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92 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Move WSL 2 Safely to another Drive
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date: 2020-12-31 19:07
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tags: [wsl, wsl2]
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category: development
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description: 'It is real pain when you have small SSD and Windows Subsystem for Linux
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(WSL) is growing exponentially in size. There is no easy way to move the
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WSL installation to another drive. Here in this blog I will discuss how
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to tackle this problem with bite size steps.'
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---
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# Move WSL 2 Safely to another Drive
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It is real pain when you have small SSD and Windows Subsystem for Linux
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(WSL) is growing exponentially in size. There is no easy way to move the
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WSL installation to another drive. Here in this blog I will discuss how
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to tackle this problem with bite size steps.
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1. Open a PowerShell or Command Prompt with *Admin* access. For this you can
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use WinKey + X shortcut and select **Windows PowerShell(Admin)**.
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2. Check if the WSL 2 installation you are planning to move is is
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currently running/stopped.
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl -l -v
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal>
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NAME STATE VERSION
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* Ubuntu Running 2
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Kali Stopped 2
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```
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3. If its running then you must stop the particular WSL distribution.
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(*Ubuntu* used as example)
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl -t Ubuntu
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```
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4. Export to some folder. (Here exporting *Ubuntu* as *ubuntu-ex.tar*
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to *Z:wsl2*)
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl --export Ubuntu "Z:\\export\\ubuntu-ex.tar"
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```
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5. Unregister previous WSL installation
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl --unregister Ubuntu
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```
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6. Create a new folder and import your WSL installation to that folder.
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> New-Item -Path "Z:\\wsl2" -ItemType Directory
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Directory: Z:\\
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Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
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---- ------------- ------ ----
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d----- 31-12-2020 21:03 wsl2
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl --import Ubuntu "Z:\\wsl2" "Z:\\export\\ubuntu-ex.tar"
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```
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7. Check after import is complete
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl -l -v
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal>
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NAME STATE VERSION
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* Ubuntu Running 2
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Kali Stopped 2
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```
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8. Mark one of your WSL distribution as *(default)*.
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> wsl -s Ubuntu
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```
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9. After exporting your default user will be set as
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<i style="color:red">root</i> , to change it to your desired
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username, run following command
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```powershell
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PS C:\\Users\\Avinal> ubuntu config --default-user user_name
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```
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10. Finally run `wsl` and you have successfully moved your WSL 2
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installation to another drive.
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