Partitioning hard drives...
in [UK Linux]
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From: zed on 22 Jun 2008 23:13 Good afternoon from New Zealand. I currently run LinuxMINT. My computer has 2 x 200GB hard drives (one IDE and the other SATA), and I seek advice as to the best way to partition them. Here is what I would like to do. IDE drive - partition as follows: /boot/ext3 (would 100 MB be enough) /root/ext3 (would 5 GB be enough) /swap/ext3 (4 GB - I have 2GB RAM) /home/ext3 (balance of HD) Note: My present set up also has a partition named "extended". No idea where it came from. Can someone explain, please? SATA drive /?? ext 3 (don't know what to name it but would like to use it to for all my music files/image files, if possible) Now for the questions: (1) Are there any flaws in what I'm suggesting? (2) Can I partition both the IDE and SATA drives on one pass through the installation process? (3) Or would I have to use GParted to partition the SATA drive after installation? It goes without saying that any alternative partitioning suggestions will be more than welcome. And a last question. In subsequent installation of future versions of Linux, what do I do about the separate Home partition? Do I just ignore it? Will the installation procedure accept that or will it create another Home partition? These questions must sound completely banal to those with more knowledge but I don't want to get it wrong. zed
From: Andy Burns on 22 Jun 2008 23:34 On 23/06/2008 04:13, zed wrote: > IDE drive - partition as follows: > /boot/ext3 (would 100 MB be enough) yes > /root/ext3 (would 5 GB be enough) that's proably a bit small, unless you're going to install a minimal system, I'd go for 8-10GB. or go for 4GB LV and leave some slack in your VG which you can allocate later. > /swap/ext3 (4 GB - I have 2GB RAM) > /home/ext3 (balance of HD) OK > Note: My present set up also has a partition named "extended". No idea where > it came from. Can someone explain, please? if you only want 4 partiions, make them all primary and you won't need an extended, it's a way of having more partiions by nesting them. > SATA drive > /?? ext 3 (don't know what to name it but would like to use it to for all my > music files/image files, if possible) any thought of using software raid on /boot and /root ? also consider putting half the swap on each disk > Now for the questions: > > (1) Are there any flaws in what I'm suggesting? Partitiong schemes are always up for argument ;-) > (2) Can I partition both the IDE and SATA drives on one pass through the > installation process? > (3) Or would I have to use GParted to partition the SATA drive after > installation? dunno what MINT allows, other distros allow you to customise multiple disks at install time, so it ought to. > It goes without saying that any alternative partitioning suggestions will be > more than welcome. > > And a last question. > > In subsequent installation of future versions of Linux, what do I do about > the separate Home partition? Do I just ignore it? Will the installation > procedure accept that or will it create another Home partition? dunne whether default of MINT is to wipe some/all/none existing partitions by default, but you ought to be able to leave /home alone in future
From: Will Kemp on 23 Jun 2008 03:16 zed wrote: > Good afternoon from New Zealand. Have you checked out aus.computers.linux? It's fairly quiet most of the time, but there are quite a few helpful and knowledgeable people lurking there. > I currently run LinuxMINT. > > My computer has 2 x 200GB hard drives (one IDE and the other SATA), and I > seek advice as to the best way to partition them. Here is what I would like > to do. > > IDE drive - partition as follows: > /boot/ext3 (would 100 MB be enough) Not "/boot/ext3". Just "/boot" - it's an ext3 filesystem. 50MB would be enough. My /boot currently contains 13MB and it's not likely ever to get to 50. > /root/ext3 (would 5 GB be enough) If you mean the root partition, that's just "/". /root is the administrator ("root") home directory and /root/ext3 is a subdirectory in root's home directory. If you're talking about the root partition, then it's probably not enough. I normally use 15GB these days. It depends on what you end up installing etc, but it's very annoying running out of space in /. > /swap/ext3 (4 GB - I have 2GB RAM) Depending on what you use the system for, you probably don't really need any swap at all. Certainly not twice as much as the amount of RAM when you've got 2GB of the stuff. If i had 2GB on my personal system, i'd have a 2GB swap partition so i could suspend to disk if i wanted to, but i wouldn't use it for normal running (i.e., i'd comment it out in /etc/fstab) The system will be much more responsive without a swap partition. > /home/ext3 (balance of HD) > > Note: My present set up also has a partition named "extended". No idea where > it came from. Can someone explain, please? Dunno. Maybe mint automatically