Ubuntu – / on SSD, should I put /var on a HDD

hard drivemountpartitioningssd

I've recently just installed Ubuntu 14.04 and I'm still very new to Linux/Ubuntu. I've got a laptop in which I have installed an 120GB SSD and a 750GB HDD.

Currently, I have Ubuntu installed on the SSD and mounted the HDD through fstab to /mnt/var. Now I want to have programs installed on the HDD and keep the SSD clean for Ubuntu.

As far as I understand, programs are installed in the /var directory, and so I have been trying to copy the current data from /var to /mnt/var and then edit fstab to mount the HDD to /var.

Whenever I reboot, though, I get a lot of different issues: First, it said it couldn't find some drivers. Then, after another try doing it a bit differently it couldn't find /var.

My question is, and I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I followed a bunch of different guides and none worked for me, how do I properly set it up they way I want?

Best Answer

That's a bad idea. If you put the installed applications on the SSD you'll get a more stable operating system and better performance. You've got a 120GB SSD, so you should not hesitate to use it for your installed applications.

Your 750GB hard drive is certainly not there for nothing. Here is my suggestion for how to use the 750GB hard drive optimally. Install Ubuntu on your SSD, including your /home directory, everything goes on your SSD. Then use your 750GB hard drive as a data drive to store your personal files. No matter what happens to your operating system, your personal files will be protected and accessible on the 750GB hard drive. Even if your operating system becomes completely unusable or if you do a fresh install of Ubuntu, all of your personal files will still be there intact on the 750GB hard drive.

You don't need to worry about your 120GB SSD being too small. A 120GB SSD has more than enough space to install Ubuntu in this way. In fact even a 60GB partition has more than enough space for Ubuntu and a lot of installed applications.

On my Ubuntu there are a few files that I use regularly. In order to improve performance and open these files fast, I keep these files on my SSD too in my /home directory. I don't have many of these files, so my /home directory is quite small.

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