difference between linux and windows partitions

[atifhafeez]

hi
i am new in linux and i have some questions about linux partions.like in windows we have logical partitions where we save our data if windows get corrupt we install new windows in c:/ but our data remains save. so in linux can we do like this if my linux get corrrupt can i preserve my old data during new linux installation. and how partitions and directory structure works in linux thanks

[Rubberman]

Good questions. Usually it depends upon how you partitioned your system. User and application data should be in /home, which should reside on its own partition or logical volume group or raid array. This will not be touched when reinstalling the OS. Red Hat Enterprise systems (and clones) generally create 3 partitions by default on the system drive: /, /boot, and swap. Normally, the file system containing /home is mounted on /home (an empty directory mount point under /). However, a lot of installed software will add components to /usr/share or /opt. If you want to protect those files so when you reinstall the software their settings and stuff will be preserved, then you may want to create separate file systems for /opt and /usr/share which will be subsequently mounted on the default directories.

Now, all that confusing cruft aside, you will probably NEVER need to reinstall your Linux system like you have to with Windows, unless you are doing a major upgrade. It is MUCH more stable than Windows, and rarely needs to be reinstalled from scratch. In any case, you may want to review some documentation on how to maintain your Linux systems. There is a lot of support documentation for this on the internet - just use Google to search for them.

[atifhafeez]

thanks my friend for describing these all, now i have few more questions how can i partition these /home and /usr if i am installing new linux and want to make extra partitions for /home and /usr so that when ever os get corrupted my data and software setting will preserve, and what should be their mounting point. thanks

[Roxoff]

Now, all that confusing cruft aside, you will probably NEVER need to reinstall your Linux system like you have to with Windows, unless you are doing a major upgrade. It is MUCH more stable than Windows, and rarely needs to be reinstalled from scratch.

Just to add...

If you ever do need to do a full system reinstall, then all your user files are in one place - they all reside in your own /home/<user> directory. Unlike certain commercial operating systems which have user settings written all over the place (and often at the whim of the application), all your stuff is together. You can back it all up with one simple compress command, copy it elsewhere, reformat and reinstall then restore from compressed file.

[Roxoff]

thanks my friend for describing these all, now i have few more questions how can i partition these /home and /usr if i am installing new linux and want to make extra partitions for /home and /usr so that when ever os get corrupted my data and software setting will preserve, and what should be their mounting point. thanks

Normally in Linux you don't run software applications with system privileges, so even if something goes wrong you cannot hose your system - you don't have the permissions to do it. You only need admin privileges if you're doing system update things. Linux has been like that from day 1. Older versions of Windwos ran everything with system privileges - and so older software requires it to function normally. This makes working with privileges elevation in the latest versions of Windwos very cumbersome (and highly annoying).

The tools for creating your partitions are part of the installer, and most Linux distributions have pretty graphical tools for doing it. As Rubberman says, you only need to separate your /home partition, and then back it up regularly. If your OS does become corrupted, then you can easily reinstall from the latest version of your OS - you don't need to keep copies of the installed packages unless they're something that cannot be recovered easily (e.g. software you've written yourself or commercial packages installed by systems professionals).

[jonyo]

there are too many diff ways and options available to begin to get into when comparing win with linux,

might as well be learning a new language that right from the get go has options you could only dream of with win,

it is possible to set up a linux OS in a few minutes good to go on the net, and a full backup can be as simple as copying a small file/folder, no HD required etc

day and night diff iow, or diff planets