How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

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rbpyogesh

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by rbpyogesh »

I am a new user...I have used mint 7 for few days...and now using mint 8 as primary and only OS

I have formatted....the hard drive in this manner

Total of 120GB

Primary /---40GB

Logical /home---40GB

Logical /usr/local/--40 GB

According to my understanding after reading this topic home is where all the documents and files are stored.....and usr is where pacakages and other important files are stored.....Correct me If I am wrong

Can anyone suggest me whether this partition is Good or a Bad one

Thanks
bugmenotprettyplz

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by bugmenotprettyplz »

Anyone care to come up with the suggestion regarding the latest Debian rolling release of Linux Mint with GPT(GUID)?

Would appreciate it a lot.
alex30

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by alex30 »

all the procedures are mentioned above and the another way when you do the partition all the instruction need to follow
bilbojr

Am wondering if I did this correctly?

Post by bilbojr »

Hello! What a great thread this is! :D
I am a newbie and this is my first post on these forums.
I have been very happy with Mint10 as I recently decided to completely quit Windows 'cold-turkey'. I am using the Gnome distro I believe - it is the 'standard' Mint 10 on the main linuxmint.com page.
I am wanting to try other distros so here is how I partitioned my HD the first time: (I know I can use a live CD and I do before installing it.)

sda1 ext3 / 10GB ~ Linux Mint 10 installed
sda2 ext3 / 10GB ~ I marked it 'do not use' until I installed Ubuntu on this partition
sda3 ext3 10GB ~ 'do not use this partition'
sda5 ext3 /home ~ rest of the HD, until swap
sda6 swap

I believe that the sda4 is the extended and was done automatically. The first 3 are primary. It is a 250gb HD.

So, my questions are:
1. Should I have used the sda2 and sda3 differently than the 'do not use now' option?

2. When I log into either Mint or Ubuntu - Mint for this discussion - I see a 10GB File System on my desktop - is this correct? I assume it is the Ubuntu, sda2 partition that is showing up.

3. I have read that many like to have a /boot slice for each one installed but to be honest I am pretty happy and proud that both OS's work on the first try! I believe scorp123 mentioned this was an ok setup, especially for beginners so do I NEED to have a /boot for each or am I OK?

4. Do software packages get installed to /home? Or somewhere else? Do I need to make another - important - partition for this? I am not worried about a little performance boost (yet) nor security (only one computer) and I don't mind re-installing & configuring (I enjoy it actually :shock: ). I just want the distros to work reliably and to be able to add one or change them out whenever I want.

Forgive my lack of correct terminology but I am trying to get it down!
Thanks for the great community support - made it much easier to quit Windows.

Bilbo

*Will post ss from gparted when i am able*
Last edited by bilbojr on Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Murdock

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by Murdock »

Heres a fresh install
bilbojr

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by bilbojr »

Continued from my original post a few above here. Dual boot different linux os on same hd.

Here is my partition:
sda1 - mint
sda2 - ubuntu
sda3 - not in use, saving for another distro

Here is my gparted ss:
Image

Now when I click 'Computer'
I have these choices:
250 GB HD : 10 GB File System
cd/dvd drive
printer
File System

My concern is that the 2 FS's have the same files inside when I open them. The first - 250gb... - has a series of numbers and letters at the top (folder title) like 56464564-as56-54d5-6454-54e545454454b54 or whatever they are (the letters are in the correct positions - not the actual numbers/letters). The second FS is '/'.

Is this going to be a big problem? Is something incorrect? Do I need to re-format or re-install?
Thanks so much!

Bilbo
latie3822

Re:

Post by latie3822 »

Redhorse wrote:If you have already few partions then you get problem.
You can't pick one and use it. You must delete it first and make it again. You must go forward and back in the instal. to make this.
And you can't install grub were you like and you can not put it on floppy.
This is on all ubuntu dists.

