need help understanding seperate partitions

[mis]

Up till now I have just made a swap and a / partition. I have read that this is not always the safest thing to do so I figure when the next debian comes out I will d/l it and redo the partitons to have them all seperate. But, how big should each be? I need a /, /etc, /usr, /home right? How does this work if I need to reinstall but don't want to lose everything personal like mp3's in my /home directory? How do I not overwrite that on reinstall? I have a 20gig win win on the first 5 and linux on the rest. Should I make a /mp3 partition of type fat32 and have it as a mounted drive so that win can access it to? What is the easiest way to do this? Thanks.

Mis

[bdg1983]

You could start with http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/installation/partition/multi_partition.html to get a rough estimate. Split up the partitions sorta based on the NHF and the amount of total space you have available.

A separate mountable fat32 partition just for mp3's is a good idea.

[mis]

Originally posted by mdwatts the 3rd:
<STRONG>You could start with http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/installation/partition/multi_partition.html to get a rough estimate. Split up the partitions sorta based on the NHF and the amount of total space you have available.

A separate mountable fat32 partition just for mp3's is a good idea.</STRONG>

I was also told by our admin here at work to always leave some of the drive unallocated so that I can add it to any partition that gets full. True?

[bdg1983]

Also probably wouldn't be a bad idea to leave some unallocated space although it's a little bit of work to add new space to a existing ext2 partition. Don't ask. ;)

I've seen the procedure to add/increase space posted in the forums recently.

[mis]

Ok here is the latest. Just got a 30gig HD. So I now have a 20 and a 30. Want the 20 for debian only and 10 for win and 20 for things I dont want to lose from either OS. Like mp3s, tars, backgrounds, themes and things like that. I want to mkae seperate partitions for each in debian. What I don't know is how big to make each. Is there some size convention somewhere? I read the NHF for adding but that is not really what I am after.

Mis

[mis]

Ok this is what I am thinking of using.

2GB /usr
5GB /home
2GB /
250M /swap
250M /var
256M /swap

Leaving the rest as available space for future. The other drive, 10GB for ME and something like another 10GB fat32 partition for backup stuff, leaving another 10GB for future need. That way if it is on that drive can't I make it for win or linux needs? Oh well let me know how this sounds. I'm getting impatient and fixing to just wing it and hope I am heading down the right track (not getting impatient with you, just excited about a new toy).

Thanks,
Mis

[MandK_10]

posted 03 July 2001 08:23 PM
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Ok this is what I am thinking of using.
2GB /usr
5GB /home
2GB /
250M /swap
250M /var
256M /swap


My personal limited experience says that you should take 1GB of / and give it to /usr. I have a set up simular to yours and I have found that with a full install of RH plus several other apps / only uses about 100MB. /usr is where the heft of your programs will be. The /home probably does not need to be that big either unless you plan to stuff it with a whole bunch of mp3's

Mike

[mis]

Here is the final decision

3GB /usr
3GB /home
1GB /
250M /tmp
250M /var
256M /swap

Now I guess I should of asked something else.
This is still going to be dual boot machine, so do I still install LILO in the MBR? God do I have to install Win first? I don't even have the new drive in yet and really don't want to do it right now. Want my Linux first.

[Psycho]

Hi mis,

I still put lilo in the mbr. Craig has a fit over it, but it works fine. Just make sure you have a boot floppy or two for Linux because WinDoze will clobber lilo. You can boot from the floppy into Linux and re-run lilo to fix it.

I had ME throw a fit when I put Linux at the start of the drive, it seems it couldn't boot out past cyl 1024 ;). Putting it on the other drive should be OK I guess as long as lilo is controlling the booting. Can't say I've ever tried it quite like that.

Good luck and enjoy the new toy ;)

--glenn