Placing Home Folder on seperate partition

General Help
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Due to some problems on another distro forum, I'm going to start at the beginning, and give extra information so there is no confusion. I have asked this on two other distro forums, but have yet to get an answer, so I'll ask here, maybe this time someone will help me. As far back as Windows 95 I have always had my OS on the C: drive, and the documents, pictures, other things like that on the D: drive. Separate HDD's. Then when Windows Vista hit, I changed to Linux, but dual booted windows just in case I hit one of those pesky Windows only programs. At that point I had sda was Windows, sdb, was the home folder (documents, pics etc..), and linux was on sdc. I kept that arrangement until W10 came and and went back. I've came back to Linux because W11 will be another Vista, and W8/8.1, maybe worse.

With W10, I just had separate partitions instead of different drives. Last time on Linux, I had something like a 250Gig for OS's, and a 500Gig for everything else. Now I have a 1TB, and only about 490 up to 520Gig, depending on the day. Instead of the 500 to 700 I averaged in the past. Anyway, when beta testing W11, I very easily told W10 and W11 to share those folders, but it was both windows. Since returning to Linux, I renamed a partition, and my layout was Windows sda, LInux sdc, and "Shared files" on sdb., I have not been able to get the LInux home folders to mesh with the Windows shared. I have rebooted into W10, and made sure I had all files shared correctly and completely, Googling the proper procedure to make sure everthing was right.

However, first of all, If I try to tell Linux to combine the Linux documents and the shared documents, I end up with two documents folders on sdb, or an error message that they can't be combined. I can get online in a browser, and oh say, click save picture as, and save to the shared pictures folder. But once I do what I need to do, I can not delete that picture, because Windows owns the folder. I would have asked this yesterday while fighting with this the last time. But down to maintaince, worst words in the "I need help" games. LOL. I had to restart my browser, and lost all the hints I had at what I had done, but I'm sure you already know. I followed 8 or 9 links for changes in Windows, and Linux cli, so far no luck.

What do I need to do? Do you have enough information?

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I have never shared a directory with a dual-boot Windows.
I am however haring a directory with a VM Windows which sits on the separate drive. It is extremely simple.

When I install Linux, I leave everything in default and do not touch anything under the Home directory.

For large multimedia files I have yet another large capacity SSD for them. I mount this large capacity SSD only when I need it.

If you must have a dual-boot and a shared directory, I hope other volunteers could help you.

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Unless I am mistaken, what the OP appears to want to do, may be accomplished, by running a slew of commands listed on this website.

Startreker

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I now realised the beauty of VM shared folders.
Even it sits on the ext4 format, VM Windows have absolutely no problem accessing it.

VM Windows itself is also sitting on the ext4 format disk, but Windows thinks it is running on NTFS.

Come to think about of it, it is fascinating :star:

1 Like
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Isn't VM's just one giant compatibility layer like Wine? It allows you to run other OS's on another OS, sounds a lot like a compatibility layer like Wine and PROTON, only difference is, its different software, instead of different OS's.

Cool :sunglasses:

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Startreker, I am sure you are probably correct, actually I kind of felt that was the case before posting. However, unlike you, I've only been on this forum for a couple weeks, and have not had time to learn where everything is by heart. So I thought I would ask for a little help finding those threads. You know they could be anywhere in any of the 10 categories, 20 sub categories, or 45 sub-sub categories. There's what over 100 pages of threads here? On my own it will take me only about 17 weeks to go through all of it, just reading the titles unless it sounds like it might be related. Google isn't telling me anything, so I came here. Maybe I misunderstood your comment, and you didn't mean I should find it without any help. If that's the case where you suggest I start looking software or hardware? I would put it in software, but my best friend would say hardware, see why it can be so confusing when you don't know how things are arranged?

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I meant nothing bad, I just went looking for a site that probably had a guide on specific steps to take, to do what you wanted to do. But I am no longer providing support anymore on this site, so look to others such as Aravisian, Harvey, Storm, Zaba, FrenchPress for support.

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Then I apologize, just the way you worded it I took it wrong. I'm just used to having to be the first to jump. So sometimes I act like a a--. I don't mind doing some research, but as I said, I have no idea how things are arranged and it will take forever to learn it, a few more visits and I'll have an idea where to start. Not to mention being overwhelmed just becaue I'm changing to Linux. I'm not one of those that think windows is better, I don't, they are just different, most things windows is easier, just a few mouse clicks, but even the gui of linux isn't as easy to set up. Twenty years ago, I would have loved the learning curve, but at my age, with my medications, it's very difficult to learn. I love using the cli, reminds me of when I was learning basic and dos in high school, it's not that bad I write down commands in a notebook that is used for nothing else, so I can use them again. but I went to set up a program a week ago through gui, that would have taken clicking the icon in windows, but as it was I had to spend an hour looking up some network information so I could enter it, windows would have just pulled it from the network information, but Linux is more secure than that. Different not better. I'm struggling with this, and have no one else I know that uses Linux to lean on for help. None of that's an excuse for being rude toward you though.

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I saw no rudeness in your response; in fact it was quite professional.
To your Issue:

Uhh... I am not sure I understand it. Setting the /home directory on another partition is quite a simple thing. But what you are describing sounds more like a Shared Folder issue, with NTFS and trying to set permissions on each shared directory.
It would be complicated for even a seasoned professional in either Windows or Linux I.T.

1 Like
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Thank you for your response. If you knew what was going through my head when I wrote that response, you would understand why I said I was rude. LOL.

Anyway, the last time I ran Linux, it was Kubuntu, and I had the exact same setup I"'m asking about now. I took my existing Windows folder that contained "MY FILES" (docs, pics etc..), and set permission for I think it was "Everyone" could have been something else. Then I don't remember what I did to move the Kubuntu folders, but somehow I combined them, and it was easy. That was Windows 7.

Sitting here I'm wondering if it would work better if I moved the files in those folders over to a Linux folder, then created new folders through Linux then movedd the files to those folders, then gave Windows permission, then went to Windows and did the 3 step "Move Location" procedure to be those folders. Might have to copy those files in the LInux folder, then use windows to delete the old ones. I think I will try that tomorrow. Too tired to do all that tonight, and have other stuff to do anyway.

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I... uhh... I think I understand this... I understand this very well....
I wonder though if Kubuntu is more familiar to you and you have had it organized your way in the past, if installing the Plasma Desktop Environment on Zorin (As I and as Swarfendor have done) may serve you well.
It is quite easy to do.

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