HowTo: Partitioning Basics

[godspiral]

thank you for howto, a couple of questions though:

* if ntfs volume defrags with a hole in the middle, can gparted still shrink almost all of the unused space?

gparted can indeed free up most of this space, and chkdsk doesnt complain on xp

[jw5801]

thank you for howto, a couple of questions though:

* if ntfs volume defrags with a hole in the middle, can gparted still shrink almost all of the unused space?

As you've discovered, yes it can.

I'd like to install partly to a 2nd HD, and partly to USB drive. (I already have an 8.04 install on the USB as ext3, but can't use it with desired computer due to bios that can't boot usb)

I'd like to put home, swap and tmp on USB drive, and rest on internal in order to minimize space on HD.

You can do this using your /etc/fstab (check man fstab for useful info).

*Could such a system boot without the usb plugged in?

Yes, but you wouldn't be able to log in, as your user's home directory would not exist.

Also, the /tmp folder would still exist, so things would be written into it, which may mean that you will be unable to mount /tmp on reboot, depending on whether /tmp gets cleared before or after filesystems are mounted. It should most definitely be after, which would mean it wouldn't get mounted, as you cannot mount anything to a non-empty directory.

*Can all /home /tmp /data mount points use the same USB partition?

Yes, however two of the directories would need to exist in two places, ie. if you had a partition for home, you could create /home/tmp and /home/data on that partition, then either create a symlink to the proper place in the filesystem, or use the 'bind' option to 'mount' the subdirectory into the correct place in the filesystem.

*Can HD use ext4 while USB ext3?

Of course, provided you tell the system what each partition is (in /etc/fstab).

*Would you suggest more to be offloaded to USB?

As mentioned earlier, putting things like /home and /tmp on an external device that may or may not be there is not a particularly good idea. A data partition would be perfectly fine to offload, but things like /home, /tmp, /var, /usr, /lib, /etc, etc, are needed by the system, and will render your system rather unusable if they are not present.

If the external device will always be there, then you can put whatever you want there. I have several complete installs on external hard drives which I use for testing things.

*Can a wubi install use ext3 partitions for certain mount points?

I don't know much about wubi, but I can't see why not, once the linux kernel is booted, you can mount whatever you want, wherever you want, provided the kernel has the tools (modules) to recognize the filesystem, which it does for pretty much everything.

[cmarley]

Bodhi said in the begining of this post that it was useful to make a /data partition in order to back up files. Is this done automatically or do I have to download an application or just do it manually? If it is any of those three items; then how do I do it?

Thanks!

Also, I have been trying all sorts of different partiioning schemes for a dell latitude d600. this is not a very powerful machine and with one partition scheme I got everything to run as smooth as windows. well, i deleted windows entirely and have been trying to find that magical scheme again.

Here is what I have in the order that they are presented on the partition manager install screen:

10 GB for /
800 MG swap
14 GB /home
800 MB swap
the rest GB /data

This final iteration has not completed its install just yet...but should that work? Thanks all!

[bodhi.zazen]

Bodhi said in the begining of this post that it was useful to make a /data partition in order to back up files. Is this done automatically or do I have to download an application or just do it manually? If it is any of those three items; then how do I do it?

Thanks!

Also, I have been trying all sorts of different partiioning schemes for a dell latitude d600. this is not a very powerful machine and with one partition scheme I got everything to run as smooth as windows. well, i deleted windows entirely and have been trying to find that magical scheme again.

Here is what I have in the order that they are presented on the partition manager install screen:

10 GB for /
800 MG swap
14 GB /home
800 MB swap
the rest GB /data

This final iteration has not completed its install just yet...but should that work? Thanks all!

It appears from your post as if you know how to make partitions on your hard drive, but if not simply use gparted on a live CD.

You have two swap partitions, but otherwise your partitioning scheme is fine. It is more a art then science.

Let us assume

/dev/sda1 = 10 Gb = /
/dev/sda2 = 800 Mb = swap
/dev/sda3 = 14.8 Gb = /home
/dev/ssda4 = the rest = your data partition.

After partitioning the HD I always reboot =)

Install Ubuntu, as you install use manual partitioning, assign /dev/sda4 to a location, /media/data or /media/music or whatever you like.

If you do not assign it during installation, then you will need to add an entry in fstab :

How to fstab - Ubuntu Forums

[SoFl W]

Linux Partition HOWTO

I don't believe that is a valid link

[bodhi.zazen]

I don't believe that is a valid link

Looks dead to me as well, removed it.

[COKEDUDE]

I have a partition I want to format. How do I know if I want to use the -n or -L?

mkfs.ntfs -L data /dev/sda1

mkfs.ntfs -n data /dev/sda1

[bodhi.zazen]

Read the man page

What do you want to do ?

-L, --label STRING
Set the volume label for the filesystem.


-n, --no-action
Causes mkntfs to not actually create a filesystem, but display
what it would do if it were to create a filesystem. All steps of
the format are carried out except the actual writing to the
device.

-L labels the partition . From the man page I do not understand when one would use the -n option ???

[webbdawg]

I have an old laptop hd that I put in a case and used as a usb drive. I can see the drive in Dolphin and all it's contents.

I want to remove the partitions and format it to a clean drive.

I can find no utilities in Kubuntu to do this. I have looked everywhere.

How does one go about formatting external drives?

[bodhi.zazen]

I have an old laptop hd that I put in a case and used as a usb drive. I can see the drive in Dolphin and all it's contents.

I want to remove the partitions and format it to a clean drive.

I can find no utilities in Kubuntu to do this. I have looked everywhere.

How does one go about formatting external drives?

Personallt I use the command line

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

If you prefer a gaphical interface, install gparted.