partitioning

detox332 · 2007-06-12 23:50:43

so ive used arch for a while and i want to clean up my harddrive

i have 512mb ram and a 160gb sata drive, 30gb for windows (gaming) and the rest for linux.

my question is, how should i set up my partitions, should i have / /var /opt /usr /home and /boot as individual partitions, what kind of filesystem should i use on each etc...

thanks,
matt

Thrillhouse · 2007-06-13 00:14:42

I think it really depends on what you want out of your system. Personally, I only have /home and /boot on separate partitions than / because I have multiple distros on my machine and I like to keep the same /home for each. They're all ext3 for compatibility's sake. Some people would argue putting /var on a separate partition and making it a faster file system like xfs. It really depends on what you want to do and what the purpose of the machine is.

Whatever you do, I would create a logical partition following your Windows partition and create whatever partitions you wish within that logical partition so that you won't run into any problems if you do wind up creating more than 4 partitions. Most hard drives don't allow more than 4 primary partitions.

detox332 · 2007-06-13 00:17:41

thanks thrillhouse, you brought up a good point, my use of my system

i use my box for testing and daily usage (all repos enabled) i want the fastest most bleeding edge system regardless of the risk of breakage (i like to fix problems).

bones · 2007-06-13 00:17:50

This is what I have been running for a few years on one of my boxes.
/boot 100Mb ext2
/ 3Gb ext3
/usr 5Gb ext3
/var 3Gb ext3
/home The rest ext3

May not really be the best setup, But it's never caused any problems for me.

ataraxia · 2007-06-13 00:50:34

I'd avoid using XFS on /var as it makes pacman very slow (there are a few threads that mention it, and I've seen it myself). XFS works best on large files and worst on piles of small ones.

detox332 · 2007-06-13 00:54:33

i heard reiserf is good for /var but should i have all those separate partitions? (/ /opt /usr /boot /home)

bones · 2007-06-13 01:03:57

I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that reiser was not the best for /boot. Things may have changed now though. Because I used to use reiser way back when, I kept /boot as ext2. Old habits are hard to kill.

Mr.Elendig · 2007-06-13 01:16:20

My usualy setup are 10gb for / and the rest in /home
ext3 is a safe choice, it can take alot of beating, and if you turn on dir_index, the performance isn't to bad either.

ataraxia · 2007-06-13 20:02:21

I've been very happy using ext3 with dir_index, journal_data, and a maximum-sized journal for everything. Fast and ultra-reliable.

dids22 · 2007-06-13 20:30:47

why the boot software (grub\lilo) and var need a separate partition?

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-12 23:50:43

partitioning

#2 2007-06-13 00:14:42

Re: partitioning

#3 2007-06-13 00:17:41

Re: partitioning

#4 2007-06-13 00:17:50

Re: partitioning

#5 2007-06-13 00:50:34

Re: partitioning

#6 2007-06-13 00:54:33

Re: partitioning

#7 2007-06-13 01:03:57

Re: partitioning

#8 2007-06-13 01:16:20

Re: partitioning

#9 2007-06-13 20:02:21

Re: partitioning

#10 2007-06-13 20:30:47

Re: partitioning

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