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Re: hard drive partitioning questions



On Tue, Dec 31, 2002 at 01:06:29AM -0500, Nori Heikkinen wrote:
> i'm installing debian on a brand-new new hard drive on my home system
> (i.e., personal usage), and am at the point of making a swap
> partition.  cfdisk is up, and i'm trying to figure out what partitions
> i should specify.  i'm reading the the woody installation how-tos [1],
> and am kind of confused.  
> 
> i just bought a new 80G hard drive.  i should partition the whole
> thing, right?  i'm thinking:
> 
> /dev/hda1 -- / (Linux (83)) -- 100M (is this appropriate?)
> /dev/hda2 -- /usr (83) -- 1G (too much?)
> /dev/hda3 -- swap (82) -- 128M (i have that much physical RAM, and
>              that should be sufficient, right?) should i make this
>              hda1?
> /dev/hda3 -- /var -- 2 or 3 G, as per suggestion of [1] (i like apt)
> /dev/hda4 -- /tmp -- 50M-ish?
> /dev/hda5 -- /home -- the rest, all for me :)
> 
> have i correctly extracted that these are the partitions i'll need?
> does the above sound good?  i'm assuming i can designate them all
> later on in the installation process, after i've actually created
> them.
> 
> there can only be 3 primary partitions if i want a logical one too, if
> i've read correctly ... so, do i make the first three primary, and the
> rest logical?  or is there a better method to going about it?  it
> doesn't really matter, does it?
> 
> or, should i forget all of the above, and just go with / and swap?
> that seems easier, but are there drawbacks?
>

//

hi,

hmm...partitioning?  ...definitely a 
matter of taste.

i used to go with "/ & swap," but i'd 
get a "kernel panic" every few months 
that would require a re-install.  (i'm 
not good at "kernel panic" re-covery;
although, yesterday, i was successful,
for the 1st time, by putting in a boot
disk, re-partitioning the beast, and
rebooting.  ...plz don't ask how it
worked...probably a fluke.)

during the re-installs, the thing that
would slow me down the most was get-
ting back my "special" files -- tweeked 
config files, "must-have" back-ground 
images, etc.  my backups of these files 
may not be convenient.  i have multiple 
linux boxen which require different set-
tings, also.

so, i partition "/ (hda2) & swap," and 
also a 3 gig partition (as a "holding
bin" for things i'd normally lose in 
a re-install).  now, if i crash, i re-
load on hda2, mount the "extra" parti-
tion, copy over my "special" files and 
i'm back in business.  obviously, this 
only works if the hard drive isn't toast.   
(yes, i should have a better backups, 
but until then....)

others like the "lots-a-slices" approach
to partitioning.  but for my needs, i 
can get by without that.

and for swap, i go with 1 gig, even with
a 10 gig hard drive.  "thrash" protection.
(i've hit webpages that keep spanwing, so
i need "insurance" to get things under
control before it's too late, i think.)

again, it's a matter of taste.

good luck with the 80 gig hd.

debs, thx &  happy new year!

b.

//
 
> also, it's been said that i should use ext3, not ext2.  partition
> types 82 and 83 are ext2, no?  am i confused on that? (obviously)
> how/when should i change this?
> 
> thanks so much,
> 
> </nori>
> 
> [1] http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/i386/ch-init-config.en.html
>     http://www.debian.org/releases/woody/i386/ch-partitioning.en.html#s4.4
> 
> -- 
>     .~.      nori @ sccs.swarthmore.edu 
>     /V\  http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/~nori/jnl/
>    // \\          @ maenad.net
>   /(   )\       www.maenad.net
>    ^`~'^
> 
> 
> 



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