sets up everything except the root partition in an extended partition. RH/Fedora used to do that by default, i think. But i never let it automatically partition, so i don't know if it still does. Probably though. Chances are, your existing system has / on a primary partition plus an extended partition with logical partitions inside it for /home, swap, etc. > SATA drive > /?? ext 3 (don't know what to name it but would like to use it to for all my > music files/image files, if possible) Depending on what you're doing, you may find you won't need to use it for a long time. 200GB is a fairly large amount of space. If you're storing movies - particularly if you're editing video in a fairly raw form, you'll eat it up quickly though. If it was me, i think i'd feel inclined to leave the rest of drive one as unallocated space for future use and make the whole of drive two into /home. It's a bit irritating having files you're using every day scattered across two partitions/drives. > Now for the questions: > > (1) Are there any flaws in what I'm suggesting? > (2) Can I partition both the IDE and SATA drives on one pass through the > installation process? > (3) Or would I have to use GParted to partition the SATA drive after > installation? I'd probably use fdisk to parition the SATA drive after installation. But i can't see it really makes any difference which way you do it. > It goes without saying that any alternative partitioning suggestions will be > more than welcome. I think it's best to keep it as simple as possible. A boot partition if necessary (which it probably isn't in your case), a root partition, swap space, and a /home partition are all you need. The more partitions you've got, the more space you waste. > And a last question. > > In subsequent installation of future versions of Linux, what do I do about > the separate Home partition? Do I just ignore it? Will the installation > procedure accept that or will it create another Home partition? Any decent distro should allow you to leave /home (or any other partition) in tact when you install it. If it doesn't allow that, then don't use it, cos there will most probably be other problems too! > These questions must sound completely banal to those with more knowledge but > I don't want to get it wrong. Don't worry about it. Nobody's born knowing this stuff! -- http://SnapAndScribble.com
From: Gordon Henderson on 23 Jun 2008 03:34 In article <gemini.k2wbls006ac5c06e3.zed(a)zed.net.nz>, zed <zed(a)zed.net.nz> wrote: >Good afternoon from New Zealand. > >I currently run LinuxMINT. > >My computer has 2 x 200GB hard drives (one IDE and the other SATA), and I >seek advice as to the best way to partition them. Here is what I would like >to do. > >IDE drive - partition as follows: >/boot/ext3 (would 100 MB be enough) >/root/ext3 (would 5 GB be enough) >/swap/ext3 (4 GB - I have 2GB RAM) >/home/ext3 (balance of HD) > >Note: My present set up also has a partition named "extended". No idea where >it came from. Can someone explain, please? > >SATA drive >/?? ext 3 (don't know what to name it but would like to use it to for all my >music files/image files, if possible) There's been "holy wars" fought over more :) My answer would be: "It Depends" ... And a lot depends on your background - you're is fairly new, so you can more or less do what you like with no "history" to bog you down. I've been using unix and unix-like systems for just under 30 years now, so part of how *I* partition a system is based on my own personal history. Here's what I'd do... 1. Start from scratch. / 256MB swap 2 x RAM /usr 4 GB /home Rest of disk. This is where you're going to store your music, etc. I'd partition both drives with the same number of sectors and use RAID-1 to mirror them. Note: there's no /boot partition here. Why not? Well, the idea of a /boot originates (I think) from the days when old PC BIOSes had a limit to the number of cylinders they could access, so it was important to make sure the linux kernel was inside that limit, so the idea of a small /boot partition arose. However, I have a separate /usr partition. Why? Because that's the way it's always been (for me) In olden days you'd want to partition things up to minimise "damage" caused should something go wrong - also disks were small in those days, so it might not be uncommon for multiple physical disks in a server rather than one big disks partitioned up. I do it mostly from habit, but it's a trade-off with smaller disk systems (not so much of an issue these days, but only a few years ago disks were expensive) And with 4 native partitions, root, swap, usr and /var (or /home) works out OK, but the down-side of paritioning is that you have the potential to waste disk space, so there is a temptation to just have one huge partition... Another consideration used to the be placement of the physical partitions on the disks - although I suspect not many people care these days... So you'll want swap in the middle of the disk