Partition size

[Spiderspoon]

I have an old laptop currently running Windows 10 very badly. I wish to remove Windows and install Linux only. It has 2 drives, C and D, sized 371 GB and 537 GB respectively.
According to https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... stall.html the first (system) partition could be 100 GB. Given that I have 371 GB on the first drive, should I make this partition any larger than 100 GB?
I was thinking of dividing the first drive into 2 partitions, system and data.
The 2nd drive could be for media, such as music, pictures and videos.
Does this sound like a good scheme?
I am planning on doing this tomorrow. Thanks.
John

[Cosmo.]

I suggest another attempt. Dividing between home and data is a method, which makes things more complicated, than they are. So I suggest to use the first drive for the system partition and for swap. 50 GB for system is very comfortable. You might consider to use the rest for TimeShift snapshots. Then use the second drive for home.

[Spiderspoon]

So to get the terminology right, is home for data and media?
Assuming so, then drive 1 - 371 GB is for system, swap and Timeshift snapshots. I'm not clear on Timeshift snapshots, but I did come across that term the other day.
Drive 2, at 537 GB would be home - all data and media.
At this stage I am trying out a live session of Linux Mint 18.3 Mate on the laptop before installing it on that computer. It has just loaded. It's slow, but I think that's normal when running it from DVD.
So I am interested in feedback before installing.
Thanks, John.

[WharfRat]

Running from the DVD is agonizing slow - running from the HDD will be a much improved experience

[Cosmo.]

So to get the terminology right, is home for data and media?

Yes - and more. In your home also all your user settings - for programs, for the behavior and the look of your system, get stored.

I'm not clear on Timeshift snapshots

You know the Windows system restore function, don't you? You can compare TimeShift (TS) with it. TS creates - usually automatically, but also manually doable) - backups of the current state of the system, not of your home. If now something goes completely wrong, you can revert to a previous system state, aka snapshot. This is, as if all the changes after the last snapshot would never had been done. Your home does not get touched. So if you revert e. g. to a snapshot from yesterday, all your data, which you have created or altered since the snapshot stay at the current state; you don't loose anything there.
There is the chance, that the system does not even be able to boot into the desktop. Because of this possibility you should keep your live system with LM 18.3 (dvd or usb) at hand, because you can use it also, to revert the system to a previous state.

[Spiderspoon]

Thanks. I've just shut the other laptop down for the night and I'll install Linux tomorrow. I was actually able to send an email from the live session. Anyway, it will be better when running from the HDD.
Yeah, Windows creates restore points and has system restore. I now understand the concept.

[Spiderspoon]

Running from the DVD is agonizing slow - running from the HDD will be a much improved experience

Is running from USB for Live Sessions quicker than DVD?

[WharfRat]

Running from the DVD is agonizing slow - running from the HDD will be a much improved experience

Is running from USB for Live Sessions quicker than DVD?

It's quicker by a small margin - not that much of a difference.

[Cosmo.]

It's quicker by a small margin - not that much of a difference.

Strange, I found it a lot quicker. But it might depend from the hardware (optical drive, speed of the USB device, USB type).

[AZgl1800]

Running from the DVD is agonizing slow - running from the HDD will be a much improved experience

Is running from USB for Live Sessions quicker than DVD?

On this laptop, an ASUS TP500L No Internal DVD drive , the difference between a USB LiveDVD and a Flash drive Stick is immensely different.

The USB Flash Drive is almost as fast as the internal HDD....
So, from my perspective, it is much better than a LiveDVD.... I keep the LiveDVDs in a drawer, I keep the LiveFlashDrives in a small bowl next to my Recliner where I do most of my playing at.

The FlashDriveLive can boot as fast as the Internal HDD and is up and running ready for test/recovery work.

[Mute Ant]

"C and D, sized 371 GB and 537 GB respectively" These are very odd sizes for hard drives. Might they be 400GB and 600GB partitions of the same 1TB drive? Windows and thus Windows users can be quite fuzzy about the terms GB, Drive, Partition and Volume. The gparted program in the Live Session Mint will show you what you really have in the machine.

[Sgthawker]

I purchased a special high speed USB 3.0 drive and installed the .iso to it and it is awesomely fast. Faster than many HDDs. I did an install from this drive and it was complete much faster than other USB 3.0 drives I have used. I have also installed a full system to the same model thumbdrive and it runs very quick.

[AZgl1800]

I purchased a special high speed USB 3.0 drive and installed the .iso to it and it is awesomely fast. Faster than many HDDs. I did an install from this drive and it was complete much faster than other USB 3.0 drives I have used. I have also installed a full system to the same model thumbdrive and it runs very quick.

newegg.com has a special on right now, I just ordered up a new 2TB USB 3.0 drive to replace the one that died on me yesterday, for the high price of $59.00 and free shipping

I too will be storing the .ISOs of every flavor of linux I can find....
I love to put them up in VB and look to see what else is out there.

who knows, I might even try SUSE and find out how Snapper works

[Spiderspoon]

Well that was interesting. I was looking for a shortcut to go to the end of the line and it shut everything down. I was doing control alt right cursor I think.
I had started to write this post and it all disappeared.
Anyway, what I was saying was that I have installed Mint and it's working fine. Windows was just not working on this computer. So I got rid of it completely.
Now I have to learn how to use Linux again.

[Spiderspoon]

I purchased a special high speed USB 3.0 drive and installed the .iso to it and it is awesomely fast. Faster than many HDDs. I did an install from this drive and it was complete much faster than other USB 3.0 drives I have used. I have also installed a full system to the same model thumbdrive and it runs very quick.

Being an older computer, I think my ports are USB 2, so there is no point in me using a USB 3 drive.

[Mute Ant]

"...so there is no point in me using a USB 3 drive..." It's worth a try. My USB3 pocket hard drive manages 30MB/s through a USB2 port.

[Sgthawker]

As Mute Ant says, it may be very worth it. The actual throughput is relative to the bus and device, so a USB 3.0 drive is likely to work faster on a USB 2.0 port than a USB 2.0 drive will. And you have the added bonus of transferring it to a newer computer with USB 3.0 in future as is.

[Spiderspoon]

Well that was interesting. I was looking for a shortcut to go to the end of the line and it shut everything down. I was doing control alt right cursor I think.
I had started to write this post and it all disappeared.

I figured it out. I was doing control alt right cursor, and that moved me to another workspace, which is something I have yet to learn about.

[Spiderspoon]

Turns out that my old ASUS laptop has a USB 3.0 port on it. So when I get around to putting another version of Linux onto a flash drive I will use a USB 3.0 drive.
So now that I have Linux Mint installed on the ASUS, is it easier to verify the ISO using Linux, or Windows?

[Sgthawker]

You can use software manager to install gtkhash and have a gui program as well as using the command line as instructed on the linux mint site. Both are quite easy.