I know this has been addressed many, many times... Mostly I see it with smaller hard drives. Or multiple hard drives. So here it goes again. , thanks.

What would be an ideal configuaration for a Dual boot system with Windows XP and SuSE 9.3?
I have a 200GB HD, Have 15GB (NTFS) set aside for XP and would like two more partitions for XP.
One for games and another for pics/vids. Was thinking about 25-30GB for games and maybe 40-50 for pics/vids.
Now what should I make the partitions? VFAT, FAT32 or NTFS?
I wouldn't mind being able to get the pics/vids from either Linux or WIn.
The games really don't need to access from Linux.

Now Linux? I would like to explore more distro's in the future, so I would like to set it up so that would be easily done.
I plan on using Linux more than XP. Plan that is, maybe one day replace it completely... Lets hope...
I've been reading that it is recommended to have a /boot, /, /usr, /tmp and /swap for Linux.
I also wouldn't mind messing with Grub to set this up. Or should I just let SuSE take care of it?
I know it does use GRUB anyways.

for ease of linux access, make the pics/vids FAT32

you need at least a / partition (/ means root) and a swap partition, if you really feel like it, a /home /usr and /tmp partition. I like cfdisk for partitioning.

you can let suse handle it, but if you feel like it, you can read the grub manual here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

welcome to LQ!

titanium_geek

My dual boot system has XP pro on one 80 gig hd (hda)
and Suse 9.2 on the other 80 gig hard drive (hdb)

I have 512mb 2700 ram so I did 1gig swap.
so my linux drive is:
/swap 1000MB
/(root) ~79000MB
I did not opt for a /home partition.

If I was you I would create a 100GIG partition for XP, and a 100GIG partition for SUSE.
If Xp is not installed install it first.
Then install suse and manually set the partitions.
I installed boot loader in the MBR.

If you keep your vid/photos on the xp partition SUSE is able to access your win drive and open the media. Games it doesn't matter put them on WIN, and the ones that work on linux a la UT2004 run on SUSE.
Good Luck.

Blair

P.S When you make the transition form dual to single linux boot.
Copy you media files to dvd-r. reinstall, or move media to linux partition via copy and change the nfts to a linux partition.

OK now lets say that I have 3 windows partitions, 15GB, 35GB & 50GB. I'll have 100GB (approx) left over for Linux, what would be the recommended size of /, /home, /usr, /tmp, /boot & /swap? Since I have 1GB of ram I was thinking about 2GB for the swap, or is this too much? Now on these other partitions, what are the size requirements, if any?

Swap- give it at least double your ram so, 2GB
/boot- quite small, 100MB - if you are using multiple kernels then more.. like 15GB?
/usr- I have 4GB- you might want more- you have the space! 10GB?
/ (root) - 5GB is good
/home as much as you like, probably not below 8GB
/var (I don't personally have a var, but it is suggested- and you have the space) umm.. 10GB?
/tmp not more than 5GB probably


or ofcourse, you could have a shared home, var, usr, tmp, and have a bunch of / partitions for lots of different flavours of linux... what I'd do- but whatever.

titanium_geek

the way i would do it for my 80G hard drive

(win xp)
partition for windows..........10G
partition for mydocuments........10G
partition for program files...............10G
NTFS partition for backup......................10G

(linux)
partition for / .......................20G
partition for /home.....................10G
EXT2 partition for backup.................10G

husnos- that is a really good setup. Thanks for sharing that.

titanium_geek

i forgot to mention swap partition

titanium_geek is right............twice the ram is preferred

Hey thanks guys, I think I'll keep it simple like you both mentioned. Wht make things more difficult than they need to be. Not till I have a reason to do so at least... I have windows back up and running andwill start on Linux tonight. I'll give SUSE 9.3 a try. Thanks again for the advise.

suse linux is a very good choice...............they have automatic recovery.........expect to damage your system oftenly

IM(Not So)HO, partitioning schemes are a personal thing, best left to the conscience of the individual SysAdmin and time. I have completely changed my partition setup 3 times (although, to be fair, one of those was due to a forced upgrade from Windoze 2000 to Windoze eXasPeration), and am making plans for eventual future changes (husnos has given me ideas).
Currently, my hd space is at somewhat of a premium, as hda is 30 gig and hdb is only 13 gig, so my partitions are less generous:
hda:
20 gig for eXasPeration (NTFS)
640 meg for Swap
9 gig for / (ext3)
hdb:
3 gig for dual access (fat32)
5 gig for archival purposes (ext3)
5 gig unassigned
This way, if I decide I need more space for /usr/local, I have 5 gig just sitting there, and I don't have to worry about backing up a bloated partition before I can harvest it's excess space. The point being, just because you have the space now, you don't have to allocate all of it now, especially the space you've earmarked for Linux.

As far as swap goes, isn't 2 gig a bit much? I know double ram is a rule of thumb, but is it possible to need 2 gigs of swap? (This is a serious question, not mockery--I don't know!)

BTW, where in Utah are you? I have been unable to find a LUG in the Salt Lake area, so if you live up North, perhaps we could rope some other Utahns together to form one?

Edit:
Found my LUG...this last bout with insomnia must have affected me worse than I thought! Talk about hiding in plain sight!

I kept it simple till I become more accustom to Linux

100GB linux part ion
98GB /root
2GB /swap

Thanks for the advise.
When I do become more accustom to Linux I'll try some diff distro's.

tarwood- that's a fine first setup. Good luck in you linux endeavors!

titanium_geek

SUSE is a nice distro to ease into linux.
Good job on the partition.

Blair

for a beginner, it is recommended that you have /home on a seperate partition.

my brother, once, restarted computer in the middle of reformatting the hard disk. why? he forgot to backup personal files !!!