Partitions? How Many?

[maccamlc]

Just posting a new thread.

A site I looked at, talks about Linux needing 3 partitions. Does this mean, having Windows on C:/ and Windows and Linux partitioned on D:/. Or does the Linux partition on D:/ jave to be split up even further, and finally, how much space do you normally allocate Linux.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Dun'kalis]

In Linux, everything is under one directory: / . You don't access Linux from a D:\ sort of thing, and a CD from E:\ , it works like this:

/ is where all directories are located. Your CD-ROM is located at /mnt/cdrom, which is under /.

It sounds odd, but its very nice. The three partitions people are talking about are /, /boot, and swap. Swap is like the Windows page file, but isn't used until its needed. / is where everything on your system is located, and /boot is where your system gets information to boot. Swap doesn't have a directory.

[maccamlc]

Thanks

I got Partition Magic, and so when I get to partitioning the D:/ I have the space for WIndows, and then do I need to create 3 partitions for linux, or just the one (what size do you recommend).

[Dun'kalis]

Just shrink the Windows partition, and have your Linux installer (whatever it may be) partition the newly created unpartitioned space with it. If you use Win9x/ME or NT/2000/XP with FAT32, you can shrink it from the installer.

[amiauslander]

The document i read said to make the "/boot" partition 50MB. The "SWAP" partition should be twice as much as the RAM you have on your system i.e. i have 512MB of RAM so I made mine 1024MB(or 1GB) and the "/" partition takes up the rest of the free space. I also read that if you need to get rid of the original windows partition and do it new depending on how much free space you want to leave your windows to have.

[maccamlc]

Thanks.

So if I backup my harddrive, and then shrink my d:/ with something like partition magic, to a suitable size for linux. Then when I install Linux will it automatically partition that free space, into the 3 sections it needs, or do I designate these areas during installation.

[amiauslander]

with RH 7.3 i tried it with disc druid and partitioned it manually. It seemed to work fine and wasnt that hard. you can learn more about it at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.3-Manual/install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html

[Infrastructure]

Here's another good article that will teach you the basics of linux partitions:

Linux Partitions: A Primer (http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/4269/1/)

[Dun'kalis]

OK, some questions: What distro are you installing? How big is your hard disk(s)?

Your swap partition can be twice the amount of your RAM, but if you have a LOT, I wouldn't recommend it. I'd waste 1.5GB on swap if I did that. If you have 128-256 RAM, go with 256-512 swap. I have 128MB swap, and its not used much.

[maccamlc]

Thanks for all your help!

I think I have everything worked out, and will begin by backing up my hard drives.

now I just have to wait for the Linux package to arrive, as I could never download it, with my connection, and go from there.

If you don;t hear from me for a while, thank yourselfs lucky, lol! as I've either got it working or haven't got the cds yet (sending to Australia takes a while - ordered a users guide thorugh Amazon with Red Hat 7.3).

See you soon! But hopefully not with any problems :)