical - make this as large as you want your /home to be - ext4 - apply

right click inside the extended - create a logical - use whatever is left - this will be your data - ext4 - apply

Once all the partitions are created - exit and start the install procedure.

Once you reach the partition section - pick manual or advanced.

There will be a representation of the partitions you just created.

Pick the 10-15Gb partition - edit - pick / as the mountpoint
Pick the home partition - edit - pick /home as the mountpoint.

You might be able to apply a mount point for the data partition here - not sure. If not we can pick that up once you've installed.

Once mountpoints are created - carry on with the install.


Edit - that probably looks worse than it is - once you've created one partition the others will be easy. Same as the edit and set mountpoint.