1

I am using Ubuntu on WSL, which I downloaded a few months ago. However, my storage space on my local SSD (only 256 GB) filled up very quickly. I now have a 2TB external SSD, to which I would like to move my files. I want to be able to use WSL locally still, but just move the large amount of data I have on my local drive to my external SSD.

I tried downloading my /home folder of Ubuntu as a .tar file, moving it over to the D: drive, and then unpacking it. However, now when I try and do nearly anything in my original instance of Ubuntu it will not work. I have tried downloading a separate instance of Ubuntu, and that works fine (but has no files in it because it is a new instance). However, my original instance no longer works.

So, what I know is that I have a copy of all the data I care about (the /home dir which has been moved to the D: drive). I am willing to do a fresh instance if that is what's best. But, I am looking forward here: What is the best way (essentially what would a very experienced WSL user do) to have these two separate instances?

George Vassilakis
  • 13

1 Answers1

0

First, do restore the tarball of your home directory back into the existing distribution. To do so, start your distribution with:

wsl ~ -u root

IIRC, tar extract as root will extract the files as the original user that created the tarball.

Once the distribution is working correctly again, see this answer for how to move the distribution to the other drive safely.

NotTheDr01ds
  • 28,025