Another NOOB seeking help!! Please HELP!!

[WarriorDan]

Hi, I have downloaded Mandrake Linux 10.0 and burnt all the .iso's.

I then booted up the 1st disc and followed all the instructions, but then it comes up to partitions, and that's where I'm stumped.

I have a 40 GB HDD and I would like to give 18 GB to Windows XP and ~22 GB to Linux... but I have absolutley NO idea what size all these partitions should be and what each one are for, could someone please explain and help me?

Thank you

Daniel

[Chris H]

If you already have windows installed then defrag it first. If you don't have windows installed then install it first else it'll mess your linux up.

When you go through the mandrake install you'll get to the disk partitioning bit. You can then drag on the edge of the windows partition to resize it. Then click on the newly created white space and use the buttons which tell mandrake to partition that space. Use 'simple partitioning.'

[WarriorDan]

I understand what you mean, but I still have NO idea how big each of the linux partitions should be (/, /boot, /usr .etc).

Please could you explain what each is used for and how big you would recommend them to be?

[stathisx]

/ is the main (root's partition),/usr is where user puts installed programs & executables..(user partition).there is not a default size for them.you can size them as much as you want .i think it doesn't matter.you can resize later i think....

[kkubasik]

you can resize later, but its not a good idea, on a 40gb drive, w/ 18 to windows, 500 swap, 32 boot (the standard) you can just mount all of / onto the rest, or you can split the partitions for greater security/performace/organization. But thats a little advanced.

[dan@george]

It depends on what you want your machine to do, and how much hard drive space you have. My new computer has a 160 GB hard drive and it's primarily a gaming machine. I recommend you read some Linux partitioning FAQs that you can find by searching on www.google.com/linux to get a general idea of the entire process. It's pretty much impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, so the more research you do the better.

[jeremy1701]

Just parition off like 1/2 or 1/4 of your hard drive and let Mandrake choose the size of the / /home /swap paritions itself. It does a pretty good job.

Jeremy

[Chris H]

Just parition off like 1/2 or 1/4 of your hard drive and let Mandrake choose the size of the / /home /swap paritions itself. It does a pretty good job.

Jeremy

What the man said!

[stathisx]