I have 2 HDD’s
sda (150GB SSD - Linux mint installed root directory)
sde (1TBHDD - /home directory)
How do I install Open SUSE 15.4 by not erasing the HOME directory on /sde.
Any help or direction please.
NEWBIE help needed.
Do you want to install openSUSE instead of Linux mint, or do you want to install it beside Linux mint (multi-boot)?
In any case we need a real picture of those disks so please post (as root)
fdisk -l
and
lsblk -f
And while you seem to be rather new here (welcome!):
There is an important, but not easy to find feature on the forums.
Please in the future use CODE tags around copied/pasted computer text in a post. It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. When applicable copy/paste complete, that is including the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt.
An example is here: Using CODE tags Around your paste.
By choosing to install somewhere on sda, and mount an existing filesystem on sde to /home, you will be offered an opportunity to format it that is wisely not pre-selected. IOW, by default it should not even touch sde directly, merely include it in /etc/fstab on your new installation. It will write to it if you choose to have the installer create a new user, but just to setup the new user’s basic home skeleton.
Note that most openSUSE users prefer to see its peculiarly cased name spelled and cased correctly, lower case open with upper case SUSE, always, with the exception of case sensitive situations, such as URIs, email addresses and filesystem names. openSUSE, always, like you see on opensuse.org web pages. 
Note BTW that host/domain names in URLs are case independent:
henk@boven:~> nslookup forums.openSUSE.org
Server: 195.121.1.34
Address: 195.121.1.34#53
Non-authoritative answer:
forums.openSUSE.org canonical name = login2.openSUSE.org.
Name: login2.openSUSE.org
Address: 195.135.221.161
Name: login2.openSUSE.org
Address: 2001:67c:2178:8::161
henk@boven:~> nslookup forums.opensuse.org
Server: 195.121.1.34
Address: 195.121.1.34#53
Non-authoritative answer:
forums.opensuse.org canonical name = login2.opensuse.org.
Name: login2.opensuse.org
Address: 195.135.221.161
Name: login2.opensuse.org
Address: 2001:67c:2178:8::161
henk@boven:~>
And when I type Forums.openSUSE.org in the address bar of Firefox, it connects correct (and then shows https://forums.opensuse.org/ in the address bar 
)
But you are correct. I also think that people should use the correct spelling which they can see on almost each and every web page provide by the openSUSE community.
I did write URI, not (URL - Wikipedia). They aren’t identical twins. When I enter file:///home/Downloads/NeweggOrder.jpg into the Firefox urlbar, I get a 404 response, because the file’s name is neweggOrder.jpg. So, case can matter in using a web browser’s urlbar, regardless what anyone calls what they see or put there.
Oh yes, in file names (at least when it is on Unix/Linux), it matters. I said “host/domain names”.
Thank you @hcvv
Here are results
hp@hplinuxmint:~$ fdisk -l
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdd: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdc: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sde: Permission denied
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdf: Permission denied
and
hp@hplinuxmint:~$ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 vfat 76E3-7437
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs 903EE87B3EE85BAA
└─sda4 ntfs 40501A6A501A66C6
sdb
├─sdb1 vfat F5DD-ECA9
├─sdb2 swap bbd41c1e-7d70-4f47-8441-8629b8ad075a [SWAP]
└─sdb3 btrfs dd08cf4e-3c43-466b-88f0-d09a0714b26c 635.6G 5% /run/timeshift/backup
sdc
└─sdc1 ntfs Data4TB 0E5DDE184BFA6774
sdd
└─sdd1 btrfs 2771d728-c878-4b9b-82ed-76fff57099ad 1.7T 5% /run/timeshift/backup-home
sde
└─sde1 ntfs USER2TB 5E12FD2412FD0237 1.4T 25% /media/hp/USER2TB
sdf iso9660 openSUSE-Leap-15.4-DVD-x86_64243 2022-05-28-00-52-28-55
├─sdf1 vfat 8287-3151
└─sdf2 iso9660 openSUSE-Leap-15.4-DVD-x86_64243 2022-05-28-00-52-21-74
Fdisk requires root login, or equivalent access authority (sudo, su, su -), as hcvv indicated “please post (as root)”.
I wanted to add that I want to overwrite the LINUX MINT installation.
