In windows, you can change some settings so that only the operating system is on the SSD, and all installed programs and user documents are installed/stored on a secondary HDD. How would I do this so that no space is used in my SSD? (other than files that have to be).
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Are you installing Ubuntu from scratch or do you want to change it in a finished Ubuntu installation? The second one is a bit more effort.– Byte Commander ♦Mar 22, 2015 at 21:56
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1You will have to provide more information to make sense of your question, specifically the part about what "has to be". You can install the entire system on a secondary HDD if you wish.– psusiMar 23, 2015 at 1:12
1 Answer
All of your files will be save in your /home
directory. One great thing about linux is that any folder in in the directory tree can be on an separate drive rather than on the same drives as the root directory. So to have your files on your HDD and your documents on your SDD you need to mount your HDD at \home
when you boot.
The easiest way to do this is to set up custom partitioning when you first install Ubuntu and select your HDD and give it the mount point /home
.
If you already have ubuntu installed then you will have to copy the contents of home
to the HDD, rename \home
to something else and then edit your fstab
file to mount the HDD at \home
. Once you restart and everything works you will need to delete the renamed home directory.
This is a rather in depth process but there is a great ubuntu community wiki article detailing the whole process: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving