moving data from home directory to home partition

[Ioannis Vranos]

Corrections in the procedure:


On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:51 PM, Ioannis Vranos
<ioannis.vranos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Default User <hunguponcontent at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I run Ubuntu 11.10, home user, single user setup, no lvm, nothing exotic.
>> For simplicity I have just 2 partitions:
>>
>> /  (bootable, ext4)
>> linux-swap
>>
>> So all of my data (except system and application-generated configuration
>> files, etc.) is in the /home directory of /.  I have heard a number of users
>> recommend a separate home partition, that it makes things easier when
>> updating or upgrading.
>>
>> So could I just:
>> 1) use the Ubuntu install routine from a "live" media to create a new,
>> separate home partition
>> 2) use the Ubuntu install routine from a "live" media to mark the new
>> partition as "home"
>> 3) reboot
>> 4) move the data from /home to the new home partition
>> 5) reboot again
>
> Well, if I had to do that migration, I would:
>
> Backup all my files I do not want to lose in case of failure, and then:
>
> install and use gparted package, resize the root partition to leave
> some empty space on hard disk, then create a new partition, create a

NO: > new ext4 filesystem on the new partition, edit /etc/fstab to have the
        > new partition mounted at /home directory on next boot,

YES: new ext4 filesystem on the new partition,

> then I would
> run
>
> shutdown now
>
> to enter single-user runlevel (you are the root user in that runlevel)
> - or alternatively boot by choosing the option "Ubuntu, with Linux
> 3.0.0-15-generic (recovery mode)"  and there choose the equivalent
> options - or alternatively use a Live Ubuntu CD/DVD and become a
> *root*
>
> (no other user must be logged in, since you are going to move the
> entire /home directory contents)
>
> then mount the new partition in a temporary directory, move the
> contents of /home directory to the temporary directory, unmount the
> temporary directory,

edit /etc/fstab (in single user mode) or in the mounted partition if
you use Live CD/DVD, to have the
new partition mounted at /home directory on next boot,

> then reboot, and if nothing went wrong, you are
> ready to go.
>
>
> However, I think that there is no reason to do that for home user
> installations, a separate home directory makes sense usually in a
> server (usually without X.Org installed), with many users that you do
> not trust environment.
>
> In any case, I think it is better to leave it at least your next clean
> installation of Ubuntu.
>
> However, for home users I think it is not needed to have separate
> /home partition. But you may wish to experiment, which is OK too.
>
>
>> Would that work?  Or should I just wait until 12.04 and do a fresh install
>> with a separate home partition then?
>
> Then it is better, if you need to do it.


-- 
Ioannis Vranos

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