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I just built a new computer. I have a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. For speed and lack of clutter, I want my OS to be the only thing inhabiting my 128GB SSD. I want to allow only Ubuntu itself to be able to modify the 128GB SSD. My hope is to use the 1TB HDD For any and all programs, leaving the OS to operate freely and quickly, on its own, on the uncluttered 128GB SSD.

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  • I believe, since programs on Ubuntu don't all install to the same location, it wouldn't be the best setup to have that. However, you can make it so /home is on the 1TB drive, making it so all your data is there. Apr 7, 2016 at 0:53
  • This seems like a helpful suggestion. My next question, as a new user is...How do I move the /home directory to the 1TB HDD? Apr 7, 2016 at 1:34
  • You have to do it in the installation process. I'll write up an answer. Apr 7, 2016 at 1:35
  • Having /home on HDD, is not a bad option. But the user files that are often used are in /home. You can speed that up by keeping /home on SSD but have all your data on the HDD. askubuntu.com/questions/223655/…
    – oldfred
    Apr 7, 2016 at 3:38
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    Possible duplicate of How to partition SSD+HDD?
    – cmks
    Apr 10, 2016 at 0:53

2 Answers 2

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You can separate the base of your Ubuntu installation (/) from the main data area (/home). This is done during installation.

  1. Boot into the Ubuntu installer and choose the Try Ubuntu before installing option when prompted.
  2. Open Gparted and let it scan your drives.

Since your drives are new, I'm going to outline a few extra steps here to make sure everything goes well.

  1. Select one of the drives from the dropdown in the top right of the window. Either one is fine, and one should already be selected. Just make sure it isn't your USB stick or DVD.
  2. Under the Device menu at the top of the window, select Create a new partition table.
  3. Choose the GPT option and Apply out of the window.
  4. Select the other drive and follow the same process.
  5. Now, re-select the drive you selected first.
  6. Right click the area that says Unallocated Space, and choose the option to create a new partition in that space.
  7. Make the filesystem of that new partition ext4, and make sure it is going to be made a Primary Partition. You can give the drive a label if you want, but it is completely optional.
  8. Do the same partition creation process for the second drive.
  9. Now that you have all those operations queued, click the green check-mark at the top of the window to apply them.
  10. Once that is done, close Gparted and open the Ubuntu installer.
  11. Go through the steps until you are prompted with a window that gives you options on how you want to install Ubuntu. Choose the Something Else... option and click Next.
  12. Here, right click the partition on your SSD and go into its Properties.
  13. Make the mountpoint / and hit OK. You can check the option to format as ext4 if you want, but you don't need to.
  14. Go into the Properties of the HDD partition and mount it as /home.
  15. Once all that's done, continue with the installation.
  16. Reboot once the installation is done, and you should have Ubuntu on your SSD and your data on your HDD.

If you ever end up running out of space on the SSD (very unlikely unless you make another partition on it), you can move some folders from the SSD over to the HDD and symlink to them from their original locations, but this doesn't always work very well, and cannot be done with many folders. It would have to be another question with another answer.

If you have any questions, comment.

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Much has already been written here on an optimal partion scheme for a combination of an SSD with a HDD. There are basically two approaches, each with advantages and disadvantages, we may consider according to our personal preferences.

Keep all except HOME on the SSD

For this we choose "Do something else" on installing Ubuntu to install all of the OS on the SSD (mount point /) but format the HDD with mount point /home.

Advantages:

  • easy distribution upgrade or re-installing by having HOME on it's own partition/drive.
  • no additional configuration for data directories.
  • added new users will use the HDD for HOME without further configuration steps.

Disadvantages:

  • Cache and application's configuration files will be slower.
  • Huge applications (i.e. games) may need considerable space on the SSD.

Keep all but huge data on the SSD

For this we will install Ubuntu completely on the SSD but create symlinks to data directories pointing to their physical location on the hard drive.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

  • needs some configuration to be made for each user.
  • An Ubuntu re-install may accidentally overwrite settings files.

Whichever you choose it may be better to put swap at the end of the hard drive.

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