BUMP:
I have a new Zorin Pro OS installed on a small drive (250gb) and have a secondary drive of 2Tb where I want all my programs and data installed -- how can I guide the "Software" program (and other relevant installers) to at least give me the option of installing to the second - larger - drive.
When it comes to Software, they do not take up a lot of space. Setting up Software to install program data to a secondary drive would be a bit counter-productive. Instead of making calls to the native drive, it must bridge to a different one.
This can get very complicated, very quickly. Especially if you use Steam with Proton, WINE, POL, etc.
Greater complexity in rigging can lead to greater points of failure.
It can be done. But isn't recommended.
The larger drive is best served as a Storage Unit; where you can put Game files, Movies, Images and anything else that is bulky and can be called, but is not reliant on ROOT system files to run like programs and software are.
You also can set your /home
directory on your secondary drive, where you can store your personal data, configuration, WINE and Steam files, etc., thereby having that bulk stored on the larger drive. I think this may suit your needs far better than configuring Program Files to install elsewhere than ROOT.
Thanks yes that solution (/home on the second drive) sounds like it can work. Is it as simple as moving /home
to that drive?
It is not, sadly.
I believe @swarfendor437 's Unofficial Manual for Zorin OS may be handy for referencing how.
@337harvey is knowledgeable about this, as well.
Or I can help - but I cannot at this moment because I need to slip into a deep coma.
I'm happy to read the manual, I'm currently dealing with some other issues as well so will come to this topic soooon . Thank you for the manual reference.
If you want a /home partition you will not "just" copy and paste. Format the partition as ext4. Then copy your /home directory to the new partition. Don't delete the old one just yet.
This is part of the process. Then you need to open disks and look at the partition UUID (click the partition that will be your /home, look at the description below the graphic representation of the partitions). Keep disks open or copy the UUID to a text file.
Open /etc/fstab in your favorite text editor. I'll use the example of gedit from the terminal (because you will need elevated privileges). sudo gedit /etc/fstab
.
Copy the first, and possibly only entry, and paste it below the existing entry, leaving space between then for readability.
Edit the UUID to be the number from the new /home partition. If there is a "system" tag, you can remove or change this to whatever you like.
It will be the label for the entry.
The / can be changed to /home. This specifies where to mount the partition.
Next you want to add the word defaults, which helps to configure permissions
The two numbers, 0 2, after the "defaults" keyword should be left alone or modified to 0 2 of they aren't this digits.
Save the file and rename the old directory to home_bak or home_old: sudo mv ~/home ~/home_old
. Then reboot.
If all goes well, you will be in your new home partition. If everything is as it should be, you can use the sudo rm -r ~/home_old
.
If not, you can drop to the terminal, edit the fstab with # in front of the new lines, and return your /home_old to /home to get back in and troubleshoot your error.