1

I'm new to Ubuntu, coming from a fairly decent Windows background. I'm running into an available space issue because I can't figure out how to install stuff to drives other than the OS drive. Please help ...?

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad W530 with the following drives:

  1. 24GB mSATA card SSD (Named "Computer")
  2. 500GB spindle HDD installed in the secondary drive bay (Named "Programs")
  3. 1.0TB spindle HDD in a caddy where the optical drive used to be (Named "Storage")

My plan was to have the 24GB mSATA be OS-only; then the 500GB secondary drive serve as program/game storage; and lastly the 1.0TB drive to serve as file storage, picture storage, video storage, movie storage, all the other junk.

Apparently everything has been getting installed to the OS drive and now I'm down to 100MB left.

I've been reading about Ubuntu and playing with the OS for a month or so now and I'm having a lot of fun (it reminds me of the fun I had learning DOS as a kid) ... but my Googlefu is failing me in finding answers that are clear and easy to understand, or at all, to the following questions:

  1. How do I move programs from "Computer" to "Programs"?
  2. How do I install all new programs to "Programs"?
  3. How do I designate "Storage" as the default place for saving files to? (I tried to set it as the storage place for Spotify to dump local files to but got some weird sort of error I couldn't work out)

Is there a really good, dumbed-down, tutorial for Ubuntu total newbies to help me understand how drives work in this OS? Maybe something that teaches me how to do things I know how to do in Windows, but the Ubuntu way?

Lastly, thanks for any help I receive, in advance. I'm really digging this OS a lot and I'm finding myself spending way more time with it than Windows when I'm at home.

Kyle
  • 11
  • 1
  • Congrats on seeing the light of Linux! – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit Oct 23 '16 at 18:28
  • Also see: http://askubuntu.com/questions/313592/how-to-install-applications-to-a-separate-hdd – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit Oct 23 '16 at 18:31
  • You do not normally move programs as in Linux there is not one folder that all of a program is installed. In old days many of Linux folders might be on separate partitions which could be on different drives. But my full install is using 7.9GB including /home on my SSD, but I have a large /mnt/data partition with almost all of my data normally in /home. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1811198 and: http://askubuntu.com/questions/461394/how-to-partition-ssdhdd – oldfred Oct 23 '16 at 18:33
  • (Sorry I hit enter too soon)

    Very interesting ... I knew going into this that the Ubuntu OS was compact enough that I could recycle this 24GB mSATA effectively for the OS, but for some reason there are 4 partitions on this thing and when I look at disk usage (see screenshot link ) it shows me 8.1GB total with about 2GB free (I just uninstalled a bunch of stuff).

    So it sounds like I need to better understand how Ubuntu handles disk drives; is there a good beginner tutorial you can recommend?

     – Kyle Oct 23 '16 at 18:49
  • OK, so I am reading that first article and I see this, "Move all data folders from the ssd to the hdd, and then create links to them in your home folder. Creating links is easy, just right click a folder and select 'Make link'." ... so that's interesting. So I can just drag and drop programs whereever I want as long as to this "linking process"? – Kyle Oct 23 '16 at 18:56
  • So does /home kinda sorta correlate to "c:/programfiles" in Windows?

    Sorry I'm just full of questions right now, I'm probably being super annoying .. sorry about that.

     – Kyle Oct 23 '16 at 19:00
  • To better explain my comment about the weird partitioning I took another screenshot showing the referenced 8.1GB partition and the other three around it.

    To me it seems 'odd' that there are three partitions designated as "filesystem", but maybe this is just how Ubuntu works and I need to re-learn the "Ubunutu Way" :)

     – Kyle Oct 23 '16 at 19:06
  • Partition1 is the EFI System Partition, do not touch it. Partition2 is your /-partition and a bit to small. Partition3 is the swap-partition, this partition could be on one of your HDD's. I assume that Partition4 is your /home-partition and could be on one off your HDD's as well. To have the partitions for swap and /home on a different drive would give you the ability to use nearly all off the space of your SSD for the /-partition. But this is a workaround with creating partitions, copy over the content of old partitions, resizing the /-partition, editing the fstab-file – mook765 Oct 23 '16 at 19:49
  • @kyle just setup your SWAP partition on another drive. I have Ubuntu in a 29GB partition on mSATA but made mistake of creating swap on mSATA too that is never used unless I intentionally force Chrome to use up all RAM. I was concerned when my Storage hit 85% so I deleted Downloads stuff and some kernel source code I was playing with to get back to 62℅. I could delete some of the 10 kernels installed to save more space. Plus I could create /home on another drive like the comments above suggest you do. Welcome to I hope you love it like most people do :) – WinEunuuchs2Unix Oct 23 '16 at 20:08
  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! We’re sorry, but Ask Ubuntu is not a forum, but a Question & Answer site: it works best if you ask one question, so you can receive one answer. When you ask multiple questions, you need to find one expert versed in multiple areas, which becomes unlikelier the more questions you put into, well, one question! ;-) So please, split up your question into multiple questions and drop me a comment so I can answer one of your questions. – David Foerster Oct 24 '16 at 01:42

0 Answers0