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all | Rob is 20,355 days old today. |
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Entries this day: barefoot-walking-event-was-nice i-found-an-extra-hard-drive-on-my-laptop barefoot walking event was nice permalinki found an extra hard drive on my laptop (written 08:40 Saturday 07 June 2025 JST) tl;dr WWwwwait, what?? I've got an extra terabyte drive that ~~isn't~~ has never been mounted??? Do you remember back when we didn't have large language models helpfully parsing text and answering questions on a trice? Back in 2020 I bought a brand spankin' new Lemur laptop Upon its arrival, I set it up and it was amazing; so much more disk space that I even made a 10GB empty file just in case I needed to quickly delete something if I ran out of room. Now, 4.5 years later, the Laptop is still my workhorse, doing everything I need for Marble Track 3, robnugen.com, b.robnugen.com, badmin, quick, plus my clients AB and FS. But, its battery has given up the ghost. And when I bought a new battery in 2024, it lasted 0 seconds after I pulled the power cord. It never effectively held a charge. (I think "new" meant it hadn't been used, but was probably made in 2020 and just sitting around waiting for its chance to shine.) So, it's time to buy a new Laptop. System76 is now selling Lemur as While setting it up, I see the option to add an extra SSD drive. "Hmmm," I wondered, "how does this compare to my Lemur 10?" hey ChatGPT, This is what System76.com shows regarding for my storage spec on my purchase of lemur10 in 2020: does it mean I have two volumes? How do I see them in CLI?
Yes, from that System76 purchase spec, it strongly suggests that you ordered two NVMe drives:
This means your Lemur Pro lemp10 likely came with two physical SSDs installed. Now let’s confirm that on your system. 🔍 See storage devices from CLIRun this command to list all block devices:
Look for two entries like Example output:
You should see two distinct devices with sizes matching 500 GB and 1 TB. If you'd like help interpreting the Okay let's see...
Thanks, Rob. That output tells us everything we need. Here's your full disk layout in plain terms: 🧩 You have **two internal NVMe SSDs**, just like the purchase specs:🅰️ `nvme0n1` – **Samsung 980 PRO 500GB (PCIe Gen4)**
🅱️ `nvme1n1` – **Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB (PCIe Gen3)**
🚀 What you can do nextTo use the second 1TB drive (
Edit
That'll tell you if it's already formatted ( 🧠 Summary| Device | Size | Type | Status |
| --------- | ------ | --------------- | -------------------------- |
| `nvme0n1` | 500 GB | Gen4 OS Drive | In use (Pop! OS, root) |
| `nvme1n1` | 1 TB | Gen3 Data Drive | Unmounted (yet available!) |
Let me know if you'd like help formatting, mounting permanently, or using the 1TB drive for backup/data. HOLEE COW I have had an extra 1 TB on my system and never mounted it!! OMG Thank you for finding it!!! 😄 Haha YES!!! You're officially sitting on a terabyte of treasure, my friend — like discovering a hidden room in your own house! Now that you've found it, you can:
Let me know what you want to use it for and I’ll walk you through setup in a snap. 🎉 When they prepare the laptop, doesn't System76 mount that drive by default? Great question — and you’re absolutely right to wonder! Here's how it typically works: 🔧 **System76's Default Behavior with Secondary Drives**When you configure a Lemur Pro with multiple NVMe drives, System76 generally only installs Pop! OS on the primary drive (usually the faster Gen4 one — in your case, the 500 GB SSD). Here's what they usually do:
They do this by design to avoid making assumptions. Automounting or formatting your extra drive could:
🧠 TL;DR**No**, System76 does **not mount or format** the second drive by default. It's left for you to decide what to do with — especially if you're a power user (which you clearly are 😄). Let me know if you’d like:
Well I'll tell you I feel like a power-dork because I've been at times erasing files and looking for storage space when I had loads... sigh.
Thank you for helping with this. Starting with my end-goal in mind: This laptop is going to continue working on my stop motion animation project. For this discussion, let's call my currently-mounted 500GB disk "Mr Boot". The currently-unmounted 1TB disk is "Mr Free" current status:All of the files on this laptop (including for stop-motion) are stored on Mr Boot.Stop motion files are in `~/mt3/`Planned idea overview:
My main question now is if I should partition the new drive or just use directories to keep stuff separate. I'm leaning toward directories so I won't be limited by storage space, but it sure looks like I won't be limited because it's twice as big as what I've had so far. 10:51Given that I was only using 500GB for all 4.5 years on Lemur What is likeliehood that I can buy an SSD in 4 years and pop it into the slot to give my machine an upgrade then, with possibly better SSD than I can buy now? Fantastic forward-thinking question. The good news? The odds are very much in your favor. Here's a grounded breakdown: 🧠 TL;DR**Very likely** (85–95%) that you'll be able to buy a better, cheaper SSD in 4 years and drop it right into your Lemur — **especially if you buy one with an extra NVMe slot now.** 🔍 Why it's likely:✅ 1. **NVMe M.2 is extremely standardized**
✅ 2. **Prices will drop, performance will rise**
✅ 3. **System76 supports user upgrades**
🔧 Risks / Caveats| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| M.2 slot type changes (e.g. BGA-only soldered SSDs) | Very low (System76 avoids this) | Upgrade impossible | Stick with System76-style laptops |
| Gen5 SSDs run hot, may need heatsinks | Moderate (esp. for high-end models) | Thermal throttling | Buy SSD with integrated heatsink or proper thermal pad |
| BIOS compatibility (very rare) | Very low | Boot issues | Easily solvable with firmware updates |
| SSD supply chain weirdness | Low | Temporary price hike | Buy when needed, not in panic |
🛒 So what should you do now?
ooh I wonder if I can move mrfree to the new laptop once my lemp10 has finished its work on my stop motion... 🎉 Yes, Rob — you absolutely can move Mr Free to your new Lemur (lemp12) once it retires from stop motion duty on lemp10. It’s a smart and sustainable plan. Here’s how to make that transition smooth and safe: ✅ Why it’ll work:
🔄 Migration Strategy1. **Wait until lemp10 has fully wrapped its duties**
2. **Power down both machines**
3. **Mount it on the new system**Assuming the label
Or (once you confirm the label still exists):
Then you can update 🧠 Bonus Tips
💡 Long-Term OptionsOnce you’ve moved Mr Free:
Let me know when you're near the migration point — we can prepare a clean unmount + fstab removal + safety backup checklist. You're stewarding your creative and technical resources with real intention 👑 |