'~' location & file system question - virtual machine

[markfilipak]

Hello penguins!

I just read that putting '/' and '~' on different drives is not only possible, it's preferable.

Can '~' be a shared directory between a Mint Guest and a Win-7 Host? Can '~' be resident on the Host? Can the file system be NTFS?

Thanks!

Mark.

[catweazel]

Can '~' be a shared directory between a Mint Guest and a Win-7 Host? Can '~' be resident on the Host? Can the file system be NTFS?

Yes, yes and yes. You will need to use what's called a hard link if you plan to move your home location but it is fraught with potential issues. If you're not too familiar with linux, a backup is recommended, followed by a reinstall using the 'something else' option. You create a / and a home partition in the installer and set the mount points accordingly.

The only issue with using an NTFS partition is that you'll lose the ability to manage linux permissions on your files.

The better option might be to make some room for a shared partition, format it as NTFS and use it to transfer files between your two OSen.

[markfilipak]

Can '~' be a shared directory between a Mint Guest and a Win-7 Host? Can '~' be resident on the Host? Can the file system be NTFS?

Yes, yes and yes. You will need to use what's called a hard link if you plan to move your home location but it is fraught with potential issues. If you're not too familiar with linux, a backup is recommended, followed by a reinstall using the 'something else' option. You create a / and a home partition in the installer and set the mount points accordingly.

The only issue with using an NTFS partition is that you'll lose the ability to manage linux permissions on your files.

That doesn't sound too good.

The better option might be to make some room for a shared partition, format it as NTFS and use it to transfer files between your two OSen.

That is what I already have. To wit:

'/media/sf_Data/' <==> 'C:\Data\'.

But backing up 'C:\Data\' doesn't back up '/home/mark/'. I can create more shared directories, as needed.

Basically, I want to put '/home/mark/' on a drive that I can back up. Right now, if something in MInt goes south, I don't have any way to recover. Most of what I want, I put into '/media/sf_Data/' and use a Windows-based backup to maintain a backup copy. That even works for my email:

'/media/sf_Data/email/0ysydkep.default' <==> 'C:\Data\email\0ysydkep.default',

but I have not discovered a way to put my Pale Moon profile in 'sf_Data'. My Pale Moon profile is here:

'/home/mark/.moonchild productions/pale moon/1oyhyp4u.default'.

The developer of Pale Moon says that my profile can't be moved elsewhere. I thought I could do it with a hard link that redirected to somewhere in 'sf_Data', but I haven't figured out how to create a hard link ... Nemo doesn't help with that, I guess. I just carry on and hold my breath.

[catweazel]

I haven't figured out how to create a hard link ...

type man ln in a terminal.