SSD + HDD dual boot setup help

[scgendo]

Hi, i have a dell xps laptop with a 60gb ssd and 750gb hdd (both internal), i recently decided to go with linux after trying it on another machine for a while.
My issue is that i'll still leave some space for windows since i need it to run games, my idea is to share the ssd with both installations and use the hdd as shared storage.
I have 15gb to spare on the ssd plus i could use most of the hdd for linux as i need only little space for windows games and that's all.
Now my question is how do i partition both drives (and what filesystem) and since i have 15gb for the main linux install which partition (folders) should i place on the hdd and which on the ssd??

Thanks a lot

[wayne128]

Hi, i have a dell xps laptop with a 60gb ssd and 750gb hdd (both internal), i recently decided to go with linux after trying it on another machine for a while.
My issue is that i'll still leave some space for windows since i need it to run games, my idea is to share the ssd with both installations and use the hdd as shared storage.
I have 15gb to spare on the ssd plus i could use most of the hdd for linux as i need only little space for windows games and that's all.
Now my question is how do i partition both drives (and what filesystem) and since i have 15gb for the main linux install which partition (folders) should i place on the hdd and which on the ssd??

Thanks a lot

As SSD is fast, why not use it to take advantage of speed.
I would do this way if this is my hardware:

1. let winOS stay on SSD.
2. with 15G space on SSD, install Linux on it with /, ext4 format
3. let 750G HDD be just the data drive, so that it can be share with WinOS, so use ntfs format.

[mintybits]

Not sure how much you know about installing linux so ask more if you need to. I have done exactly what you want to do. My recommendation is:

1. Install Windows on the SSD first.
2. Use Windows to shrink its partition (C:) to whatever size you want.
3. Use live linux to create partitions on the HD
- one for SWAP
- one for Windows to use of type NTFS
- one or more for linux to use of type ext4
4. Install linux root "/" to the spare space on the SSD and INSTALL GRUB ON THE HD MBR. This way you can independently boot Windows if you ever need to. Set your bios to normally boot the HD rather than the SSD.
5. Now you can decide which folders you want on SSD and which on HD. In linux, you can move the folder and create a symbolic link to it from its original location on the SSD, or mount them in fstab. You can probably do similkar things with Windows folders but I am not sure how.

When SSDs first came out there was concern about wearing them out (too many write cycles) and advice given about using non-journalling and not updating file access times and so on. I'm not sure whether this really matters or not; I ignored it aside from putting SWAP on the HD (SWAP is emergency RAM so doesn't need to waste space on the SSD unless you have so little RAM that you'll be using SWAP a lot). Turning file-system features off to improve SSD performance can have bad side-effects sometimes so do research. It may be important if you are running a server or something where there is a huge amount of disk activity but I suspect for normal use it is a non-issue: by the time the SSD starts wearing out you'll have already replaced it with a bigger/faster one.

[mintybits]

Lots of stuff here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... abb807fc4b

[scgendo]

Not sure how much you know about installing linux so ask more if you need to. I have done exactly what you want to do. My recommendation is:

1. Install Windows on the SSD first.
2. Use Windows to shrink its partition (C:) to whatever size you want.
3. Use live linux to create partitions on the HD
- one for SWAP
- one for Windows to use of type NTFS
- one or more for linux to use of type ext4
4. Install linux root "/" to the spare space on the SSD and INSTALL GRUB ON THE HD MBR. This way you can independently boot Windows if you ever need to. Set your bios to normally boot the HD rather than the SSD.
5. Now you can decide which folders you want on SSD and which on HD. In linux, you can move the folder and create a symbolic link to it from its original location on the SSD, or mount them in fstab. You can probably do similkar things with Windows folders but I am not sure how.

When SSDs first came out there was concern about wearing them out (too many write cycles) and advice given about using non-journalling and not updating file access times and so on. I'm not sure whether this really matters or not; I ignored it aside from putting SWAP on the HD (SWAP is emergency RAM so doesn't need to waste space on the SSD unless you have so little RAM that you'll be using SWAP a lot). Turning file-system features off to improve SSD performance can have bad side-effects sometimes so do research. It may be important if you are running a server or something where there is a huge amount of disk activity but I suspect for normal use it is a non-issue: by the time the SSD starts wearing out you'll have already replaced it with a bigger/faster one.

Thanks all for the replies, bit confused so i'll tell you my take on this:

I'll install "/" on the ssd, "swap" on the hdd and "home" as well right?
In windows i moved already the user folder to the hdd pointing at them from properties so doesn't lose the "special" folder properties, then removed a lot of crap and functionalities that may harm the ssd.
As per Linux, is there any other large folder i should move right away other than "home"? and i don't get your explanation about grub, should i install manually over the MBR?
And could i somehow shrink both drives without erasing any data and install Linux from there?

Thanks

[mintybits]

Thanks all for the replies, bit confused so i'll tell you my take on this:

I'll install "/" on the ssd, "swap" on the hdd and "home" as well right?
In windows i moved already the user folder to the hdd pointing at them from properties so doesn't lose the "special" folder properties, then removed a lot of crap and functionalities that may harm the ssd.
As per Linux, is there any other large folder i should move right away other than "home"? and i don't get your explanation about grub, should i install manually over the MBR?
And could i somehow shrink both drives without erasing any data and install Linux from there?

Thanks

I just re-read your first post and realise you already have Windows installed on the SSD, so that's fine.

15GB is plenty for an initial Mint installation. I guess where you put /home depends what you want to use the SSD for. There is no problem during linux install to set /home to a partition on the HD. Or you can install "/" (which includes /home by default) on the SSD and later choose which directories to copy to the HD and link or mount back to the SSD. A person who needs high speed for certain applications that stores its files under /home might want to have these files on the SSD, for example. You could put the lot on the SSD and selectively copy and link back directories as required, like music and pictures and videos and so on. There is no right answer.

