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Broadsworde
Asked: 2018-08-04 04:49:51 +0800 CST

How do I move my Home directory onto a USB EXT4 drive (18.04) [duplicate]

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Following a default minimal installation of 18.04, I now want to move my /home directory to an EXT4 formatted USB flash drive.

By default in 18.04 the /home directory is mounted as part of the / partition.

Is there a clean and safe way to move/reconfigure my /home directory to the USB flash drive, or would it be cleaner/safer to reinstall Ubuntu and configure the /home directory on USB during the install process? Or, is having your /home folder on a separate USB drive ill-advised?

I've looked at many similar questions/answers, but can't find a contemporary clean and clear solution.

home-directory boot usb

1 Answers

  1. Copy home to Portable USB drive

    Format flash drive to ext4.

    As root use Grsync to copy home/{username} from internal drive to the flash drive. Preserving owner, permissions and group works for me.

    enter image description here

    Copy or write down UUID of the new partition.

    Edit /etc/fstab on the internal drive to add the /home UUID:

    UUID={UUID from above} /home   ext4    defaults        0       0

    It might be a good idea to use an encrypted home when traveling.

    Thanks to ubfan1 for hint

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