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hasanghaforian
Asked: 2021-03-15 19:40:18 +0800 CST

Install Ubuntu 20.04 and set an external hard disk as /home

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Previously I installed Ubuntu 16.04 and used an external hard disk, which its partition format was NTFS, as its /home. Recently I tried to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 by installing a new one and removing old one. Although I wanted to keep data that are stored in /home. So during the installation I selected Something else option and did delete/format /root, boot and ... . But wrongly I select use as ext4 from drop down list when I wanted to set mount point of external hard disk as /home. After completing the installation the I saw the problem: grub rescue error. At first I tried to fix that by reinstalling grub; bit the problem was not that. Because when I was unplugging the external hard disk the OS could boot (although in a long time) and when it was plugged, I saw grub rescue error.

Now I installed Ubuntu 20.04 for using temporarily and backing up data from external hard disk by connecting it to a machine with MS Windows OS and using ext2explorer. But want to reinstall Ubuntu and use external hard disk as its /home again. I think it may be possible to be done by selecting Something else and deleting/formatting hard disk and setting it as /home. But it takes a long time for restring backed up data from MS Windows to the external hard disk after installing Ubuntu. Is it possible to install Ubuntu and set external hard as /home without doing those?

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1 Answers

  1. You can set a separate partition to contain your /home folder by selecting "Something else" in the installer. Then, you are in charge of partitioning and assigning partitions yourself. You can repartition before installing using for example "Gparted", but you also can repartition from within the "Something else" option of the installer.

    A '/home' partition must support linux permissions. Thus, you cannot use your ntfs partition as /home.

    You could leave the /home partition on the system partition, and use the ntfs partition for the storage of user data. That way, user configuration data remain on the / partition under the /home folder, while user documents, music, etc. could live on the ntfs partition.

    That makes installation easy - you can use a standard install. Once the system is installed, seamless access to the ntfs volume is very easy to set up:

    • Make sure the ntfs partition is automatically mounted during startup (it has to be included in /etc/fstab)
    • Create "Documents", "Music", etc folders on the `ntfs partition.
    • Replace the "Documents", "Music" etc. folders of the users by symbolic links that point to the respective folders on the ntfs volume.

    For the user, this is transparent. They see "Documents" folders in their home folder that immediately bring them to the ntfs volume.

    When working with ntfs:

    • Ensure Windows is always fully shut down after accessing the drive (disable Fast start), such that the ntfs volume is properly closed
    • To keep the ntfs volume healthy, have it connected to Windows now and then, and check it using the MS Windows drive checking tools.

    A critical note: Even if it takes a long time, you always need a good backup before making system changes, even if you are looking for a system change that does not require you to wipe existing data. With a good backup strategy, daily backups actually do not take a long time. So first of all invest in a good backup strategy if you do not have this in place already.

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