Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

bakagundam · 2009-06-21 02:54:02

I'm currently reinstalling the OS on my computer after swapping out most of the parts. It was an XP gaming machine but I plan on dualbooting with Arch as the primary OS and Windows 7 for gaming. My old XP setup had a 32GB 10k RPM HD as C: and then a number of additional HDs for program and data storage but after I get the OS set up I plan on using the 32GB for swap and temp for Arch and pagefile storage for Windows. I got a new 1TB HD as my new HDD 0 and I am currently planning on partitioning it like so.

/ (20GB ext3)
/var (15GB ReiserFS)
/home (Whats left ~850GB , ext3)
/Windows (For Windows 7: 100GB NTFS)

First a few questions for this HD.
1. I don't plan on ever booting a second linux disto outside a VM, do I need a /boot? Should I just throw a 100MB /boot at the beginning just to be safe?
2. Ext3 is my safe choice, I see too many people having problems with ext4 and I want data security first, and speed as a close second, but windows compatibility would be nice. I take it ext3 would be my best choice until ext4 is mature?
3. /windows and / need to be primary, can I make the rest logical without any problems?
4. Is the size of the / and /var big enough? The HD has plenty of space.

Once I get the computer up and running I have to take my data off the 32GB HD and then I plan on reformatting it like so.

Swap (10GB)
Windows Pagefile space (Whats left ~11GB, NTFS)
/tmp (10GB ext2)

5. I have 4gb of RAM so I shouldn't have a big problem without swap at first, but is it easy to configure the swap and the /tmp after the initial installation is complete, is there a handy guide for this?
6. Is how I have this HD set up even a good idea?

Once I have all that partitioned I plan on adding the other three HDs back in, as I don't want to risk accidentally formatting them. (Wiping 2 full 500GBs and a 300GB would not make my day, plus I want to clean up my cable management when I do.)

I have installed Debian on P3 servers, Ubuntu and Suse on laptops, and Arch on an old P2. I have also done a number of distros in a VM, including Arch a few times. I don't think I'm going to see anything I haven't seen before once I get past the partitioning, but this is my personal use computer and those before were ones that I didn't use that often so partitioning wasn't a big deal and I never got too worried about it. I do NOT want to be reformatting this computer a week later because I made a boneheaded decision, thus measure twice cut once.

Odysseus · 2009-06-21 05:37:38

1) I suggest haveing a separate /boot. Allows for a bit more flexibility. 100 MB is plenty. And journaling isn't much use so you can just use ext2 to save a little space.
2) Go ahead and use ext3.
3) Yup.
4) Yup.
5) Any swap partitions available will be used. No config necessary, except for /etc/fstab I guess. Make sure /tmp is empty before mounting a new partition there (also via fstab).
6) Sounds good.

Last edited by Odysseus (2009-06-21 05:38:02)

Gen2ly · 2009-06-21 17:20:58

15GB may be a bit small for /var. Currently I'm using 24G, but I got abs installed and do a bit of package work.

cliffbreaker · 2009-06-21 18:58:17

Used ext4 for some time and don't experience any problems. But for boot I use ext2 because grub is working reliable only with ext2 and partially ext3. So my advice is - create boot partition separately.

bakagundam · 2009-06-23 08:05:03

Thanks for all your help everyone, sorry it too so long, I was struggling with HAL not working at all. Switched to HAL-easy and it works, finally.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-21 02:54:02

Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

#2 2009-06-21 05:37:38

Re: Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

#3 2009-06-21 17:20:58

Re: Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

#4 2009-06-21 18:58:17

Re: Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

#5 2009-06-23 08:05:03

Re: Partitioning Questions (Measure twice, cut once.)

Board footer