Ubuntu
util-linux package

Using multiple hot swappable drives

Asked by Don Senavitis

I have Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows XP on a 1Gb drive using NTFS and ext3.
I then installed a drive bay so I can turn on/off drives 1 through 4 when needed (drive 5 is fixed).
The drive bay is 4 hot swappable drives with individual on/off buttons.
My intention was to be able to boot with different drives on or off.
The 5 drives were mostly NTFS and I was intending to switch everything to ext4.
I converted the 5th drive to ext4 and started moving data to it from another drive.
Then I started experiencing the / partition running out of room (I had to expand it 3 times).
I originally had a / 20Gb partiton, then 28Gb, then 40Gb and now 340Gb.
My /Home partition is 400Gb or so
I am wondering if I need to reconfigure the drives or how they are mounted?
Currently they get Mounted after boot using "authentication" and are mounted under /media with the uuid #.
Do I need to mount the other drives under /Home partition?
Do I need to convert the boot drive to ext4 first?
I have a 1TB drive that is unallocated so I guess I could make that ext4 then migrate to it

Note: Also using Virtualbox with an expanding virtual hard drive (30Gb max).
I installed WinXP onto this virtual drive which could account for the first time the / partition ran out of room

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If you use UUIDs they will be mounted according to /etc/fstab and you will not have mount issues. You can install the boot loader to the fixed drive then the boot option for each drive will need to be configured. Could get messy but once its all in place you are smooth sailing.

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Don Senavitis (dsenavitis) said : 		#2

Well, the issue really wasn't so much "mounting" as it was having my "/" directory keep running out of room. I just bought a new Hard drive and started over. Now running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 x64 in ext4 on a 1.5Tb drive and I couldn't be happier. My file transfer rates are faster than ever. I already transferred gigs of data and my "/" partition is just over 5Gb. I didn't do anything special with my drive bays yet. I just turn 'em on when needed, as I don't run my PC 24/7.

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