Mounting a physically separate drive as my home folder? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

(!) Be careful while following these tips (!) because targeting the wrong device may destroy the data on your 120 GB disk (!)

Guessing your 1TB drive is /dev/sdb:

1. Setup a new disk with the desired partition:

   $ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
   create a new partition table - command: o
   create a new partition - command: n   (accept all proposed values)
   specify the type of the new partition - command: t / Type 83
   write the data to the disk and leave fdisk - command: w
   

2. Format the new disk/partition:

   sudo mkfs.ext4 -L Home /dev/sdb1
   

3. Mount the new partition temporarily, change owner, and copy your home-directory:

   mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
   chown -R $USER.$USER /mnt
   cp -a $HOME/* /mnt/
   

4. Unmount the partition:

   umount /mnt
   

5. Look for the UUID assigned to your new partition:

   sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sdb1 | grep UUID
   

6. Edit /etc/fstab and add a line:

   sudo vi /etc/fstab
   

   The new line (take the UUID from the tune2fs command) and replace USERNAME with your username i.e. the name of your home directory:

   UUID=15cc846c-36e4-42dd-8bfe-30acc8965d51 /home/USERNAME          ext4    defaults        0       2
   

After rebooting the system, you should see the 1TB partition mounted as your home directory. If the mount fails, you would see your old home directory as a kind of fallback.