with executables either side to minimise head movement. But these days memory is cheap, so not much excuse to not use it - but if you do have to swap, then you'll want it as quick as possible. > >Now for the questions: > >(1) Are there any flaws in what I'm suggesting? If it works for you, then use it. >(2) Can I partition both the IDE and SATA drives on one pass through the >installation process? >(3) Or would I have to use GParted to partition the SATA drive after >installation? No idea - that depends on your distro. >It goes without saying that any alternative partitioning suggestions will be >more than welcome. > >And a last question. > >In subsequent installation of future versions of Linux, what do I do about >the separate Home partition? Do I just ignore it? Will the installation >procedure accept that or will it create another Home partition? Again, it depends on your distro. >These questions must sound completely banal to those with more knowledge but >I don't want to get it wrong. At the end of the day, it's entirely up to you - if this is a home system, then off you go, and if it works, then you've been successfull! If you don't want to mirror the disks, then an alternative might be as I suggested above, but put one big parittion on the 2nd disk and mount that as /home, but it's then hard to find use for the left over (190GB) space on the first disk. You could create (eg) /var/space and use that. You can combine partition with the software RAID drivers, but then if one disk fails you lose the lot... Gordon
From: Geoffrey Clements on 23 Jun 2008 04:05
"zed" <zed(a)zed.net.nz> wrote in message news:gemini.k2wbls006ac5c06e3.zed(a)zed.net.nz... > Good afternoon from New Zealand. > My brother-and-sister-in-law from NZ are staying with us at the moment, they say it's getting pretty cold there, at least in Dunedin. > I currently run LinuxMINT. > Never used it myself. > My computer has 2 x 200GB hard drives (one IDE and the other SATA), and I > seek advice as to the best way to partition them. Here is what I would > like > to do. > > IDE drive - partition as follows: > /boot/ext3 (would 100 MB be enough) Yes, though it's a small partition in a large drive so even if you doubled this size it wouldn't make much differenec overall. > /root/ext3 (would 5 GB be enough) If you're using a graphical desktop under Xorg or Xfree86 it'd put at least 10GB in this. > /swap/ext3 (4 GB - I have 2GB RAM) Double the RAM amount is probably overkill (and no longer necessary) but it's a nice safe value. > /home/ext3 (balance of HD) > > Note: My present set up also has a partition named "extended". No idea > where > it came from. Can someone explain, please? > Could it be an extended partition :-) i.e. one that will accept logical partitions? When you add up the sizes of all your partitions does it come to the size of the whole drive? Remember that to use an extended partition you have to create logical partitions within it. > SATA drive > /?? ext 3 (don't know what to name it but would like to use it to for all > my > music files/image files, if possible) > I'd just call it "data" but then I have no imagination. > Now for the questions: > > (1) Are there any flaws in what I'm suggesting? Not that I can see. You may want to create another partition for /var as a misbehaving program can fill your disk and it's better to fill /var than the root partition (I have first have first-hand experience of this). > (2) Can I partition both the IDE and SATA drives on one pass through the > installation process? Depend on Mint but you usually can. > (3) Or would I have to use GParted to partition the SATA drive after > installation? > Shouldn't think so but that's always an option, that or fdisk or half a dozen other utilities. > It goes without saying that any alternative partitioning suggestions will > be > more than welcome. > > And a last question. > > In subsequent installation of future versions of Linux, what do I do about > the separate Home partition? Do I just ignore it? Will the installation > procedure accept that or will it create another Home partition? > Just tell the installer that you already have a home partition and the you _do not_ want it to format it. Then you can carry your home directories from one distrbution to another. My current home directory has been through more installations than I care to remember! > These questions must sound completely banal to those with more knowledge > but > I don't want to get it wrong. > Not banal at all, just the kind of question you would ask when doing this for the first time, but if you do get it wrong(*) there are usually ways to change things later - this isn't Windows! (However messing about with the size of partitions on a running system can be a PITA I will admit). (*) - not sure that there is a wrong or right, whatever you choose you're likely to want to change it in the future, LVM or EVMS2 can be useful here but I'd keep things simple at the moment. -- Geoff |