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I've just installed a fresh Kubuntu 16.04 on a new drive and have it in my computer alongside my drive containing my old Kubuntu install. What is the most appropriate way to automatically link my old home directory into my new home directory? Is it a bad idea to automatically mount it as my new home directory?

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  • What sizes are the old, and the new, drives? Are they SSD or HDD?
    – heynnema
    Nov 21, 2016 at 23:50

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Is it a bad idea to automatically mount it as my new home directory?

No, this is the recommended thing to do. Bonus points for using a UUID= /etc/fstab entry rather than the less precise /dev/sdxN notation.

As with anything, there are pros and cons. For one thing, if the home partition is going to be accessed by different installs, it is important that the user accounts and numeric user ids match across those installs. This is likely to be the case if you create a single user account during installation. On the other hand, if there are several users involved, it may be a complicated process to reproduce the same user ids across the installs. When managing partitions, it may not be obvious which /home directories go with which installations, so the potential for human error is greater than with a single / partition per install.

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    This is a comment, not an answer.
    – heynnema
    Nov 21, 2016 at 23:49
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    @heynnema ok I will elaborate a bit on the pros and cons Nov 21, 2016 at 23:55
  • One other thing is that 16.04's updated applications may change the format of their settings files. If you later run the older Kubuntu, the older applications may not work properly when they encounter a file format they're not expecting. Mayhem may ensue. Nov 22, 2016 at 0:12

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