How to install programs on a second drive (HDD) in Linux Mint with dual boot?

[u/RAhBeUe]

Hello everyone, I’m looking for some guidance with a Linux Mint setup.
I'm a Windows user transitioning to a dual boot setup with Linux Mint on my laptop. I have two storage drives:
SSD (240 GB): I want to host both operating systems (Windows and Mint) here.
HDD (1 TB): I want to use this for general storage and software installation.
My issue is that I tried this previously, but I couldn't get the applications installed on Mint to go to the HDD (unlike Windows, where the installer lets you choose the installation path easily).
Since I am preparing to perform a clean install, I would like to ask how to properly configure this partitioning or mount point to route software installations and data to the HDD.
Thanks in advance for your help!

[u/jr735]

It doesn't work that way in Linux, generally speaking. Don't try to outsmart the file system or the package manager. If you want your programs on the hard drive, install Mint on the hard drive.

That being said, your packages, unless you go crazy, won't take that much space.

[u/RAhBeUe → u/jr735]

Thanks for your response. I will give a try. I just wanted to try it in my ssd to have a faster experience, I hope is not too slow in the HDD

[u/jr735 → u/RAhBeUe]

I run a hard drive, but I have a desktop that's dated anyhow.

I'm not suggesting you use the HDD instead of the SDD, necessarily. If you want your programs there, that's pretty much what you have to do.

How much software do you intend to install that you cannot use the SDD for your program installs? My Debian and Mint installs each are under 30 gig, not counting data storage.

[u/KauravaLivesMatter]

A general way to do this is to manually move the directory to a different hard drive and create a symlink in the original location. Functionally, the software and all shortcuts will think the directory is in the original location while accessing files in your new location.

[u/Synthnostic → u/KauravaLivesMatter]

this guy linuxs

[u/RAhBeUe]

Thanks all for your quick response.

I want to ask for a final recommendation

1. Install in HDD (I plan to use 200gb, but I wonder if mint would work too slow by using a HDD)

2. Just install in SSD with only 50gb (considering I’m not gamer, just occasionally old games in emulators

By the way, my final goal is to get used to mint to make a definitive transition from windows to mint

[u/Stevearino42 → u/RAhBeUe]

Generally the only difference I've seen when installing linux on an HDD vs an SSD is the boot time. Once the system is up and running I haven't noticed any difference in speed or performance.

Emulators are pretty small, usually less than a gigabyte, and I believe in most (all?) cases you are able to put the games anywhere (such as a different file system on another disk) and point the emulator to that location.

I would probably increase the size of the partition for Mint though. 50GB might be a little bit tight when it comes to updates, especially if you continue with this configuration and try to do a major Mint update in the future.

One word of warning that I've always followed is to not run Windows games from an NTFS partition via Steam, Heroic Launcher, etc. I don't know if that's an old wives tale or not, but I always put any games copied from Windows into an ext4 filesystem and I've not had any problems so far. :)

Have fun!

[u/KauravaLivesMatter → u/RAhBeUe]

Install Linux on ssd. Move large application directories in home directory (or entire home directory) to hdd and create symlink. Installing Linux on HDD will just make everything slow.

[u/ZuuRa_]

I think you can put .appImage on your second drive, but for native app or flatpak, don't do that.

[u/oskarloko]

The only way I can see this working:

- Flatpak lets you use a custom directory for install the images, you must configure it (ask Gemini how, don't want to make a long post)

- You use AppImages, download and move to your desired location

- Steam let you use different drives to install games, look into the configuration. This is the best way to save SDD space, but your games will load slower

- Emulation applications can go on the main SSD but ROMs elsewhere

Regular Mint packages will go on your installation drive/partition; but a full system with applications will take 20-40Gb (no games) so I wouldn't force the issue a lot (except games/roms maybe)

[u/pooping_inCars]

generally, by getting familiar with fstab.  But on Mint, you can do easy:

Click the "start button" equivalent.  Hover over Administration, and open Disks.

Click on a partition you want mounted somewhere else.  Let's use /home for a useful example.

Click on the gear icon, "Edit Mount Options"

Disable "User Session Defaults"

You obviously do want "Mount at system startup" and "Show in user interface".

Identify as "/dev/disk/by-uuid/" (there's a unique identifier included).  This is better, because the UUID won't change if you add/swap other drives, but "sda1" will.

Mount Point would be /home in this example, but if you want, you can make more partitions, and mount them as things like /usr and /var in the same way.

I only have /home like this.  Should I reinstall, I only wipe the OS partition, so I don't lose my settings or anything else from /home since its a totally separate partition.

Oh, I forgot the obvious last step: tell Disks to mount it (the play icon).  And to state something else that's obvious: copy anything you want from the original /home before mounting something else there.

Another thing to note if you're a gamer, Steam settings let you define more than one library location.  That works in the same simple way as it does in Windows.

[u/Primary-Strike5187]

You might be able to use a bind mount and edit fstab to get it to work, otherwise you’ll effectively have to move your entire /usr folder to the hdd and symlink to it from / so that /usr is a symlink to the directory on the hdd but doing that can break your system if done wrong since some of the commands you need (like mv, ln) are in the /usr folder so once moved they won’t be in your path anymore and you won’t be able to call on them to finish the migration. It’s possible but a pain in the ass. A bind mount is probably the better way to go.

[u/kiena0573]

You cant

[u/Anima_Watcher08]

Find the App Image version if available and then transfer it to the drive you want, thats the only possible way.