backup and partition advice
 

hi,

im just wondering what do here.

im using slackware 11, but i plan on upgrading when the new slack 12.1 is ready.

ive got a 20GB HD which i was thinking about installing the root (/) partition to, and using my main 160GB to install /home.

the question is this, if something gets screwed up in root (/) will it be enough to just reintstall the system and reinstall programs (on the 20GB HD), then hook up the /home partition (on the 160GB HD) in /etc/fstab to get things working the same as they were?

further, if i split the 160GB HD into 2x 80GB partitions, both with /home, could i use the same system ( / which is located on the smaller 20GB HD) to effectively have 2 different systems, for example 1 /home partition for a stable system, the other /home partition to experiment with software installs? in other words will each /home partion screw with the / or just there own /home?

I am no longer a slacker, but believe there are better alternatives to wasting partition space.

to try out software....install an emulator, i love virtualbox.

2) but you may find yourself trying out iso images without having to burn them

3) my main way to backup is to have a huge spare partition for d/loads and data and partimages.....the partimages are burnt onto 2 sets of dvdrw that alternate

eg
first image to dvd1 nothing to dvd2
second image ...continue multisession on dvd1 and start dvd2

eventually dvd1 fills up and gets back to (say) fifth image while dvd2 has images 1-5 and next image dvd1 has images 5 +6 and dvd2 has image 6

I may not explain myself too well but partitions should be used with some thought

Yes that would work.

This looks to be the wrong way round to me. If you are messing around with software installs and are frightened of messing up your system then you should thing of having another small partition with a system installed on that. Software installs should not mess with home.

The issue then becomes, can your two installations share the same home. Well they can certainly share the smae data but it is possible that software configuration data, the sort of stuff that is in the hidden directories in home could interfere with one another. One way to do this is to have home for your experimental installation separate from your main home but use soft links to point to data folders.

The way I prefer to do slackware upgrades is to install the new version on a seprate partition and then when I am happy that everything is set up and working make the changes to use my big home partition.

thanks for the suggestions :)

i do like the idea of virtualisation, but it may be a little bit more work than i can take on at the moment. i think maybe 2 seperate installs is probably the best way forward at this point.