# Moving data from 2 HDDs to 1 HDD - **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux\ **Created:** [January 28, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412 "2022-01-28T17:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/1 "2022-01-28T17:59:36Z")
Fair warning, I don’t mess around with Linux much anymore. As in, my last daily distro was Mandrake 5.x (I think). I am getting ready to move 2 HDD’s (3 and 2 TB, into a 12 TB drive. I want to consolidate them to as one currently has Movies and the other has TV Shows. That being said, the path of them is problematic. They are located at: HTPC\Plex\Movies\Public\Movies HTPC\Plex\TV Shows\Public\TV Shows Ideally, I would like to shorten up their location, which I should be able to according to this article: [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201154537-move-media-content-to-a-new-location/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201154537-move-media-content-to-a-new-location/) I moved all of my content over an external enclosure, but was that a mistake? I currently have the drive formatted as ext4. I now I still need to do partitions, and IIRC, I cannot do that through GNOME. So, command line it is. I will pull my headless server out of the utility room and get to work on it at my desktop. What am I missing to move an external HDD internal? Is it just the permissions? I know this has got to be really basic, but I am missing something. I also seem to remember their being a really nice write up on doing this in Linux, but I just can’t find it right now. If anyone has a link, that would be awesome. Server Version#: 1.25.3.5409 Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS - GNU/Linux 5.4.0-96-generic x86\_64 ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/2 "2022-01-28T18:22:21Z")
This basic ? 🙂 > [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2): > > Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed … ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/3 "2022-01-28T19:01:15Z")
That is the exact article I was thinking of. Thanks so much! And now that I think about it, I wonder if I might not be better off migrating to my Nvidia Shield Pro. I would have to reformat, but I have the server config backed up. What would I lose going from an i5-9400? I plan on only 1 HDD (with backups on my main desktop). ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/4 "2022-01-28T19:02:38Z")
You would lose the CPU power – burning subtitles & converting audio. The Shield CPU is good but not “I5 class” ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/5 "2022-01-28T19:03:38Z")
Fair enough. And now that I think about it, I would lose my DVR and OTA TV. Alrighty then, off to do some reading. Thanks so much. ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/6 "2022-01-30T20:26:09Z")
So this is weird, I went to do everything and my keyboard won’t work on my Ubuntu 20.04 box. Any ideas? I can’t even find the accessibility option to use a virtual keyboard. I couldn’t even get it to work doing boot up to go into the BIOS/UEFI. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 10:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/7 "2022-01-30T22:31:59Z")
get a new keyboard. what you have must be ancient or defective ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/8 "2022-01-30T22:50:03Z")
Weird. It worked on the box 4-5 months ago when I pulled it out to do some backups. And its working on this system. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/9 "2022-01-30T23:24:08Z")
bad usb connector slot? ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 1:18am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/10 "2022-01-31T01:18:08Z")
Tried that. I switched it with the working slot for the Mouse (which works). This is really weird. I went in through putty and checked to make sure nothing needed to be updated. I went through these steps: > Which didn’t work. Then, I tried out the on-screen keyboard, and THAT doesn’t work. So, I may have to blow it all up. Unless anyone can think of anything, I’ll disconnect my current HDD’s in there, reformat the SSD, and then reconnect them, re-add them, then start the backup process. ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 1:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/11 "2022-01-31T01:32:49Z")
I got the on screen keyboard to work. Moving over everything now. This is going to take a while. ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/12 "2022-02-03T16:30:29Z")
Just to follow up, I figured out what went wrong with the keyboard. I had my external BD drive plugged into my Keyboard (USB2.0) port. So, I was just moving my mouse and BD drive back and forth. Shocking that I couldn’t get into the BIOS by hitting the Del key. Anyway, got that done, and foolishly updated the BIOS and lost my Intel Ethernet driver somehow. Tried a few things, tried switching from NetworkManager to networkd, back again. To sum up, after 3 short hours on a snow day, I got network connectivity back. So, back to working on the HDD switch. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/13 "2022-02-03T20:38:16Z")
When you finally get it all working again??? DON’T TOUCH IT! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![TheEmrys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TheEmrys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheEmrys)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/14 "2022-02-03T20:59:28Z")
Not going to lie, once I got it going again, I had a couple beers. I actually really tempted to just go for a networked enclosure, let my Nvidia Shield act as the server, and then just sell the i5-9400 box. I need a new TV tuner anyway, and I might just go with an HDhomerun and get the ATSC with the hopes that Plex will get the licensing figured out for DVR. Man, Linux is just a world of its own. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 4:09am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/15 "2022-02-04T04:09:12Z")
Linux is definitely not for the timid. It will do EXACTLY what you tell it… Including 🔪 your fingers off. I’ve been doing this for several decades now and it still surprises me at times. Once you do understand it – it’s fantastic 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2022, 4:09am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/moving-data-from-2-hdds-to-1-hdd/773412/16 "2022-05-05T04:09:20Z")
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