I'm new to Linux and just set up Ubuntu 25.10 on my machine that has two hard drives. In my previous Windows setup, I used my primary drive for regular tasks and the secondary for gaming, including my Steam library. Now that I'm switched to Linux, I'm trying to determine the best way to utilize both drives.
I've managed to create a boot, root, home, and swap partition on my primary drive. My main question is: Is it a good idea to make my secondary drive a single partition linked to the existing home mount point on the primary drive? Could this potentially cause issues since the primary drive already has that partition? Or should I consider using a different mount point for the secondary drive? Any suggestions would be appreciated as I'm looking to improve my understanding while using Linux for work and gaming.
4 Answers
Since Steam installs in your /home folder, it's actually a good idea to mount your secondary drive to /home. Also, consider mounting /opt on the second drive for any third-party apps you may want to install in the future. Just thinking ahead!
I really recommend using a separate drive for /home, but make sure to migrate everything from your OS drive to the new location carefully. Temporarily mounting your second drive to /mnt and using commands like `cp -a` to copy files will help avoid issues during the transfer. Always double-check ownership and permissions afterward to keep things running smoothly!
If you mount multiple filesystems to the same directory, remember that only the last one mounted will show up there. So, you might want to reconsider that approach. Using a different mount point for your secondary drive would be safer to avoid this problem.
The Unix file system is pretty flexible, so there are lots of options! I usually mount my drives under /mnt, following a naming convention. For instance, I create directories like /mnt/DriveName/PartitionName for clarity. You could set up soft links in your /home/user directory for easier access too. This way, if something goes wrong, your actual data remains safe.
Thanks for the tip! What mount point should I use then? Is /usr/local a good choice, or do you have something else in mind?