Why separate / and /home in two dfferent partitions?

baronmax · 2012-04-24 13:37:38

The main reason I'd recommend going with a separate home, **ESPECIALLY** as a new user, is because it's entirely possible that you might bork your system beyond repair...and if you do, it REALLY sucks to lose all your settings, data, and so forth. If you keep a separate /home directory, you can reinstall the base system, then build up your DE/WM of choice and your settings will still be there (as well as your files). In addition, if you decide that Arch is too crazy for you (who would do such a thing?!?), you can go back to whatever distro you choose and your desktop will be set up the way you like it without having to do too many things (although problems can arise from doing this, but generally it's nothing that can't be easily fixed).

I even go so far as to use a separate drive for home on all my linux distros so that if worse comes to worse (or if I build a new computer), I can just move the drive from one computer to another. All I have to do is make a change to the computer's /etc/fstab and I'm ready to go.

Overall, there are no downsides that I can think of to going with a separate /home drive, other than the fact that you need a separate entry in /etc/fstab...but if you can't do that, then you probably shouldn't be messing with Arch yet anyway.

ANOKNUSA · 2012-04-24 23:11:34

zwl wrote:

The easier to back up is quite compelling. How do you predict how much space they will need in their / partition? (And the other partitions for that matter.)

That's a matter of personal use. In my opinion, though, if you ever need more than 8 gigs for a "/" partition, you've got more stuff installed than you'll ever make use of, and probably won't have to wait long for something to break. The same goes for /home: How much personal data to you usually keep on your drive?

BTW, judging by the posts you've made here so far, you really might consider checking out the wonderful Arch wiki. If you've got specific questions about the sort of system you'd like to build on your particular hardware, it should give you some insights.

And yes, "suspend" should mean "to RAM."

Arch Linux

#26 2012-04-24 13:37:38

Re: Why separate / and /home in two dfferent partitions?

#27 2012-04-24 23:11:34

Re: Why separate / and /home in two dfferent partitions?

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