This was I can wipe the drive it’s on and install a new OS without losing anything in /home/

  • blotz@lemmy.world
    20·
    11 months ago

    Log in as root to avoid trying to make sure no files in /home/ are being read/written to.

    Step 1: copy data to new drive. Mount new drive to /mnt/. cp -ra /home/* /mnt/. -a means that all permissions remain the same which will mean that your user can still read them. Check the man page for more details. This command will take a while. Use -v to see progress. You should see a folder with your username appear.

    Step 2. Prepare /home for new drive. Move the files to a new folder. This is done to make sure you can still easily go back. mv /home/ /home-bak/ keep your old home dir safe in case a mistake was made. mkdir /home/.

    Step 3. Mount your new drive. Mount your drive to /home/ and check if you can login. If everything went correctly, you should be able to just login. Finally you need to update your /etc/fstab to include this new drive. This will make sure your home drive mounts when you start your os. If everything is working, you can delete your home-bak as well.

    • EdgeRunner@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      13·
      11 months ago

      I dont like the MV home. 😅

      My advice :

      • login as root.
      • rsync -av /home, on the new disk.
      • fstab : comment the old home’s line, don’t delete, and copy it to change the identifier (path or uuid).
      • noob tips, add a new file in the new home.
      • login to check it is ok (with su - user), and check there is the new file.

      You can now delete or keep it as a save.

      • blotz@lemmy.world
        7·
        11 months ago

        the mv home is just renaming the folder so you can mount home in the same space. Rsync is probably better than cp but I didn’t want to suggest tools that op doesn’t have installed.

    • blotz@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 months ago

      This is a rough guide written on mobile. its probably best if someone double check some of this stuff before op tries it.

  • mcepl@lemmy.world
    5·
    11 months ago
    1. Many Linux installers can preserve /home when asked nicely.
    2. (as root) rsync -avz /home/youruser/ other-machine:/home/
  • Rustmilian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    In what way? Like a home partition?
    Home should just be a folder you can copy over in most cases.
    If it’s a separate partition, most distros can just install to the other partitions without overwriting the home partition.