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I'm a real newbie with Linux and Ubuntu.

I bought an Asus laptop with 2 HDD. An SSD 256Go where I installed Ubuntu and and an HDD 1To.

I just want to move personnal files from my SSD to HDD.

This seems like a very common task but I don't know how to do it.

EDIT

lsblk command

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0  14,5M  1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/45
loop1    7:1    0     4M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/352
loop2    7:2    0    91M  1 loop /snap/core/6350
loop3    7:3    0  34,6M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/818
loop4    7:4    0  1008K  1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/57
loop5    7:5    0   2,3M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/260
loop6    7:6    0    13M  1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/139
loop7    7:7    0   3,7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/70
loop8    7:8    0    59M  1 loop /snap/notes/4
loop9    7:9    0  35,3M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198
loop10   7:10   0 140,7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/82
loop11   7:11   0  89,3M  1 loop /snap/core/6673
loop12   7:12   0  53,7M  1 loop /snap/core18/782
loop13   7:13   0  14,8M  1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/206
loop14   7:14   0   3,7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/57
loop15   7:15   0 140,7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/74
sda      8:0    0 931,5G  0 disk 
└─sda1   8:1    0 931,5G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 238,5G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   260M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2   8:18   0    16M  0 part 
├─sdb3   8:19   0 146,3G  0 part 
├─sdb4   8:20   0   800M  0 part 
└─sdb5   8:21   0  91,2G  0 part /
Azoulay Jason
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  • I see something odd: your ssd is the 2nd disk. and the hdd the 1ts one. your hdd is NOT mounted. You need to sort that out 1st, https://askubuntu.com/questions/125257/how-do-i-add-an-additional-hard-drive has pointers on that but that is going to be a bit more difficult than this question ;) – Rinzwind Apr 09 '19 at 19:53
  • This is basically a straightforward move exercise. Assuming by personal files you mean **data** files (not personal configuration files) you need to know where these are stored in your partitions. Looking at your output it doesn't say a lot. I'd be guessing *sdb3* and maybe in your home folder on *sdb5*, but you need to be clear where these files are located before you can move anything. – Paul Benson Apr 09 '19 at 20:37
  • It seems like a hard manipulation and I'm afraid to do stupid things – Azoulay Jason Apr 09 '19 at 20:43

1 Answers1

1

The ssd will have your system files including /home, /home/$USER/ and all your personal files in there. The hdd will be mounted at a mountpoint. I used /discworld as an example and it will look like this (important: everywhere I use "discworld" you need to change it to your mount point):

/
/discworld

Open a terminal and 1st make a backup of your /home/$USER/

sudo chmod -R $USER:$USER /discworld
cd ~ 
tar cvz /home/backup /home/$USER/*
cp ~.config/user-dirs.dirs ~.config/user-dirs.dirs.old
  • That last one is a settings file that points to all your user directories and we will use this.
  • The 2nd one is a backup of your current files. If you have a lot of videos that might be a large file so if you are confident to do without a backup feel free. But it is recommended ;)
  • The chmod will change the permissions of your hdd to your user.
  • Confirm with ls that it will show directories like Pictures, Downloads (they might be in a different language if you do not use English) and you are in the correct place before proceeding.

Before moving your files all over do a ...

gedit ~.config/user-dirs.dirs

and change the directories to this 

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="/discworld/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="/discword/Downloas"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="/discworld/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="/discworld/Public" 
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="/discworld/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="/discworld/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="/discworld/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="/discworld/Videos"

Save it and then move all your directories to the mount point:

mv -R Documents Music Pictures Templates Videos Desktop Downloads  Public /discworld/

On the desktop do a control-f5 or a "organize desktop by name" and it will reload the desktop. In your "files" (Nautilus) you can replace the defaults with the new directories.

If you ever decide to re-install: format / and /home but MOUNT the HDD without a format and it will automatically add the mount point to your fresh installation.

Rinzwind
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  • Hey thanks for your answer but like I said I'm a fresh newbie. Isn't there an "easiest way" like a UI ? – Azoulay Jason Apr 09 '19 at 19:38
  • When you talk about mountpoint is it sda1 for example ? – Azoulay Jason Apr 09 '19 at 19:45
  • You can do all this through a GUI but then the answer become a lot more problematic: I use Budgie. You use gnome3 or 2 or something else. I would advice to start using the terminal. It is universal across all Ubuntu's ;) No sda1 is your 1st disk, 1st partition so is likely your ssd. sdb1 would be 2nd disk 1 partition and is likely your hdd (see `df` in command line for a list of mounts), A mount point is a name that is a directory on your system. – Rinzwind Apr 09 '19 at 19:46
  • Yes that's why I want to try your answer – Azoulay Jason Apr 09 '19 at 19:48
  • Way too complicated and unnecessarily so. – Paul Benson Apr 09 '19 at 20:42
  • @PaulBenson fee free to provide an answer to show me wrong that is equally good: I used a backup procedure and the method the system provides. And no it is not complicated; it is longer due to the fact I accept azoulay jason is new. – Rinzwind Apr 09 '19 at 20:44
  • It's not wrong just long-winded and I'd need to know exactly *where* the data files are. – Paul Benson Apr 09 '19 at 20:48