Is it possible to change the mount points without formatting the drive or reinstalling the OS?

[steven vollom]

On Sunday 07 June 2009 12:10:03 am David McGlone wrote:
> On Saturday 06 June 2009 04:50:45 pm steven vollom wrote:
> > Due to an emergency this morning,  I had to reinstall my OS.  I wasn't
> > aware that I had to rename the mount points on my partitions when
> > reinstalling; apparently I do.  I expected them to stay as they were
> > before, because I was only working with the boot partition.
> >
> > Currently the computer renamed them as /media/disk, /media/disk1, and
> > /media/disk2.  This has caused me problems in the past, having /media as
> > a mount point.  I have reconfigured and restored my computer the way it
> > was before the re-installation, with a functioning OS again.  Since all
> > my applications are properly configured and the  OS is working perfectly,
> > is it possible to change my mount points on the partitions to /home,
> > /home/backup, and /home/svpersonal without reinstalling the OS and
> > applications again?
>
> Steven, post your fstab file here and I will edit it for you so it will
> work with what you want from above. All you will need to do is make the
> following folders in your /home dir:
>
> backup and svpersonal
> --
> Blessings
> David M.
Hi friend,
I make such colossally stupid mistakes that I am almost afraid to post 
anymore.  I have 2 HDD's again in my old box.  80gb and 200gb.  The 80gb has 
what I hoped would be my 20gb '/' and my /home svpersonal.  The 200gb was to 
be divided into 2 equal partitions one my /home and the other my /home/backup,

I pretty much had it that way prior to the last re-installation.  With my 
primary computer broken, I had a lot of time on my hands and downloaded a few 
movies to keep me from going buggy.  I saved them on my then home drive, off 
the '/' partition.  Four of the movies would not play, and they were 
advertised as .avi files, so I thought perhaps they would play in Xine player.

This is where I got into trouble, because using KpackageKit, I downloaded 
xine.  It and a couple of xine related packages downloaded just fine, but when 
it came to dependencies, it showed a list, and I clicked on apply.  That has 
always worked in the past to support a package that has a need for 
dependencies.  This time, after clicking on apply, the system crashed so 
badly, that I could not boot to a screen at all.  I managed to get a Live CD 
to boot up and decided to just format and install again, so I would have a 
working system.

I couldn't remember for sure how to keep from losing the data I had, and could 
not communicate effectively with the few who were monitoring the List, so I 
chose to only work with the '/' partition.  the second partition on the boot 
drive was already /home/movies, and the 200gb had a 100gb /home partition and 
a 99gb home/backup partition, so I thought they would keep their mount 
identities if I just worked with the '/' partition.  I forgot that I would 
have to re-mount and set the file systems for all the partitions at that time 
to keep them, and I was plagued with a concern for losing the data I had if I 
messed with mount points at that time.  Thus my new dilemma was created.

After the installation, I downloaded another movie and got a notice that my 
drive was getting low.  It was the first time I realized that movies were being 
located on the '/' drive, so to relieve the bloat in the '/' partition, I 
moved then into another drive.  I didn't know which one, but they were all 
virtually empty, except the '/' partition and I figured the Disk Space widget 
would tell me the one.  It was also when I first noticed that they were not in 
a /home or /home/backup or /home/movies partition and were actually mounted as 
/dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2 and /dev/sda2 and root was obviously sda1, but only 
identivied as root.

After moving the movies from the bloated root partition to /dev/sda2, I wanted 
to correct the mounting problem.  I installed the Live CD again thinking I 
could change the mount points without reinstalling the OS and proceeded to do 
the reinstall.  I set the mount points as I wanted, this time leaving the 
'/'root partition alone thinking that when it came time to install the OS 
again, I could stop the process and retain the proper mount points on the 
partitions.  Of course, it would not accept my intentions and warned of losing 
data, so I reversed the installation to where I am now.

When I installed the '/' partition, I used 20gb for size which after 
installation appears to be a little over 17gb.  It currently has 14.7gb of 
unused space after moving the movies to /dev/sda2.  The balance of the 80GiB 
HDD contains all the data that has been saved in the new installation and 
shows a remainder of storage space as 43.7GiB.

Of the 200GiB HDD, /dev/sdb2 is the 99gb partition which after partitioning 
shows a balance of space as 86.8GiB (but has no data stored in it).  The other 
100gb partition of the 200GiB HDD, and is also empty, shows a balance of space 
at 90.2GiB.  You now have an accurate description of my computer's partitions.

Now here is the fstab, which totally confuses me when I look at it:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=6747e921-8b72-4f24-b6a8-c86c919d869a /               ext3    
relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=cc9ed070-52d6-41df-81f4-985108e1436d none            swap    sw              
0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

Here is what I intended and really want as my partitioning setup, if it is 
possible through editing fstab:

'/' Root partition, the current Root.
/home/svpersonal, the current /dev/sda2
/home, the current /dev/sdb1
/home/backup, the current /dev/sdb2

David.  If I can accomplish this by editing fstab, it is my first choice.  It 
is the way I want to set up my computers from now on.  If I can not achieve 
this by editing the fstab, I would rather lose the movies and start over than 
work around the problem another way.

It is more important for me to get a system that has recommended, sound 
mounting, than saving the data through a work-around.

Now this is going to sound pretty silly, but each time I reinstall, I have to 
find a different desktop wallpaper and theme.  I am sure it is a very small 
issue for most computer owners, but remember I am an artist.  Anyway, the one 
I found this time, I like it very much and would like to retain it for future 
installations, so if you are willing and can help me save it, just in case it 
is no longer available when I go to set up again, I would really appreciate 
it.  It is both beautiful and simple.  Desktop Theme:  ioNIZEd Air

Wallpaper:  106251-vladstudio_rainbow_butterfly_1600x1200

Thanks!

Steven                 P.S.:  KpackageKit currently has a problem that I 
believe is associated to the /media mount problems.  (In the /root folder, the 
partitions are identified as /media/disk, /media/disk-1, and /media/disk-2, in 
Dolphin they are identified as root, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, and /dev/sdb2.)
The error message in KpackageKit is as follows:
An initernal system error has occurred - KpachageKit.
A problem we were not expecting has occurred.  Please report this bug with the 
error description.  Details:  Message did not receive a reply (timeout by 
message bus).  It comes up every time I try to use KpackageKit. 

I believe the mounting problem is my mistake and everything else is as a 
result.  The computer is behaving just as it did when I mounted using /media 
for mount points in the past.  And that has been a nightmare.  I am hopeful 
that when I get my mount points as /home and home related alternate 
partitions, the problems associated with /media will go away.

I also am having problems installing Wine and e-Sword, just as before when my 
mount points were /media.