Okay, I like linux (FC3) and I'm ready to start making the official change over. My test linux is currently on my second HD (ide) and I want to set it up so it is on my faster sata drive. I'm going to start making a new partition for it by chopping up my current windows partitions to make room.

I have a 160gb drive, which with windows I liked to partition up, both for safety and for ease of organization. Is it easier to just have a single partition for linux, or should I do the same sort of thing. One partition for the OS, another for files, another for programs, etc.? Will I have to mount each partition separately every time i want to access it?

this is what I currently have:
windows sytem partition (20 gigs total, 8.85 free)
Files (36.7 total/15.3 free)
Programs (43.9 total/32.1 free)
Documents (48.8 total/21.5 free)

Of course, I"ll need to keep my programs partition and my windows system (but i can cut them down). I'd like to make a FAT32 partition that both OS's can read/write to so that I can transfer files from one OS to the other.

What do y'all suggest?

I've always tended to use multiple partitions with Linux, just in case something goes wrong with any of them. I'd recommend, at minimum, keeping your user-space documents (usually everything in /home) on a separate partition, so if the root partition goes haywire you can still recover your files. I used to think keeping /home separate would be useful for switching distributions or sharing /home between multiple distros, but that's really not very practical, since the overlapping distros can create quite a mess in your home directory.

If you are very paranoid, you could make separate partitions for /, /etc, /usr, /home, and maybe even /var (plus a swap partition). But maintenance becomes a hassle; if you run out of space on /usr, it's a minor headache to rearrange so you gain more space there.

My advice: Set aside however much space you want to devote to Linux. Within that, make:

/home (as big as you think your user files will be)
swap partition (~1GB would be plenty)
/ (root) - all the rest here

If you use Windows frequently, do like you mentioned and set up a big Fat32 partition that both OSes can use. I don't use Windows, but I do have a /pub partition for storing mp3s, videos, downloaded stuff, etc. so /home doesn't get so cluttered.

/boot 0.5
/swap 2
/ 10
/usr 25
/home 20

And I'll also have my fat32 partition for sharing. I just might convert my second HD to fat32, since that is what my music sits on anyway and then the whole drive can be a transfer drive.

Then once i start moving files over to the linux partitions, i can clear up more space and add it to the /usr and /home partitions.

How's that sound?

Actually, don't ever make /etc its own partition! Remember, init reads /etc/inittab to figure out how to get your system up and running. If /etc isn't there ... well it's a chicken and egg problem.

um...okay. did i say i was making a /etc partition?

I have a laptop w/40G and i don't do windows. Until yesterday i had only 20G with a M$ partition that ended up wiped and used for media storage, but my drive died -nothing saved. So, now it is thus- 4G for / ,758 or something (I use Suse 9.2 and that was it's sugestion,before it was 376) for swap and the rest for /home.

1st as far as swap goes, don't the say double you ram? or somthing like that. Well with 376 it was filled once after hours of Inet surfing and my last stop was at NASA D/Ling / looking at mars rover photos (MAN ARE THEY HUGE!) so 1G seems more than enough.
If i had 2 HDs and ran windows i would do somthing like this

1st HD /GRUB(or lilo), /Win,/winprog /(linux),/Swap,/winswap
2nd HD /home, /Stuff32(the shared files), /windocs

Why? if something goes really bad, easy wipe or reinstall- data saved

2nd speed- while you open one file the other that needs to be swapped can be done simultaniously. of course this depends on how you work-do you run program after program or just a few with file after file (or large file and anouther)

sizewize- well, can' help w/windoz and i know it's swap tends to grow exponentialy after 24hrs so its size would prob. be larger than the linux swap. Also you only mentioned a 160G drive, don't know how big the other is. But, 10G is plenty for / ,the majority for /home .

finally make sure you set the flags correctly on the shared so user can write to it ( i had trouble with this some times for some reason and even root was unautherized to change the write flags on the win drive)
hope it helps.
BTW, the /etc thing was mentioned by wapcaplet.

osbie

No, I mentioned it. But he's right, that's a really dumb idea now that I think about it

hmm, i like your setup suggestions, osbie. The only thing is, my main 160 gig drive is sata, while the second drive (older) is an ATA. I wanted to keep things moving faster for most of my work, hence keeping everything but the shared stuff on the sata drive.

I got a little confused with your sugggestion for the / partiiton. Does that only need 4 gigs? If so, I can move the other 6 over to /home. I just didn't know if it was better to have some overhead on that drive, 'cause i know windows needs some.

I also thought swap partitions (or page for windows) is better if it is a on a second drive?

So I guess i'm looking more at:

SATA drive:
/boot 100mb
/ 5 gigs
/usr 25 gigs
/home 47 gigs
/windows 14 gigs
/winfiles 25 gigs (but i'll be able to wipe this once i get linux up)
/windocs 32 gigs (ibid)

ATA Drive:
/swap 2 gigs
/page 2 gigs
/fat32 remainder

Bipolar,
I glad I wasn't too confusing;-)
to be clear, / is the root partition and can/will contain everything below it (which is everything) unless you specify otherwise. user progames are, depending on distro and prog., installed primarily in /usr or /opt with RPMs (it's for shared user prog.s). many self compiled can/are instaled in /home/bin.

any programs you run or files you save will be in /home/your-user-name which is the major space taker. that said 25G for /usr seems a waste unless you have more than 2 or 3 users. and for a home user i doubt the benefit of separation.

if you left /usr alone ie under /(root) and gave it 10G you could install almost every linux prog you never needed. I have 40G on a laptop so 4G is plenty- MM progs of all types, compilers, Grafic pogs 3 or 4 video players, all sorts of extras. and i still have a gig-n-a-half. You, my son have -what,5,6 times that? so why not a little safty zone and dbl it 8-10Gs

as to swap yah, separate. but what is being swapped was my point.

if its files then

hda-----hdb
/home----/
file--> swap--------- can happen simutainiusly

its piping rather than a bucket

now why is / on the b not a drive? files and progs can load at the same time.

if you run lots of programe i would flip /home and /

but i realise that may start to be complicated and poss. excessive.
forgetthelast 3 lines if I confuse.

other than that sounds good.

2 last pts. GRUB loader recomended and when you do this make shur you uderstand Primary and Extended for partitions before formating begins. (i don't know F3C too well but suse will let you resize windoz as easily as a scrol bar(just make sure you defrag first). Wow, i love linux. took me 3 mins to remember that word 'defrag' one less thing to worry @.

good luck