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Okay may be this is a stupid question --- I opted for automatic partition during my mandrake installation and that created three partitions '/' '/usr' and a swap. Now most of the things I install are by default installed in /usr partition and my / (root) partition is still at large.
But isn't /usr part of the / (root) directory or does it just have a link to the /usr directory from within the / (root)? In either case, I dont understand why mandrake chose to allocate more space for the / (root) when practically almost all the major applications that I am using are installed in the /usr/bin ?
/ is always the top level of the directory structure. All other partitions and directories are below /. In your case / is one partition and /usr is another partition that is accessible from /.
I don't have an answer for you about the auto partitioning though. If you choose to reinstall, the only partitions you actually need are / and swap. Anything not created as a partition will just be created as a directory under /.
But, if all the partitions can be created as directory within the / (root) partition, then why bother creating seperate partions? Is there some kind of speed issue here?
I am not sure of all the reasons why, and there are probably various reasons.
One reason I have been told is that it helps minimize potential data loss. Sometimes an individual partition can become damaged. If everything is broken up into lots of partitions, you won't lose that much.
Another reason is if you use disk quotas. Since quotas are implemented against partitions, you can become much more granular the more partitions you have.
It's too early in the morning for me to remember any other *good* reasons, but if I run across more I will let you know.
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