Arch Linux

ctarwater

Member

Registered: 2009-02-05

Posts: 300

Partitioning scheme for new laptop - Win7 and 2 distros

My new laptop should be in today and I'm trying to decide the best way to set my partitions.

Here's what I'm looking for:

-Windows 7 on it's own partition
-Arch with /, /home, and /swap
-A second instance of Arch with it's own / but sharing /home and /swap with the other.

sda1 --> win7
sda2 --> swap
sda3 --> /home
sda4 --> extended partition
  --> sda5 /  (arch 1)
  --> sda6 /  (arch 2)

I haven't dual booted in quite a long time and I've never had multiple linux installs with shared /home etc.

I plan on installing win7 first, then Arch 1 (with grub to sda) and then Arch 2 with grub loaded on sda6 and chainloader used.

Does this sound correct?

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Partitioning scheme for new laptop - Win7 and 2 distros

Why two grubs? One grub seems enough. Other than that, it looks fine. Also, if I may ask, why do you want two Arch installs on the same machine (and sharing home)?

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ctarwater

Member

Registered: 2009-02-05

Posts: 300

Re: Partitioning scheme for new laptop - Win7 and 2 distros

2 grubs because I was reading the wiki quickly and probably misread the section on bootloaders.

2 arch installs because I want one as my "stable" and one as my "unstable" installation.  I'm taking this laptop with me overseas for work for a bit over a year and it will be replacing my desktop.  I love to tweak my machine but I need to make sure I can do so without risking loss of everything.  The idea is I can play with things in my "unstable" install and move them to "stable" if I like them.  Honestly, the distro on that partition will likely change occasionally just so I can play around a bit.

I know I could just use a virtual machine but that's not how I want to do it right now.