I have Debian Sarge 3.1 (kernel 2.6) installed at my computer. The / is installed at /dev/hda5 but /home is installed on /dev/hda6.

Now I want to free /dev/hda6 for other purpose. How do I transfer /dev/hda6 (i.e. /home) to /dev/hda5 (where rest of my debian is installed) and unmount /dev/hda6 permanently.

Please help. Thanks in advance.

regards
anindya

make sure you not within /home.
$ cd /
$ cp -Rp /home /home2
(you must have enough space on the / volume..)
$ umount /home
$ rmdir /home
$ mv /home2 /home
comment out the line in /etc/fstab that describe the mount point for /home.

-c

Since /dev/hda5 is your root directory, you can't create a /home directory since it already exists. So make a /home-new directory and copy everything from /home to /home-new. Do this logged in as root without starting x windows. You might want to also enter init level 1 also. "init 1". This will put you into single user mode.

Then cd to the "/" directory and copy the files over.
cd /
cp -aR /home /home-new

The -a option is for "archive". This preserves the user:group and protection settings. I'm not certain which option you need to use to copy the links. I believe that the -a bit takes care of that.

After everything has copied, you can umount /dev/hda6. Then edit your /etc/fstab file to remove the line with the /home entry.

Lastly, "rmdir /home" and "mv /home-new /home". You should be set.

cconstantine and jschiwal,

my sincere regards to both you all for giving attention to my thread. i am successful to empty my drive following your instructions.

i was really in deep trouble and you show me the light. thanks a lot.

anindya