Partitioning laptop for Linux and Windows

[ubni]

From a performance point of view, if swap is to be used (and i mean if the system will actually use it alot) then it is best to have it near the beginning of a drive, especially if it is a mechanical HDD and not a SSD

but depends on how much it is used really

This is what is also written in the book I have but can Swap be sda1? Does Windows not occupy this spot? I need to have Windows on the HDD and not in a virtual environment unfortunately, so that is why I put it in a partition. If I can squeeze Swap onto sda1 somehow let me know please.

Otherwise what you are saying is that Swap might be good on sda2? And move the rest further down? That would make sense, no?

On what condition does Swap get used a lot?

I would guess for audio or video processing, encoding video and for Suspend-to-Disk, so to speak standby for the Linux OS, no?

Thanks for your reply about the speed. I don't see many people mentioning it when it comes to partitioning. Perhaps not at beginner level, not sure. Thanks for the input!

[ubni]

What I forgot to ask was if my theory about GRUB 2 being inside the MBR accessing the various /boot partitions and Windows of the various corresponding OS is correct?? If I am fine on that I guess I have started to grasp the basics a little bit. Thanks.

[haqking]

This is what is also written in the book I have but can Swap be sda1? Does Windows not occupy this spot? I need to have Windows on the HDD and not in a virtual environment unfortunately, so that is why I put it in a partition. If I can squeeze Swap onto sda1 somehow let me know please.

Otherwise what you are saying is that Swap might be good on sda2? And move the rest further down? That would make sense, no?

On what condition does Swap get used a lot?

I would guess for audio or video processing, encoding video and for Suspend-to-Disk, so to speak standby for the Linux OS, no?

Thanks for your reply about the speed. I don't see many people mentioning it when it comes to partitioning. Perhaps not at beginner level, not sure. Thanks for the input!

the swap partition can be anywhere you like (preferably at the beginning of the disk, on a fast disk and preferably a seperate disk to the OS (if it is to be used alot)

Swap gets used when not enough memory, however this is not the only reason so even if you have lots of memory always good idea to have some swap IMO (though it is often debated)

I have 16Gb Ram so i use x.5 swap (as i dont need hibernation on my main system) and on my laptops with lesser ram i tend to use same size +1 or double the amount.

Swap is used not for just big programs but also sometimes for sleeping processes.

bootloader files for windows need to be on a primary, but windows itself can be installed on a logical partition, the boot.ini has ARC naming to point to locations similar to grub and lilo, windows install does not support logical creation for installtion though, so you need to make them first, install to the logical and then edit boot.ini to point to correct location

[cariboo]

Merged two threads on the same subject.

[mazato]

On what condition does Swap get used a lot?

Swap gets used when memory is low, this usually happens when running RAM hungry apps like video editing applications, when there are memory leaks in an application and some other reasons.

[haqking]

Swap gets used when memory is low, this usually happens when running RAM hungry apps like video editing applications, when there are memory leaks in an application and some other reasons.

not always just for low memory.

It can be used to swap out pages that are no longer needed by an application such as initialisation processes or sleeping processes

also you can use a swap file as well as a partition

oh and of course from 2.6 kernel you can also tweak the swappiness

[mazato]

not always just for low memory.

It can be used to swap out pages that are no longer needed by an application such as initialisation processes or sleeping processes

a process called paging :b

also you can use a swap file as well as a partition

also you can set your swap among several disks to increase performance

oh and of course from 2.6 kernel you can also tweak the swappiness

aaaaahhhhhhhhh, sweet swappinnes, this is why I love my kernel!

[Blueyak]

Can you make a screenshot of the the partitioning you use in GParted or something else please?

Sure... the following is a screenshot of gparted showing my current partitioning.



sda1 and sda2 are both partitions reserved by Windows for a system restore. sda3 is my working Windows partition. sda4 is my extended partition for Linux (it's encrypted). Logical partition sda5 is my Linux home partition. Logical partition sda6 is my Linux root partition. And logical partition sda7 is my Linux swap partition.

[shizz]

Hi guys, great thread. Just wondering, What's the benefit of having the /home in a separate partition and not just linking the folder to the DATA partition?

Currently I have a DATA partition which I use for all of the User folders in windows, like My documents etc. I have also linked the Documents folder, music, pictures etc. that are in my Ubuntu home to these same folders in the DATA partition. This way I can easily access files in both operating systems.

Is there a big benefit in keeping them separate? Or can I say mount the /home in a separate partition but still link those folders to the DATA partition? Would this be a good Idea?

[oldfred]

I suggest a separate /home for new users so data is separate and new clean installs is a bit easier. It is just a start on separating data from system. But then a more advanced configuration is to have separate data partition(s). You do have to understand partitioning and mounting a data partition. Then also linking or bind to show data folders in /home. Whether /home is another partition or not then is less important. My /home is so small as I aggressively move all data including some of the hidden folders to my data partition that I keep it in my / (root). Others may have different opinions.