sbarlow@iinet.net.au wrote:
There's really no such thing as "the correct way to partition" a disk. Partition it as you best see fit; then 6 weeks later, 18 months later, whatever later, if you realize you would rather have a different partitioning scheme, backup your system and resize/move your partitions at that time (don't do this on a server needing 24x7 uptime - but then, you probably don't want to be doing Linux for the first time on such a server; you need a bit of experience first).Hi,I am a (generally) linux newbie trying to jump in the deep end of learning linux. I have read a lot of documentation on the correct way to partition a hard diskby placing /, /home, /usr, /var, /boot, /tmp and obviously /swap on their own partitions, the size requirements and physical layout of the drive. My machine does not have any other OS's on it and has a second hard drive. I have not touched this second hard drive partitioning wise and it has nothing on it. I am trying to set up a semi debian workstation/file server and would like to usethis second 80gb hard drive. What is the correct way to partition this disk when it will contain onlydocuments and data? I have an existing 25Gb /home directory on the first 40gb hard drive but don't know whether to enable the full 80gb second drive as /home. Can you have two /home directories on separate disks? Do I need another partition on the second drive as swap? I'd appreciate any help regarding thismatter.
No, you can't really have two "home" directories, to my knowledge, but you can sort of simulate it. One way would be to have your normal "home" directory and to create on the second drive a second directory named something like "home2". (But if you use the "adduser" program to add users, you'll need to manually change /etc/passwd to point to the "home2" directory for those who need it, and to manually move their homes from "home" to "home2".)
No, you don't need a second swap partition on the second drive. It doesn't hurt to have it (except wasted space, unless the extra swap space is needed).
-- Kent