hp@hplinuxmint:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for hp:
Disk /dev/sdb: 698.65 GiB, 750156374016 bytes, 1465149168 sectors
Disk model: Crucial_CT750MX3
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 19B7DB96-3049-4CAB-B9F3-CFF643301A1B
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 999423 997376 487M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 999424 63500287 62500864 29.8G Linux swap
/dev/sdb3 63500288 1465147391 1401647104 668.4G Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/sda: 1.84 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG HD204UI
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 48C2CC7F-F5DA-43CF-8107-EB6023B9FECB
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 206847 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda2 206848 239615 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3 239616 3905983121 3905743506 1.8T Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4 3905984512 3907026943 1042432 509M Windows recovery environment
Disk /dev/sdd: 1.84 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG HD204UI
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: CF6ACA47-2626-4240-B73F-F5598FAA71F3
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdd1 2048 3907028991 3907026944 1.8T Linux filesystem
Disk /dev/sdc: 3.65 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD40EFRX-68W
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B892B3B3-0AA9-456D-9240-FFEA3D5E7EAB
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 7814035455 7814033408 3.7T Microsoft basic data
Disk /dev/sde: 1.84 TiB, 2000365289472 bytes, 3906963456 sectors
Disk model: My Passport 0844
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xce0afacc
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sde1 2048 3906959359 3906957312 1.8T 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Disk /dev/sdf: 7.51 GiB, 8053063680 bytes, 15728640 sectors
Disk model: POLLEX 8G
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7587f7c1
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdf1 2660 9715 7056 3.5M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdf2 * 9716 7974911 7965196 3.8G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
and
hp@hplinuxmint:~$ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 vfat 76E3-7437
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs 903EE87B3EE85BAA
└─sda4 ntfs 40501A6A501A66C6
sdb
├─sdb1 vfat F5DD-ECA9
├─sdb2 swap bbd41c1e-7d70-4f47-8441-8629b8ad075a [SWAP]
└─sdb3 btrfs dd08cf4e-3c43-466b-88f0-d09a0714b26c 635.6G 5% /run/timeshift/backup
sdc
└─sdc1 ntfs Data4TB 0E5DDE184BFA6774
sdd
└─sdd1 btrfs 2771d728-c878-4b9b-82ed-76fff57099ad 1.7T 5% /run/timeshift/backup-home
sde
└─sde1 ntfs USER2TB 5E12FD2412FD0237 1.4T 25% /media/hp/USER2TB
sdf iso9660 openSUSE-Leap-15.4-DVD-x86_64243 2022-05-28-00-52-28-55
├─sdf1 vfat 8287-3151
└─sdf2 iso9660 openSUSE-Leap-15.4-DVD-x86_64243 2022-05-28-00-52-21-74
This seems to conflict with post #9, which shows Windows is using a 2TB SAMSUNG HD204UI on /dev/sda; and Linux is using all of a 750GB Crucial_CT750MX3 on /dev/sdb. Furthermore, /dev/sde shows as a Windows 2GB filesystem on what appears to be an external device “Passport”, neither of which would be a suitable location in their current status for /home. You need to clarify what exactly you want to go where, and your end goal(s), before anyone can be very helpful.
Absolutely, my initial post, I randomly chose the hard drive names.
I will now clarify
sdb: Currently contains LINUX MINT. Needs to be replaced by OPEN SUSE [contains EFI, SWAP and ROOT]
sdd: Contains /home. I need this intact. Once the installation is done, this will continue to be OPEN SUSE’s /home directory.
Hope this clarify’s my post.
Thank you.
HP
To proceed with your plan, when you reach the Leap partitioning phase, choose advanced mode and use existing partitions. This provides you the opportunity to specify using each of the existing partitions on sdb and sdd that Mint used. For each selection, you will be offered a choice to format or not, to select what format to use if you wish to reformat, and what its mount point should be. Simply make sure to not format sdd1, and to format each partition on sdb according to your wishes, along with the appropriate mount points: /dev/sdb1 on /boot/efi/, /dev/sdb2 on swap, and /dev/sdb3 on /. The / partition will naturally need to be formatted, but whether to format the ESP or the swap is up to you, not critical either way.
I suggest your plan to make Leap use all of sdb in conjunction with using sdd for /home would be quite wasteful of available space, as it now is with Mint. If it was mine I would remove sdb3 and probably sdb2. Depending on whether suspend to disk functionality is desired or not, I might create a new sdb2 swap that is either much smaller than RAM size, or one that is only barely as big as installed RAM. Creating swap that is twice the size of installed RAM is an anachronism, rarely justified with modern computers. After the swap I would create a a new sdb3 that is considerably smaller than the remaining unused space, probably no bigger than about 60GB or 80GB if with BTRFS. That would allow adding Tumbleweed, and 15.5, and some other distros later on in some of the remaining space, and still leave space for more. Extra installations on additional partitions provide an opportunity to be a beta tester for the next release, or test whether a new release is good enough for you to make a full switch to, among other things.
Most of my openSUSE installations are using EXT4 and 08.00GiB or less space for /, with home on a separate partition, plus other distros, on average, more than 12 per PC. The OS really doesn’t require an awful lot of space unless you wish to install all available software, including all development tools, and build software yourself. Even then I don’t know if you could fill a 60GB filesystem at installation time, and would only need more for snapshots of the overabundantly sized installation. Recommended minimum BTRFS size for a typical user is 40GB. The amount Mint is currently using is about 16-17 times that.
Would it matter that the directory hosting my /home directory is encrypted.
I can install OPENSUSE using the same password.
It’s not something I’ve ever had reason to try. I can’t imagine any reason why not. Possibly someone else can chime in about this by you starting a thread suitably titled.
Hello:
/home can be edited and not formatted, I think openSUSE usually inherits it.
I wonder if mint’s /home won’t give problems like openSUSE? ; Just in case make a backup of it.
What I have done other times is to use the same names, keys etc and thus I get an openSUSE from mint with its /home , but sometimes it is necessary to make small fixes.
In the format proposals, you have to choose the advanced format (everything but /home will have to be formatted).
Start :
1st- efi partition : edit —> format -----> mount in /boot/efi partition type : EFI system partition .
(observations if it is an ssd disk, it does not have parameters in fstab) .
2º- Partition / “root” : Edit ----> format ----> enable snapshots and if it does not come out you have to create a new root if you want snapshots) mount or mount point / -----> type linux partition .
3º- Partition /home : edit ----> DO NOT FORMAT -----> mount in : /home (that is the mount point) -----> type of partition : linux
(use same password and username) .
4th Swap partition: Edit ----> format ------> mount in swap ----> type partition :swap .
Once you have finished editing everything, click finish and continue the installation (everything is overwritten, except /home).
https://paste.opensuse.org/images/48262318.jpg
https://paste.opensuse.org/images/25443472.jpg
Edited with a translator, sorry if there is an error; Thank you Best regards .
Edit: When editing the root, I think it assumes that it comes with snapshots, that’s why I think it’s better than editing it, it’s creating it again so that the snapshot option appears (to try) …
Best regards