help to format, name and automount usb HDD for Home folder

[fozhebert]

Hi,

Newer to Debian here. Still shedding the Windows habit and way of doing things.

I'm trying to format a 1TB USB HDD to use as my home folder as my 250Gb SSD is not large enough to hold all of my data.

I tried formating it with gparted and it formatted it as root. I know I can format from the terminal using the mkfs.ext4 command. My questions are:
1. How to format properly format, name and have the correct mount point for the new ext4 drive so that it becomes my default Home folder (this would be related to a mount point, correct?)
2. How do I transfer all of the hidden folders already in Home to the "new" home?
3. Is this a sane/safe things to do?
4. And would this simplify my system backup (my ultimate goal)

The output from fdisk -l is

Disk /dev/sdc: 931.5 GiB, 1000204885504 bytes, 1953525167 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 0B194F1B-61A9-4875-A38A-7E5095968CAF

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G Microsoft basic data

All I ultimately want is 1 place where all my data is and the simplest way to backup my whole system as required. The backup part is discussion for another day though.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, as are opinions of experienced users.

Fozhebert

[Dai_trying]

I have been using the following method for data storage as I multi-boot and wanted all my data to be always available.

On my DATA partition (or in your case your large HDD) Create required directories (Documents,Pictures,Downloads.etc...) and then automount the partition (HDD) in fstab, and finally create symlinks in my home directory to the DATA partition directories.

After this all my data is held on the DATA partition (HDD) and in my case I can perform the same set-up with any other OS to ensure I always have my DATA available, this also makes data backups easier as everything (that I deem important) is contained in one place.

I use this option instead of having my $HOME in it's entirety on the partition as I do not want each distro to have config files etc that would cause issues in another one, but if you are not using more than one OS that might be another possible solution for you.

There are also quite a few other options of course, I just thought I would offer this one (well, two i guess really).

[fozhebert]

Thanks for the info! That sounds like a good plan. Simple, yet effective.

[Dai_trying]

You're welcome, there are many options for storage and this one works for my current needs.

[kevinthefixer]

This system also avoids the problem of trying to boot the system when the USB cable didn't quite get plugged in. It also makes switching to new OSs or multi-booting your computer easy. I've been keeping my 1/2 terabyte of data on the same HDD for ten years now (it gets backed up about once a year and is about due to be replaced), I can boot its host computer to 4 different OSs and most of my portables can access it through a SAMBA share. Versatile and reliable, I recommend it.