Partition Sizes for Mint 17 Installation

[crboone]

I see that the minimum disk size for Mint is 6GB with 20GB recommended. If I use an external drive for my data files, how long would it take before that 20GB is maxed out from software installs (generally, of course -- I realize it depends on how much software is installed, but would it fill up quickly like Windows?). Also, if I have 8GB RAM, is it really recommended that I have a separate 12GB partition just for that, with the minimum for the OS being only 6GB? I have reinstalled Windows on my internal SSD because I couldn't get networking to work properly with Mint (and I really need that functionality) -- but I'd still like to dual-boot with Linux. But with the SSD I do have limited space.

Thanks for any insights!

[Flemur]

Here's how much disk space is used for full installs of Mint (sda1), Debian 8 and Xbuntu, including .deb files from updates (usually close to 1G of those...)

Code: Select all

df
/dev/sda1       20030100  5150576  13839000  28% /
...
/dev/sda7      241773248 39141472 190327276  18% /mnt/DATA
/dev/sda2       20029680  4695916  14293260  25% /mnt/DEBI
/dev/sda3       20029308  3667604  15321220  20% /mnt/UBUN

IOW, about 25% of 20G, each. All include /home directory; non-OS data is on DATA partition.

Also, if I have 8GB RAM, is it really recommended that I have a separate 12GB partition just for that, with the minimum for the OS being only 6GB?

Only if you want to hibernate. I have 4G mem and don't use a swap partition most of the time, or have one that's a few hundred Meg (< 1G).

[crboone]

Excellent, thank you!

[Reorx]

I see that the minimum disk size for Mint is 6GB with 20GB recommended. If I use an external drive for my data files, how long would it take before that 20GB is maxed out from software installs (generally, of course -- I realize it depends on how much software is installed, but would it fill up quickly like Windows?).

I'm running LM17C64. This is what my HD partitions looks like >>>

<Click to enlarge>

My / partition contains the entire installation (except for /boot which is ~140 MB). My /home folder is 17.3 GB so the rest of the installation is ~6GB

...Also, if I have 8GB RAM, is it really recommended that I have a separate 12GB partition just for that...

Are you talking about a swap partition??? If so, you only need a swap partition a little larger than your RAM space IFF you want or need to hibernate. Otherwise, a 1 GB swap should be fine with 8GB of RAM...

[crboone]

So the issue is really how much I store in /home (including Dropbox). That makes sense.

Yes, I was wondering about the swap partition. I won't need hibernate so I'm glad 1G is enough. I didn't see that distinction previously that the 1.5x recommended RAM was for hibernation. Sounds like I could just create a 24 G install with a 1 G swap and be good to go.

Thanks Reorx.

[Reorx]

...Sounds like I could just create a 24 G install with a 1 G swap and be good to go.

Yep!

Thanks Reorx.

You're welcome... Enjoy the Mint!

P.S.: If you are installing on a desktop, you can put the OS on SDA (your SSD) and create a data partition on a second internal drive (SDB) - if you have the skill set to install an additional set of spinning platters, you can do it for very low cost...