Arch Linux

LeonN

Member

Registered: 2022-12-19

Posts: 92

Best way to use all HDD and SSD space

I've been using Arch for 6 months and I switched to Windows to test some stuff. In that installation, I had mounted my 128 GB SSD to the root directory and my 1TB HDD to one partition called /stuff where files and some other programs would go. At the end, I noticed that most of the programs where installed on the SSD since they were installed through the package manager and the AUR. The HDD had a lot of free space as only a few Steam games were there and the files I had weren't too heavy. With that said, I'd like to ask some advices on how to manage those disks. In Windows, I would install the OS on the SSD and use the HDD for files and programs. I don't know if there's a way to achieve that on Arch, or if using the disks as RAID is a possible solution, etc.

Section8

Member

Registered: 2023-05-12

Posts: 23

Re: Best way to use all HDD and SSD space

You are free to do it however you like.  You could, for example, have your /root on the SSD, and put /home on the HDD.  However, if your installation is like mine, that would have all of your steam games installed on the HDD.

I have everything mounted on SSD partitions, and have an old HDD mounted as /mnt/data.  My big /home data directories (ripped DVDs, ripped CDs, digital photo collection, etc) are all bind-mounted to the /mnt/data filesystem on the HDD.

LeonN

Member

Registered: 2022-12-19

Posts: 92

Re: Best way to use all HDD and SSD space

While doing my research, I did read about that method of mounting the HDD to the /home, but my concern was that software from the package manager is installed on /ust/bin as far as I know, and I want software that doesn't requiere fast access to the disk to be on the HDD so I don't waste SSD space.

Last edited by LeonN (2023-10-02 15:06:19)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,928

Re: Best way to use all HDD and SSD space

my concern was that software from the package manager is installed on /ust/bin as far as I know, and I want software that doesn't requiere fast access to the disk to be on the HDD so I don't waste SSD space.

If a package uses /opt instead of /usr/bin and /opt maps to the HDD then those packages can be split out.  Otherwise it is not really achievable.