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I intend to make the big step and change my OS from Windows to a Linux distro. I only got one problem. Currently I'm using 3 drives:

  • 128GB SSD for OS install
  • 256GB SSD for programs that need to be faster (I'm a hardcore gamer and i use to put games with long loading times here)
  • 1T HDD for documents and other programs

On Windows doing a management like the one above is pretty easy since different drives have different letters and you can install stuff wherever you want, but on linux i know the situation is not as happy since it's directory based.

I wanted to ask if there is a way to use all these drives in a similar way like described above. I already read many articles about installing the /home partition in a different drive but it's not really what I'm looking for (since ALL programs would go on the HDD and one SSD would be excluded anyway).

I thank you in advance for every solution you might come up with!

I wanted to clarify I'm not a computer science expert so i can't really understand very specific things about Linux and how drives and partitioning work.

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  • Could you clarify this bit? "since ALL programs would go on the HDD and one SSD would be excluded anyway"
    – wjandrea
    Aug 27, 2018 at 18:54
  • if i install the /home directory on HDD all programs (as i got) would be installed there, while the OS it's still installed only on one SSD (while the other has no partition in it) Aug 27, 2018 at 20:52
  • I'm not sure where you got that from. Programs installed system-wide go in /usr, /snap, or /opt, not /home. Only programs installed per-user go in /home (in the subdirectory of the user).
    – wjandrea
    Aug 27, 2018 at 21:06

1 Answer 1

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but on linux i know the situation is not as happy since it's directory based.

Sorry, but a drive letter in Windows could in theory also be a directory in Linux. It is just that Microsoft wanted to create shortcuts to partitions. In theory you could name your partitions D, E, F; you just can't rename / to C though and you can't use a : since those are reserved. You can symlink / to C if you really want to stick with Microsoft rules :D Please don't though ;-)

I already read many articles about installing the /home partition in a different drive but it's not really what i'm looking for

My opinion:

Keep /home on the SSD your system is on. Putting it on another disk might break your boot when there are errors on that 2nd disk.

You should set it up in such a way that you put the personal content on the HDD (more below). Basically you can tell the system to use the HDD for the directories in /home/$USER/. If you have more users you can also use this to point them all to the same folders on the HDD.

In Linux you mount the partitions and disk by creating a label beginning with a / during installation (at the partitions setup) and that label is going to be a directory. Just don't tick the "format" option.

Mount the 256 SSD with the name /opt/. That directory is not needed during boot and is used as a 3rd party installation directory. You can then use it to install flatpack, snap and/or software built from source. Normal installs will add the software to your normal system disk.

Mount the HDD as a personal partition (I named mine /discworld). You can then edit /home/$USER/.config/users-dirs.dirs to use that partition.

If any of your partitions are NTFS you do not need to mount them during install and can ignore them. But make sure when you include them not to tick the "format" option. Those partitions will become available in Nautilus anyways.

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  • Thanks for the rapid answer! I wanted to ask some clarification on a couple of points: how can I point in which directory i install the programs to? (i would install them in different locations every time i need) Then what is the users-dirs.dirs edit used for? just saving files or for installing other stuff? Aug 27, 2018 at 18:34
  • You can't from apt. If you want to install manually you could download the source, compile it OR use snaps. ` user-dirs.dirs` is a settings file that creates the directories in /home/$USER/ do Desktop etc. You can point that to the HDD so your private files like movies and music are on there.
    – Rinzwind
    Aug 27, 2018 at 19:07

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