do i need a /boot partition here

frieza · 01-15-2011, 03:26 PM

here's the scenario

I work at a tech shop and one of our customers has a laptop with 2 hard drives (yes they do exist) and wants his laptop to dual boot Ubuntu/windows XP, with windows on the first drive and Linux on the second drive
should the drives be partitioned

Code:

/dev/hda1 {windows}
/dev/hdb1 {ubuntu swap}
/dev/hdb2 {ubuntu /}

or should it be

Code:

/dev/hda1 {ubuntu /boot} (500 megs)
/dev/hda2 {windows} (rest of drive)
/dev/hdb1 {ubuntu swap}
/dev/hdb2 {ubuntu /}

lugoteehalt · 01-15-2011, 03:58 PM

You almost certainly know far more about this than I do. But I'm mystified.

Grub puts something on the first sector that the BIOS reads and this sends the BIOS to whichever disk is specified - and starts grub, which displays its menu. So I don't see that it matters where you put things, except that obviously Windows likes to be on the first partition of the first disk.

xandercage17 · 01-15-2011, 04:05 PM

Delete My account

druuna · 01-15-2011, 04:14 PM

Hi,

I would choose the first setup, keeping it simple.

cmas1148 · 01-15-2011, 05:33 PM

I believe a /boot partition would be good on the first drive, therefore if the second drive is separated from the system somehow, Windows is still bootable, unless, of course, the customer prefers Ubuntu over Windows, then the /boot should resign on the second drive.

ComputerErik · 01-15-2011, 09:38 PM

I think the best solution is to keep each OS on its own drive. So the layout would be something like this if I were setting this up:

/dev/sda - Windows (since this is probably already factory installed using the whole drive)
/dev/sdb1 - /boot (around 500MB should be fine but I usually do 1GB since HD space is cheap, and historically some bugs have caused /boot to grow large if you keep an install over a long period)
/dev/sdb2 - / (10 - 20GB)
/dev/sdb3 - /home
/dev/sdb4 - swap 4GB or so

I personally usually do more partitions for /var, /usr/local, /tmp, /var/log but that is all for you to decide.

Then I would let Grub install to MBR of the first HD so you can let it handle the multiple boot setup.