Soon to be Linux user with slightly advanced questions

[pmacdonald]

i92guboj thanks for the help once again.

I think this is what I'll do:

/dev/hda1 Windows OS
/dev/hda4 Extended
/dev/hda5 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 Linux / (root) for first Linux (this is where the OS goes)
/dev/hda7 Linux /home for first Linux
/dev/hda8 Linux / (root) for second Linux
/dev/hda9 Linux /home for second Linux
/dev/hda10 Shared files between both windows and linux

What do you guys think of that?

This just leaves the following questions:

• How do I separate the Linux /root for the /home (not how do I create the partitions but how do I separate the files)?
• What size should I make each of these partitions? (Well actually I think I'll only have to choose a size for the Windows OS and the Extended partition...but I'm not 100% on that. Regardless of that, what should the sizes be?)

Note: I currently have 170GB used on my HDD in my C: drive. I gave incorrect information before regarding my HDD capacity. It is a Western Digital Black Caviar 640GB.

[i92guboj]

i92guboj thanks for the help once again.

I think this is what I'll do:

/dev/hda1 Windows OS
/dev/hda4 Extended
/dev/hda5 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 Linux / (root) for first Linux (this is where the OS goes)
/dev/hda7 Linux /home for first Linux
/dev/hda8 Linux / (root) for second Linux
/dev/hda9 Linux /home for second Linux
/dev/hda10 Shared files between both windows and linux

What do you guys think of that?

It's fine as long as it suits you. I would unify both /home partitions into a single one, but you should do whatever you consider easier to understand and manage. Right now you are starting with this stuff, you will surely change and addapt the scheme to your tastes in the future as you continue learning. There's no best layout.

[*]How do I separate the Linux /root for the /home (not how do I create the partitions but how do I separate the files)?

This can depend on the installer. At some point, the installer for each given distro will ask you what partitions do you want to use. Most of them will let you choose as many as you want, and they will take care of everything. You might need to choose some kind of advanced mode, or something like that, each installer is different...

In your case, you would install the installation of the first distro (once you have all the partitions and such stuff). Then, when it comes the time to tell it what partitions to use, you will need to tell the installer that it must use hda5 for swap, and that it must mount hda6 at /, and hda7 at /home.

Then, you will need to install the next one, and this time you will need to tell it to use hda5 for swap, hda8 for / and hda9 for /home.

Again, each installer is different, but once you get into it you should be able to discern what to do. If you can't then you will need specific instructions depending on the distro you are installing.

In any case, note that the most important one is /, once you have that, the distro can be installed. And if you decide to move /home to another partition at a later stage, that can be done after installing as well. So, as long as you choose the right partition for each /, the rest can be corrected at a later stage. So don't worry.

[*]What size should I make each of these partitions? (Well actually I think I'll only have to choose a size for the Windows OS and the Extended partition...but I'm not 100% on that. Regardless of that, what should the sizes be?)

You will need to choose the size for all the partitions surely. When you install a single distro, some installers offer an option to adjust the layout for you, you only need to revise it, correct it if you want and click next. However, I have no idea how these installers deal with multiple distros... Someone else might have a better advice for you here.

Anyway, you should already have an idea on how much space do you need to install windows. The rest, will be an extended.

After that, you need to decide how much space are you going to invest for linux. A regular desktop linux install can fit somewhere in between 2-10gb nowadays, depending on how much programs and what concrete programs do you install. Gamers will need more.

About the home partitions, it depends on the data you are going to store. If you plan to do heavy gaming, video editing/ripping, etc in linux you are going to need a lot of space there.

About the shared drive... no idea, it entirely depends on your requisites.

I wouldn't waste more than 1-2gb on swap unless you have a good reason to.

[pmacdonald]

THIS IS FOR MY DESKTOP PC NOT THE LAPTOP
The last few posts have stated that as well...I'm just clarifying for those who didn't see it.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.2GHz (Over clocked to 4GHz)
Nvidia GeForce 280 GTX
G.Skill Black DDR2 800MHz 4GB (2x2GB)
Gigabyte P45 UD3P Motherboard
WD Black Caviar 640GB
Samsung CD/DVD Burner
Corsair PSU TX750W

I backed up all of my files and went through the Linux demo in the Ubuntu LiveCD. I got to the partitioner and it is pretty easy to use. I didn't commit to anything yet though (meaning I didn't partition anything yet, just played with the program). I'm not sure what to do with all of my space though... I've got a 640GB HDD but it says I have 596.1GB (I understand why). I'm not sure how to separate that into my partitions. After thinking about a lot of things I ended up with this setup (not set in stone yet because it hasn't been partitioned):

/dev/sda1 Vista Ultimate - 165370MB Used NTFS
/dev/sda5 Linux Swap
/dev/sda6 Linux / root Ext3
/dev/sda7 Linux /home Ext3
/dev/sda8 Shared Files and Folders FAT32 (ntfs isn't an option...hmm)

Hopefully these are my final questions on installing Linux:

• Since I already have almost 170GB used in sda1 how much more should I give it for expansion?
• I have 4GB of RAM so how much space should my Linux Swap get? (2-4GB?)
• How much space should I give the / root for Linux and does this file expand over time (with downloads like windows program files)?
• How much space should I give /home and is this the selection of files where the program files will go?
• Shard Files and Folders: In the linux demo version I have access to the windows files. I'm not sure if it is like this in the actual OS though. If so then why would this even be necessary?
• In the partitioner when I enter in for example 350GB in MB (358400MB) it doesn't actually show up as such. How do I get 'clean' amount to show up in the partitioner?
• In the demo version of Linux my standard hardware software isn't downloaded yet and it doesn't pull it from the windows OS. So this is like a new OS install per say, correct? Meaning I have to re-install all of my hardware software in the Linux /root or /home?

NOTE: I'll be downloading some large files in Linux and there's more large files to come in Windows.


Thanks once again for the amazing response times and informative posts,

-Peter