Thanks, Fred - I've got Mint installed and the Data partition auto-mounted into /home.... but it's not letting me make folders... time for more reading!Fred wrote:mnealtx,
Many like to have a separate /home partition. I tend to think it unnecessary except under special circumstances, if you are using one or more data partitions. The only thing in your /home folder would be your personal config files. There just isn't enough there to warrant making another partition, in my opinion. These can easily be backed up to a folder on your Data partition and the ones you need, put back in your /home on a reinstall. Having said that, there is certainly nothing wrong with having a separate /home partition if it makes you feel better.
Look at the thread below for some background and instructions about how to mount your Data partition.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=22093
I don't see any show stoppers in your plan. Set your partitions up with the partitioning tool called Gparted. It can be found in the live cd menu. When you get to the partitioning part of the install, choose the manual partitioning mode and assign your pre-made partitions to your mount points.
Fred
Edit to add - found it... had to chown the mount point for the data partition