As for other linux directories, again it depends. Any directories that may get very large and are not speed-critical could be linked to the HD. This gets more tricky and you can decide later anyhow. You can always copy a directory and link it back in the future when you can judge the space you have on the SSD.

As for Grub, I mean that during installation to the SSD specify the HD for the bootloader. This is at the bottom of the partitioning window. Mint's installer will default to sda which may be your SSD so you need to check manually. The reason is that your bios can be told to boot from either the SSD or the HD and your Windows boots fine from the SSD so leave it and put Grub on the HD. This will avoid conflicts and will not affect the boot time for linux.

"And could i somehow shrink both drives without erasing any data and install Linux from there?"
Not sure what you mean. A Mint installation needs, erm, much less than 10GB and you can install it anywhere there is space. Obviously, it will boot much faster and load and save data to disk much faster if installed on the SSD.

[scgendo]

Thanks all for the replies, bit confused so i'll tell you my take on this:

I'll install "/" on the ssd, "swap" on the hdd and "home" as well right?
In windows i moved already the user folder to the hdd pointing at them from properties so doesn't lose the "special" folder properties, then removed a lot of crap and functionalities that may harm the ssd.
As per Linux, is there any other large folder i should move right away other than "home"? and i don't get your explanation about grub, should i install manually over the MBR?
And could i somehow shrink both drives without erasing any data and install Linux from there?

Thanks

I just re-read your first post and realise you already have Windows installed on the SSD, so that's fine.

15GB is plenty for an initial Mint installation. I guess where you put /home depends what you want to use the SSD for. There is no problem during linux install to set /home to a partition on the HD. Or you can install "/" (which includes /home by default) on the SSD and later choose which directories to copy to the HD and link or mount back to the SSD. A person who needs high speed for certain applications that stores its files under /home might want to have these files on the SSD, for example. You could put the lot on the SSD and selectively copy and link back directories as required, like music and pictures and videos and so on. There is no right answer.

As for other linux directories, again it depends. Any directories that may get very large and are not speed-critical could be linked to the HD. This gets more tricky and you can decide later anyhow. You can always copy a directory and link it back in the future when you can judge the space you have on the SSD.

As for Grub, I mean that during installation to the SSD specify the HD for the bootloader. This is at the bottom of the partitioning window. Mint's installer will default to sda which may be your SSD so you need to check manually. The reason is that your bios can be told to boot from either the SSD or the HD and your Windows boots fine from the SSD so leave it and put Grub on the HD. This will avoid conflicts and will not affect the boot time for linux.

"And could i somehow shrink both drives without erasing any data and install Linux from there?"
Not sure what you mean. A Mint installation needs, erm, much less than 10GB and you can install it anywhere there is space. Obviously, it will boot much faster and load and save data to disk much faster if installed on the SSD.

Ok i get it now, read somewhere that should place /var and /temp on hdd is that good idea? anyways i'll just install everything on ssd and move later and link back for which i have no clue how to do it under Linux, could you point me to some tutorial?
About the "shrinking" question i meant i still need to shrink both disks and then create new partitions let's say with parted magic right? or i can do that from the installer without losing any data?
Sorry for "overasking" but just want to be sure i got it right and don't lose any data since nowadays installing games and windows including downloads and updates takes a week and i just did it..

[mintybits]

Ok i get it now, read somewhere that should place /var and /temp on hdd is that good idea? anyways i'll just install everything on ssd and move later and link back for which i have no clue how to do it under Linux, could you point me to some tutorial?
About the "shrinking" question i meant i still need to shrink both disks and then create new partitions let's say with parted magic right? or i can do that from the installer without losing any data?
Sorry for "overasking" but just want to be sure i got it right and don't lose any data since nowadays installing games and windows including downloads and updates takes a week and i just did it..

To shrink the Windows partition (C: drive) best to use Windows. In Control panel there is a tool for this. To create linux partitions use a linux live CD/USB, either in the partition editor of the installer or using Gparted. BTW, unlike Windows, you may not change the size of the "/" partition while using it so you have to run a different linux to do it, such as from a live CD.

I fear I may be leading you into complexity you are not ready for. If so, it's simplest to specify you want /home on your HD partition from within the Mint installer.

I'll see if I can find you a guide to mounting the file-system on the HD. Basically, you create a partition of type ext4 on the HD. Then you make the linux OS on the SSD "mount" it somewhere within its own directory structure so that it appears to be just another branch. Or it can be mounted in place of an existing directory and will "replace" it. This "mounting" is done with a single line in the file /etc/fstab. The fstab file specifies every file-system that is to be mounted during boot and where in the directory tree it should be mounted.

For example, if you want to have /home on the HD partition instead of the SSD you would create an ext4 partition on the HD. Then copy the contents of the SSD /home partition to it. Then "mount" the partition at /home. Now everything read or written to /home and sub-directories will be on the HD. The original /home on the SSD will remain unused and inaccessible unless you unmount the HD partition.

[scgendo]

ok, thanks again for the explanation, i'll try now placing already the home partition on the hdd and let you know.

[mintybits]

Hope it goes ok. For your info, here's a guide to moving /home to another partition (you would do this if you installed everything to the SSD and later moved /home to the HD):
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Parti ... ome/Moving

[scgendo]

So, in the end i made a mistake partitioning the 2nd hard drive and had to reinstall everything but went well and very happy with the system, just a couple of issues:
- sound volume doesn't work, it works in-software but the main desktop slide goes either on (very loud) or off
- updated nvidia drivers from website as i was having problems with a gtx555m and now run level fails..

do you think i can reinstall the system while keeping my /home folder intact since it's on the other hdd?

Thanks