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Ntakwetet
Asked: 2020-05-02 08:47:52 +0800 CST

How can I keep my data partition as /home when installing Ubuntu over Windows?

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I have a computer with a disk divided in two partitions. In the first one I have a Windows 10 installation and all the software, in the other one there are my data.

I have decided to switch to Ubuntu, but I need to keep all my data. Also, I want to have my /home directory in a different partition. Is there a way to:

  1. install Ubuntu overwriting the Windows partition and
  2. tell Ubuntu to put the /home directory in the already existing data partition keeping the existing data?
system-installation home-directory partitioning

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    1. You create a backup and make sure you can restore it. That way you can format your system and set it up using EXT. Then restore the files.

    2. No, it can NOT be /home. /home needs to be EXT4 so will get formatted when you mount the partition and it is NTFS.

    You can however mount, not format, your windows partition using NTFS file system to a custom mountpoint (I use /discworld/ for all my personal data and /home/ is empty) and it will get added to your Ubuntu. Mind that it is not the best idea to use Microsoft file systems when not having Windows. You will at some point run into issues where fixing it from within Windows is easier.

    Do this as a temporary measure and plan a conversion of your NTFS system to EXT.

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