Yes, I agree. I had this issue arise when I was doing this. I had to go back and delete the partitions I had already, and then I was able to make it again.
mariapeter12

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by mariapeter12 »

There is an hidden danger in partitioning the hard drive as a lot of space can be "lost for use" due to bad partitioning.
scorp123
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Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by scorp123 »

mariapeter12 wrote:There is an hidden danger in partitioning the hard drive as a lot of space can be "lost for use" due to bad partitioning.
In this time and age it is possible to resize the partitions if needed. The current partitioning scheme on my main desktop:

Code: Select all

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5             2.4G  323M  2.0G  15% /
/dev/sdd1             459G  216M  435G   1% /data2
/dev/sda9             8.0G  147M  7.8G   2% /tmp
/dev/sda1             130M   34M   95M  27% /boot
/dev/sda6             7.1G  3.7G  3.4G  53% /usr
/dev/sdc1             1.4T  969G  338G  75% /data
/dev/sda7             3.5G  604M  2.9G  18% /var
/dev/sda8             6.9G  864M  5.7G  13% /opt
/dev/sda11            543G  337G  200G  63% /home
/home/sysadm/.Private    543G  337G  200G  63% /home/sysadm
Sometimes I install a lot of apps and the space used on /usr will increase up to 6.5G .... Same with /var: too much stuff in /var/tmp or /var/cache can fill that partition pretty fast. And /tmp is safest on its own little partition where it can't cripple / with all those constant writes and reads. As these locations are not on the same partition like / it means that / can't get filled up ... because *that* (= a full root file system!) is *SUPER UGLY* effect-wise: your system turns into a half-dead zombie where nothing works properly, you can't start new programs, you can't kill the running ones .... Yuck. All this because / got filled 100%. So that's why I personally insist on keeping /boot, /, /tmp, /usr, /opt and /var on different partitions.
Matti L

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by Matti L »

I used to have a separate home partition, but now I only have / and swap because all my important files are on windows partition or separate hard drives and settings for Firefox and Chromium and synced with Firefox Sync and Gmail. I have 1 gb of swap in the end of the hd, but it's rarely used at all.
scorp123
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Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by scorp123 »

Matti L wrote: all my important files are on windows partition
Sounds like a recipe for disaster :lol:

Just a few hours ago I could witness how a oh-so-rock-stable Windows 2008 R2 server crashed. Too bad it was that particular customer's file server and it had a few unique files .... But now? Not anymore. The disks were utterly and completely corrupted. Bye bye unique files.

And I don't hate Microsoft at all. In fact Microsoft makes selling Unix- and Linux-based products and services so easy lately :twisted: ....
Matti L

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by Matti L »

scorp123 wrote:Just a few hours ago I could witness how a oh-so-rock-stable Windows 2008 R2 server crashed. Too bad it was that particular customer's file server and it had a few unique files .... But now? Not anymore. The disks were utterly and completely corrupted. Bye bye unique files.
Hehe... that's why you have to have more than one backup place and why USB and NAT hd's are great. On my previous Compaq laptop the hard drive broke down and I lost everything on it and it only had Ubuntu on it, but when someone makes a good working ext4 or btfrs driver for Windows then I'll keep everything on the Linux partitions.
scorp123
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Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by scorp123 »

Matti L wrote:
scorp123 wrote:but when someone makes a good working ext4 or btfrs driver for Windows then I'll keep everything on the Linux partitions.
You could put your files on a NAS with a set of mirrored disks? If one fails, you still have the other disks. And those home NAS solutions one can buy or build one-self these days (e.g. FreeNAS) are able to offer SMB-access for Windows and Mac OS X, so exchanging files between platforms _AND_ keeping them safe should be easy these days. I myself use a PC which has Solaris 11 Express on it. The filesystem is ZFS. And I regularly take ZFS snapshots of everything. If something fails or accidentally gets deleted I simply rollback that folder to a point in time when the file was still around. Works pretty much like Apple's time machine and it's rock-solid.
Matti L

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by Matti L »

Yes, I've read a lot of RAID configurations and something like this would be nice to have:
LinkStation Pro Quad LS-QVL/R5

Right now I just don't have much of files (just 6gb of music) to backup so I don't need much. That ZFS snapshot thing sounds interesting too. I'll read more about it later.
scorp123
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Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by scorp123 »

