03_Move_HOME_to_new_HDD.md

• Task
• Related links
• Format disks
• Permanently mount disks
• Moving HOME from command line

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Task

• Drive check and format two HDDs: WD Purple and WD Gold.
• Mount two HDDs to Ubuntu file system.
• Move HOME folder to WD Gold HDD.

My answer on AskUbuntu.com: https://askubuntu.com/a/1097160/672237

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Related links

• Terminal method of formatting storage drive
• Add additional HDD in Ubuntu
• Move home folder to second drive

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Format disks

Plug in all necessary SATA and power cables to your HDDs. Load Ubuntu. Press <Win> keyboard and type "Disks" or type in terminal:

gnome-disks&  # open disks utility

Disks utility will be opened:

In this utility you could format your HDDs into Ext4 file system. Otherwise to format disks use commands:

1. fdisk, man fdisk
2. parted, man parted
3. mkfs, man mkfs

# Better use GUI "gnome-disks" utility
# Make file system
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L purple /dev/sdb
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L gold   /dev/sdc

Check disks for errors The command may take some time to complete, depending on the size of your drive. When the process is finished, a number will be displayed. 0 indicates that no errors were found; 1 means that errors were found and corrected; 2 means that the system should be rebooted; 4 indicates that file system errors were found, but could not be corrected. Any other number indicates that the utility did not run correctly. Run the fsck command a second time if any number other than zero appears. This ensures that all errors were corrected.

# Check drive
sudo fsck -y /dev/sdb
sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc

❗ Formatting will delete everything on your hard disk. ❗

You can skip this step if there are any data on the hard disk and you want to not lose it.

Slow formatting should take a lot of time. From 16 upto 20 hours for 4 TB disk.

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Permanently mount disks

Press <CTRL>+<ALT>+<T> keys and open a console.

# Check your /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc discs are visible
lsblk

# Create two directories for HDDs: "WD Purple" and "WD Gold"
sudo mkdir /hdd_purple
sudo mkdir /hdd_gold  # temporary directory

# Temporary mount to the new mount point
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /hdd_purple
sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /hdd_gold

# Check they are mounted.
df -h /hdd_purple
df -h /hdd_gold

# Unmount drives
sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo umount /dev/sdc1
# If "umount: /hdd_purple: target is busy" then:
sudo umount -lf /dev/sdb1
sudo umount -lf /dev/sdc1

# Check they are unmounted.
df -h /hdd_purple
df -h /hdd_gold

Configuration file /etc/fstab has list of all partitions that will be mounted at boot (permanently).

1. Get UUID of HDD and backup /etc/fstab file.

# 1. Show and copy UUID of the HDD with this command:
sudo blkid

My data is:

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="purple" UUID="6ce9ec1f-3bf5-420f-8502-1b4f55f2fc60" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="a14c8357-a8ce-42e4-9772-64ccfad3e226"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="gold" UUID="1d049c7c-4565-480b-a181-2459e8ff8c1b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="4c691b21-b4e3-4dab-ab91-d7bf7272b2b5"

Make a backup of /etc/fstab file to be able to revert changes.

# Make backup
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.2020.07.08.bak

2. Add a new partitions by editing /etc/fstab file as root.

# Edit /etc/fstab
sudo nano /etc/fstab

# At the bottom of fstab file add 2 lines similar to this:
UUID=6ce9ec1f-3bf5-420f-8502-1b4f55f2fc60   /hdd_purple   ext4   defaults           0  2
UUID=1d049c7c-4565-480b-a181-2459e8ff8c1b   /hdd_gold     ext4   defaults           0  2

Your UUID is different.

Save /etc/fstab file with keys <Ctrl>+<S>. Quit the editor with <Ctrl>+<X>.

Note. If you have Midnight Commander running, then <Ctrl>+<O> will switch from nano editor to your MC. Use <Ctrl>+<S> (save) or <Ctrl>+<X> (exit) instead.

3. Check and reboot

To see if the drive is mounted correctly we can simulate the mount process at boot.

# Simulate the mount process
sudo mount -a
df -h
# Change the owner
sudo chown -R root:root /hdd_purple
sudo chown -R root:root /hdd_gold
# Set write permissions to disks
sudo chmod ugo+rwx /hdd_purple  # use -R for recursion
sudo chmod ugo+rwx /hdd_gold    # use -R for recursion
# Check it
ls -hal /
# Reboot
sudo reboot

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Moving HOME from command line

To avoid side effects while working in a graphical environment, perform all actions to move $HOME directory from a terminal with <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F3> hotkeys pressing.

Press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F3> hotkeys and switch to console mode. Login in the console mode.

# Copy /home directory to the new location.
# NOTE: Copying will take A LOT of time!
sudo rsync -avzhXH --progress /home/ /hdd_gold

# Check if everything is copied correctly
ls -hal /hdd_gold

# Delete everything in the /home directory
# Be careful with this command, make sure you have a backup.
sudo rm -rf /home/*

# Make $HOME permanent — edit /etc/fstab configuration file
sudo nano /etc/fstab

# Change string
UUID=1d049c7c-4565-480b-a181-2459e8ff8c1b  /hdd_gold  ext4  defaults  0  2
# to string
UUID=1d049c7c-4565-480b-a181-2459e8ff8c1b  /home      ext4  defaults  0  2
# I.e. change /hdd_golds to /home

# After a reboot, your /home resides on the new drive having plenty of space.
sudo reboot