easiest way to add an extra harddrive for /home
 

Hello:

Running mandrake 9.2.

I have a new harddrive which I wish to add for my /home directory, and I am wondering how this is going to work.

1. Do I stick it in, and then configure it so that it can be a second partition for /home. Then linux figures it out and save files accordingly to the new harddrive once the old one becomes entirely full?
2. Or do I have to make a full backup for my /home partition, delete the partition, make a /home partition on the new harddrive, format it, and then use it? If that's the case, what should I do with the old /home partition?

Any advice and ideas?

Thanks a lot!
BFD

install new drive
setup partition
format partition
enter single user run level
login as root
mount old home partition (if not already mounted)
mount new home partition
copy entire contents of old /home to new partition
edit fstab to mount /home to new disk/partition
reboot
have a beer.

Don't forget to copy HIDDEN files too!! I forgot when I changed to a bigger home partition and so lots of config files were lost!

good point. do a man cp and make sure you include all the switches you need for hidden files, empty subfolders and include permissions

IBM put together a good how-to guide on this very topic. -- J.W.

looks good JW, but no beer so i like mine better :)

see this thread . I moved my /home the other day with little problems all of which can be avoided by reading said thread.

Well, in my defense, please note that I'm not the author of the article I linked to. If I had been, there very likely could have been a final step involving certain carbonated beverages. :) -- J.W.

If you were using LVM, you could extend the size of the /home directory by adding another drive.
http://ds9a.nl/lvm-howto/

Another thing to keep in mind is if you have several users on your system, you could use a /home2 partition for home directories on some of the users. The location of a users home page comes from the /etc/passwd file.