Does it Matter What Order Partitions Show up In?

happydog500 · 11-26-2016, 04:51 PM

I partitioned my Mint Install;

First I created a "/" partition, then a "Swap" partition, then a /home Partition with all the (biggest) space I had left over.

So the order I had while looking at it was
/dev/sda1 ext4 /
/dev/sda5 swap
/dev/sda6 /home

When I look at other schemes, I see a different order. I see;
/dev/sda1 ext4 /
/dev/sda5 ext4 /home
/dev/sda6 swap

The "/home" and "swap" are switched around. I knew how much I wanted for my /. I knew how much I wanted for swap, but wanted all the left over space for /home. It was easier to do it that way.

Does it matter what order the /home and swap are in?

Thank you,
Chris.

syg00 · 11-26-2016, 05:10 PM

No.
People used to worry about such things, but that time is long gone. I always stick swap way out the end to get it out of the way - especially if I later need to resize/move partitions around.
LVM avoids such concerns at all.

jefro · 11-26-2016, 06:13 PM

Notes.

I've had trouble with /boot location or other first start type things when on some older systems.

Good thing about swap is that you can do a lot with it both in file and partition after the system is up. Same with /home. You can usually move it around later.

happydog500 · 11-27-2016, 08:14 PM

I re-did it before I got a response. I had 2mb's left over. Wish I wold of left it the way it was. ocd+2mb=stress.

Chris.

Amarildo · 11-27-2016, 08:36 PM

My partition order:

/dev/sda1 - boot
/dev/sda2 - encrypted LVM

Inside the LVM:

40 GB for /
16 GB for /swap
The rest for /home

The very first partitions are the ones closest to the end of the disk and they get faster read/write, so it makes sense to put swap not very far from it.

Quote:

ocd+2mb=stress

I fell ya. Fortunately my first partition is created 2048 MB after the first track so the partitions align properly (my HD has physical sectors of 4096 bytes and logical sectors of 512 bytes). Creating partitions with fdisk makes sure that no free space exists in the end of the disk.

dave@burn-it.co.uk · 11-30-2016, 08:17 AM

If I have several disks in a machine I tend to create the partitions I need then format the bits that file systems can't use as swap space.

BW-userx · 11-30-2016, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by happydog500

I partitioned my Mint Install;

First I created a "/" partition, then a "Swap" partition, then a /home Partition with all the (biggest) space I had left over.

So the order I had while looking at it was
/dev/sda1 ext4 /
/dev/sda5 swap
/dev/sda6 /home

When I look at other schemes, I see a different order. I see;
/dev/sda1 ext4 /
/dev/sda5 ext4 /home
/dev/sda6 swap

The "/home" and "swap" are switched around. I knew how much I wanted for my /. I knew how much I wanted for swap, but wanted all the left over space for /home. It was easier to do it that way.

Does it matter what order the /home and swap are in?

Thank you,
Chris.

it goes by the order you create them in.
had you did it like this

create /
create /home
create swap
then it'd look something like this

Code:

/dev/sda1 /
/dev/sda2 /home
/dev/sda3 swap

Are you not creating them all primary drives? you got a jump from 1 to 5 in there. you can have up to 4 primary drives before you have to go to extended.

Habitual · 11-30-2016, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by happydog500

I had 2mb's left over.

The "Unallocated" space in gParted and the like drives me bonkers.

dave@burn-it.co.uk · 11-30-2016, 09:40 AM

It is usually the rest of the track/cylinder that the tables occupy which cannot be used, though it may also be some at the end of the drive since some file systems won't use the last bit.