From: dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org   
      
   On Mon, 13 May 2024 05:53:49 -0400, Jeff Gaines  wrote:   
   > I want to install Linux with a 250 GB SSD for the OS and a 1 TB SSD for   
   > the data. I tried Googling:   
   >   
   > "how to install Linux with one drive for Linux and one for data" and can't   
   > believe the replies that came up! Most of them are about dual booting or   
   > re-writing Grub.   
   >   
   > I like Linux Mint xfce if that makes a difference.   
   >   
   > Can anybody point me to a guide on this please? I have plenty of   
   > experience doing it on Windows but this is the first attempt with Linux.   
      
   It isn't hard. The critical part has nothing to do with the operating system.   
      
   Which drive the bios or uefi firmware will look for the os in depends on the   
   bios or uefi configuration settings.   
      
   Whether it's the bios firmware looking for the boot drive, or the uefi   
   firmware looking for the efi system partition, where it looks is controlled   
   by the settings.   
      
   I would install the os with just the one drive connected. Power off, connect   
   the second drive, power on/boot. If it doesn't boot, power off and swap the   
   data cables between the two drives.   
      
   Once it's working, create a data partition on the spinning rust drives, mount   
   it, and as root move the directories you want on the rust drive to it,   
   replacing   
   them with symlinks. Just be careful to keep the ownership and permissions the   
   same when moving them.   
      
   You can move just the directories that for things like Downloads, or you can   
   move all of /home, as you prefer.   
      
   I move individual directories, so I end up with   
   $ ls -ld Downloads   
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 dave dave 14 Dec 22 11:15 Downloads -> /s3/Downloads//   
      
   With /s3 being the directory used as a mount point for one of the partitions on   
   the spinning rust drive.   
      
   $ ls -l /s3|grep Downloads   
   drwxr-xr-x  52 dave dave      20480 May  1 17:20 Downloads/   
      
   Be careful of not to try to move something that is in use. If you want to move   
   all of /home, boot from another os, such as using a live iso on a usb drive.   
      
   Regards, Dave Hodgins   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)