Move Ubuntu `/home` partition to another one

Moving /home on Ubuntu to a new ext4 partition with rsync, checking the copy with diff, and switching over in fstab.

1. Create a new partition in ext4 format
2. Trasnfer files from old partition to new partition
3. Switch over to new partition by editing /etc/fstab

If you’re trying to unmount the partition and it keeps saying it is busy, use the following command to see what’s keeping the partition busy

1lsof | grep/media/aamnah/Files

in my case it was a bunch of node processes..

Before starting file transfer, close all applications (e.g. Chrome) This will avoid any temporary files changing during the transfer.

I don’t usually care about the temp files, but it’ll tell you the transferred files are different from the original ones when you check if all files were successfully copied when you use diff

Clear ~/.cache/ and delete node_modules before starting the sync, it’ll save you hours.

Start the transfer with

1sudo rsync -aXS --progress --exclude='/*/.gvfs' /home/. /media/aamnah/Files/.

• a archive mode (equals -rlptgoD)
• X preserve extended attributes
• S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks

Confirm that all files were copied

1sudo diff -r /home /media/aamnah/Files -x ".gvfs/*"

After editing /etc/fstab you can mount new partitions with

1sudo mount -a

• Ubuntu Docs: Partitioning/Home/Moving