# Using 2 disks, one for system, one for user data? **URL:** \ **Category:** Aurora\ **Created:** [November 29, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171 "2025-11-29T13:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rrbb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a4c791/32.png) [@rrbb](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/rrbb)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/1 "2025-11-29T13:42:25Z")
The laptop I’m installing Aurora on has 2 disks, a 1 TB HDD, and a 256GB SSD. I thought I’d install the system on the SSD for speed and put user data on the HDD. Is this a good approach? Setting this up during install doesn’t seem to be possible, but what’s the advised way to do it? Is it ok to simply set up the paritions and edit the system’s fstab? Or is there a better way? Thanks in advance for your help ---
**Author:** ![klmcw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb8c5e/32.png) [@klmcw](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/klmcw)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/2 "2025-11-29T14:23:18Z")
Many of us need to edit `/etc/fstab` for special use cases like using ZFS instead of btrfs, mounting NFS volumes, etc. The understanding is that these types of customizations are definitely allowed (i.e., there is special handling built-in for the R/W `/etc` dir) but not supported directly by Universal Blue. I wrote an article summarizing the docs for ostree handling of `/etc` and `/var`. These docs helped me gain a better understanding of this part of the atomic desktop concept. Enjoy. > **[Did You Know‐How ostree (rpm ostree) update merges changes into etc and var](https://github.com/klmcwhirter/stuff/wiki/Did-You-Know%E2%80%90How-ostree-(rpm-ostree)-update-merges-changes-into-etc-and-var)** > > Spot to keep stuff. Contribute to klmcwhirter/stuff development by creating an account on GitHub. ---
**Author:** ![locke496](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/locke496/32/8035_2.png) [@locke496](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/locke496)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/3 "2025-11-29T16:48:52Z")
I think it is a good idea to put the system on the SSD and user data on the HDD In such a case I would - install the system on the SSD and ignoring the second disk - later when the newly system is up I would - a) add the second disk in `/etc/fstab` (under the assumption that it has a file system already) - b) then test with `sudo mount -a` and `sudo systemctl daemon-reload` - If `sudo mount -a` did mount the new disk then you may reboot ---
**Author:** ![LetsCallHimSteve](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/letscallhimsteve/32/4980_2.png) [@LetsCallHimSteve](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/LetsCallHimSteve)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2025, 7:15am UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/4 "2025-11-30T07:15:40Z")
Or one can simply set the second disk as `/var/home` during installation if using BTRFS, I have this same config on two different machines, and they both work fine. ---
**Author:** ![rrbb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a4c791/32.png) [@rrbb](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/rrbb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/5 "2025-11-30T19:10:07Z")
Thanks all for the answers. I didn’t find the way to achieve it in the installation process (I installed before I posted 😉 ) , so I’ll do it manually. I mount the partition under /var/data and put symlinks `~/Documents/`, `~/Videos` etc to that partition so that `~/.config` and `~/.cache` are still on the SSD. ---
**Author:** ![rrbb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a4c791/32.png) [@rrbb](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/rrbb)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/6 "2025-12-08T16:27:21Z")
A note for future readers of this thread: I needed to give the rights to the LibreOffice flatpak to write files to /var/data/$USER/. I did it like this: ```auto sudo flatpak override org.libreoffice.LibreOffice --filesystem=/var/data/$USER ``` ---
**Author:** ![zilexa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/universal-blue.discourse.group/zilexa/32/2221_2.png) [@zilexa](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/u/zilexa)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/using-2-disks-one-for-system-one-for-user-data/11171/7 "2025-12-08T17:28:13Z")
I would only move your /Documents, /Pictures folders to a separate drive. Or just a separate btrfs subvolume. Easy to snapshot to other locations. Those two contain precious data. All other folders especially app related folders can be recreated/configured.