Is it necessary to install your OS on a seperate partition?

[Nick_Djinn]

I saw a tutorial where root and home where installed on seperate partitions....what is the purpose of this? Does this allow you to use the same partition for all your files for multiple operating systems? Is that really necessary now that we have the import files option?

[Nick_Djinn]

I dont mean seperate from your other OS, I mean separate from where your files and downloads go.

[FedoraRefugee]

No, it is not necessary! The only thing you need to install Linux is a single partition, you do not even need a swap partition!

The reason to keep your personal files separate is obvious. It makes the OS sacrificial and fresh installs are a breeze. You can also share a data partition between operating systems, including a Windows/Linux share! I do not suggest sharing /home though. Is it necessary? Only you can answer that!

[chipps61]

It isn't 100% necessary to have separate root and /home partitions, but it makes reinstalls and/or upgrades quite a bit easier. By having / (root) on a separate partition, if you break your system and need to reinstall the OS, you will be able to keep all of your settings and data by reformatting root and NOT reformatting /home when you do so. You will need to reinstall the additional programs you added since your original install, but all of the settings for them will remain intact.

Fred's post here on the topic was very helpful to me: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872

Hope this helps...

[Nick_Djinn]

That makes a lot of sense. I think I am going to put them on separate partitions from now on, as soon as somebody helps me with my screen going blank problem and the new release is out.