Two questions, both basically the same.
1) I have linux by itself on a 40 GB drive that will have a partition for backing up files from my Windows machine. This system will eventually become a router/server. How should I partition this drive. (ie sizes for /, /home, etc.) and should I use a FAT filesystem for the big partition that will hold the files?

2) I also will have Linux dual-booted with WinME on a laptop with a 15GB drive. Me will be the default boot and most of my drive should be dedicated to Windows. I want enough space for Linux to learn the operating system and use the prompt to write Perl scripts. I plan on C: being ~3.5GB, then about 4GB for linux, the rest being D: for windows. Advice on correct layout of the linux partitions in this case would be helpful.

Thanks in advance,
Michael Derksen

Gonna do it this weekend, got any ideas?
Michael

Partitioning is a very subjective question, and you'll find as many recommendations on how it should be done as there are ways to it. The "how many?" and "how large?" questions come up pretty often, so I'd suggest using theSearch Function to view previous discussions on the topic. Use "partitions", "multiple partitions", etc. as your search ccriteria. Another good resource is the Forum Search at linuxnewbie.org.

Also, check out these links:


http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/installation/partition/multi_partition.html]

Well it entirely depends on your choice how much space you want to give where.

You only need to keep one thing in your mind i.e.

You need to make one primary partition for windows ( if you choose to mount it on /dev/hda1 it would be alright. )
You can also make a boot partition of say 60Mb if you like however that is optional.

Remaing partitions can be under extended or primary does not matter.

You need to make a partion with / label and also with /usr label to keep your system files.

I hope that 4 or 5 GB space would suffice for your ( /usr ) directory, however it depends on what volume you choose to install. you also need to make a swap partition of space greater than twice the size of RAM ( eg. 512 MB for 256 MB Ram ).

/home entirely depends on you how much you would like to give to it ( I have given it to be say 500MB ) .

Windows you can choose on your own. You can make windows partitions as FAT32 partitions they can be mounted on linux ( i.e. you can access windows directories from linux ) .
Thanks