Matti L wrote: That ZFS snapshot thing sounds interesting too.
You can get ZFS in various BSD-based distros too. If you want to build a pure storage solution that keeps your data safe, then maybe FreeNAS might be worth a look?

http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/reviews/freenas-8-review/
MaddawgTL

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by MaddawgTL »

I need a bit of advice,I have a netbook and want to partition it correctly. Is it possible to repartition the hd without a reinstall? If so what would be a good setup for it? I would like to be able to try other linux distros out without a using flash drives. So a swap file of 1.5 gigs,20 gigs for mint,5 or 10gigs for trial os and rest data /home or am I still missing something here?
sagirfahmid3

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by sagirfahmid3 »

MaddawgTL wrote:Is it possible to repartition the hd without a reinstall? If so what would be a good setup for it? I would like to be able to try other linux distros out without a using flash drives. So a swap file of 1.5 gigs,20 gigs for mint,5 or 10gigs for trial os and rest data /home or am I still missing something here?
Yes, it's possible to repartition without reinstalling. When you get on the 4th step when installing Mint, click on "Advanced" or "Something else", then resize the big partition and make these partitions that you listed: "So a swap file of 1.5 gigs,20 gigs for mint,5 or 10gigs for trial os and rest data /home." Basically, you need a "/"root and a "linux-swap" partition, but you can make more if you want to be extra safe.
eyjay1991

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by eyjay1991 »

Hey there. Ok i decided to repartition my 80GB Desktop. Currently it has a Win 7 OS, but will dual boot with XP and Mint.

Actually i read all from page 1 and i gather that the simplest install for home use only is :

/dev/sda1 / 10GB
/dev/sda2 /home (Rest of the Drive)
/dev/sda3 /swap (Size of my RAM which is 2GB)

Where then can i put my XP Install?

Here is my scenario in mind. I will dual boot XP and Mint, and they say install Windows 1st. I want to have a partition where XP and Mint share files, like Music/Documents/Pictures/Video/ETC

So how can i do that? :).

Can i do this in Mint Live CD? Repartioning?
sagirfahmid3

Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by sagirfahmid3 »

I want to have a partition where XP and Mint share files, like Music/Documents/Pictures/Video/ETC
Can't do that. Linux's uses the ext2/3/4 filesystem; Windows cannot see those partitions. Linux, however, CAN see Windows partitions. What you would need to do is mount the Windows partition on startup (autostart). To see Linux partitions on Windows, you need a program called ext2explore which you can find on Sourceforge.
srs5694
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Re: How To: Partition your Hard Drive.

Post by srs5694 »

sagirfahmid3 wrote:
I want to have a partition where XP and Mint share files, like Music/Documents/Pictures/Video/ETC
Can't do that.
This is incorrect.
Linux's uses the ext2/3/4 filesystem; Windows cannot see those partitions. Linux, however, CAN see Windows partitions. What you would need to do is mount the Windows partition on startup (autostart). To see Linux partitions on Windows, you need a program called ext2explore which you can find on Sourceforge.
It's true that Windows can't natively read Linux filesystems; however, a cross-OS file-sharing partition is easily created -- just create a separate partition and use a filesystem that both OSes can understand, such as FAT or NTFS. (I favor FAT, since Linux's support for it is faster and more reliable; however, FAT's got a 2 GiB file-size limit that can be a serious problem, so you may need to use NTFS. Other filesystems are options, too, if you provide a suitable Windows driver.)

To use the data-sharing filesystem, you'd access it directly wherever you mount it (you can decide on where that is). If you want to have conventional subdirectories of your home directory point there, you can use symbolic links.

I advise against providing Linux direct access to the Windows boot partition. Linux's NTFS-3g driver is unlikely to be as reliable as Microsoft's own NTFS driver, so giving Linux read/write access to the Windows C: partition can do nothing but increase the risk of serious disk problems. Furthermore, you might accidentally damage files from Linux that Windows would prevent you from touching. IMO, using a separate data-sharing partition is the way to go for best safety.
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