ThinKer wrote:
which doesn't match the specs above? Are you sure the 1.2 is not the master on the secondary (/dev/hdc)?Primary IDE Master: 4.1 GB <-- This is /dev/hda Primary IDE Slave: 1.2 GB <-- This is /dev/hdb Secondary IDE Slave: 4.1 GB <-- This is /dev/hdd So I am sitting here looking at the screen (cfdisk 2.11n) and it isasking me to select a drive to partition with the list of /dev/hda /dev/hdcand /dev/hdd.
Everybody has their own ideas of how best to partition. I would probably do the following:How should I allocate this space? I deleted one of the drives and selected 'NEW'. Then it asks me [Primary] [Logical] [Cancel] , so I selected 'Primary'. Gave it the full size and now I have no idea what to do. I am not really sure what I just did.
/ 200 MB /dev/hda1 primary /usr 2500MB /dev/hda2 logical (or primary) /var 500MB /dev/hda3 logical (or primary) /tmp 100MB /dev/hda4logical (or primary) swap /dev/hdc1 128MB primary /home /dev/hdd1 4.1GB primaryThis puts your home files on a separate drive from your system. It also puts your swap partition on its own drive, which can speed up the system a bit, since the drive head doesn't have to dance between reading system files and writing swap data on the same drive.
Of course, you could put everything on one drive, which would leave the other two drives free for something else, such as the Hurd (if you _really_ want a challenge).
Or you could put everything in one big partition, which many distros do. But separate partitions add a small measure of stability, safety, and security. Also with separate partitions, you can mount some of them read-only for additional safety/security.
But again, other folks with have other ideas, and ultimately, as long as you don't create partitions that are too small (such as a 50MB / partition if you're going to install several kernels, etc), then it pretty much isn't critical what partitioning scheme you choose to follow. It's a bit more important for a server, but it sounds like you're just doing a workstation.
-- Kent