Partitioning Suggestions for Dual Boot
 

Hi,

I have an IBM Thinkpad R40 with 40GB of hard drive space. I've been a heavy Windows user my whole life, but I really want to make a big switch over to linux. I currently have Windows XP (25GB) and openSUSE 10.2 (15GB). So far; I love it. Besides all the configuration needed, I can really see myself functioning with linux.

Now to the point; I need to add more space to my linux side, but I'm confused on the partitioning the installer did for me. Right now I have:

• boot - 761MB
• home - 5.09GB
• root - 6.90GB

Now that I'm learning about the folder structures (still a long process) - all that hard drive space in my "home" directory doesn't look like it needs to be there. I can probably move some of that space to my "root" directory, because I still haven't loaded ALL my libraries from my install CD. If I do install all the library files, I'll have about 30% of unused hard drive space in my root partition.

Can someone give me a suggestion as to what my partition sizes should be? I'm also trying to clear up some space from my windows partition and move it over to my linux partition. Thanks.

root needs to have at least 2.5 Gb of space, depending on your distro, this may change.
I put on it 10 gb, so I'm sure I'll never run out of space :)

home needs to be as much space as you need for your files.
I put on it 20 gb, I generally don't run out of space with that amount of space.

Home is optional, you can have simply root. Your home files will be along with the root files on a single unified partition.

Hi MimiTheBrain,

Thanks for responding to my question. So until I can move over all my hard drive space, if I add more, it should be to the root. I think I'm fine with the amount I have in "home". I don't have a lot of data to work with yet.

If you don't have much data, or none, you can omit home, it'll give you more space to root...

There is no Linux version that needs more than ONE partition (plus swap space). I always keep data an a separate partition and link it to the ~/documents folder. In this scenario, the main Linux partition does not need to be more that maybe 5GB.
If all your data is also on the partition, then it depends on how much data you have....;)

Hello together,

if you have not much space on your drive it is better to use only / and one swap-partition. If you have files which you need in both Linux and Widows (mp3 etc) you can use a fat32 partition instead of keeping this files on both systems. I have a 32GB fat32 partition which is drive D on windows and /usr/local/music on Linux (for my music).

Markus

I suggest to keep a smaller partition for root, believe me you don't need to install all libraries and applications from SuSE.

Home on the other way 'must' be kept in a separate partition, since you can do that because as you will sweep inside to Linux world you will try more and more distributions, probably make some mistakes that(we all did) will cost you time and data.

Keeping a separate partition for home will definitely save your data from a distro change or a format. You will keep your documents and most importantly, your application settings.
I for example I am a KDE lover so I use pretty much kde apps, I don't want to have a different wallet, I keep my preference on the appearance and more..

A fat partition on the other side is a solution but windows pretty much messes up with filenames and disk becomes fragmented.
As pixellany said you don't need more 5gb for root and I can see that you are using 25GB(!) for windows. May I ask why so much?
1 or 2 games, office suite and some more apps must be enough for 15gb.

Mp3 and video MUST be transfered to your linux side of the laptop :) Trust me... just use amarok and xine (or choose what suits you) and will be more than satisfied!

Again, it's your choice(and that's good to have so many) maybe you should start trying all of them!

Cheers and see you on the forums