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I have got a dual boot system here with a couple of partitions:

  • Windows 7 OS partition
  • Another partition for office data
  • One partition for Ubuntu
  • And of course one 100Mb partition auto-made by Windows
  • And just like Windows one swap partition by Ubuntu

Of course, I wanted to have a separate partition for /boot and /home which I have not got here, so I would like to do that if it’s possible.
Can I install GParted in my system and create a new partition by shrinking my existing / partition, then mount /home under it somehow? I don't want to mess up my system. Some concrete advice required here.

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1 Answer 1

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If you don’t create a separate home partition while installing Ubuntu, you don’t have to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch. To migrate to a separate home partition after installation, you’ll have to create a new partition (which may require resizing your existing partitions), copy the files from your existing home directory to that partition, and tell Ubuntu to mount the new partition at /home.

  1. Create a New Partition : use Gparted to shrink and create new partition. Here a tutorial for you.
  2. Copy Home Files to New Partition : copy your files from old home to the newly created partition

    sudo cp -Rp /home/* /new-partition-mount-point
    
  3. Get your new Partition’s UUID: use the command:

    sudo blkid
    

    Copy the UUID to add it later to the fstab

  4. Add to the fstab:

    sudo gedit /etc/fstab
    

    Add the following text to the fstab file on a new line

    UUID=New-partition-UUID    /home     ext4     nodev,nosuid     0     2
    
  5. Move Home Directory & Restart

    Move your current home directory, and create a new, empty home directory which your new partition will be mounted at:

    cd / 
    sudo mv /home /home_OLD
    sudo mkdir /home
    

Now restart and check your new configuration, If everything is just perfect then you can completely remove your old home.

sudo rm -rf /home_OLD

For details and more information refer to the Ubuntu wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving

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