New installation - best practices

[ek1975]

Hello Guys, I bought a 300 GB HD and I am thinking about spliting it into 3 partitions. One for Windows XP, One for Ubuntu and one for my own data. I thought I should be able to share the data partition between Ubuntu and XP. Or should I have 4 partitions and put the Ubuntu data separate from Windows data. I read somewhere that putting Ubuntu and XP in separate partitions is an old stone age theory. Is that right?

I just want to start out right, so I could use some of your experience. Thanks for your time,
EK

[Partyboi2]

I read somewhere that putting Ubuntu and XP in separate partitions is an old stone age theory. Is that right? Ubuntu runs better installed to its own Partitions.
Ubuntu can read/write ntfs filesystem, so you could have a separate ntfs partition for sharing your data between Windows and Ubuntu.

[merlinus]

I also recommend creating a separate /home partition, which will make reinstalling and installing new versions easier.

[ek1975]

Thanks Partyboi2. I've got a couple of other questions. The reason for me installing Ubuntu (Desktop version) is because I would like to install LAMP and play with it for my own personel use.

Secondly my old HD crashed and I can't seem get my data off it using XP. I read that there is a way with Ubuntu where it's possible to read data off a crashed HD (not a mechanical failure). I hope these two goals are possible. Thanks again.

[merlinus]

Try testdisk and photorec for recovering data.

[ek1975]

Thanks merlin, I'll give that a shot. Looks like I will have to install the Ubuntu server edition (instead of the desktop edition) for a LAMP setup...?

[Partyboi2]

Thanks merlin, I'll give that a shot. Looks like I will have to install the Ubuntu server edition (instead of the desktop edition) for a LAMP setup...?
You can use the Desktop version.

[ek1975]

Thanks Guys. I wish I had this sort of support for software we really have to pay for!!!

[chuckh1958]

I also recommend creating a separate /home partition, which will make reinstalling and installing new versions easier.

I am curious as to how this makes installing new versions easier. TIA

[Partyboi2]

I am curious as to how this makes installing new versions easier. TIA
The advantage of having a separate /home partition is that if you need to reinstall or do a clean install is that all your data (music, videos, documents, settings etc...) that is on the /home partition will remain untouched.

[raymondh]

The advantage of having a separate /home partition is that if you need to reinstall or do a clean install is that all your data (music, videos, documents, settings etc...) that is on the /home partition will remain untouched.

As I happen to be currently reading up on our linux filesystem hierarchy ...

http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/home.html

[ronparent]

Another advantage of a separate /home partition is that all your setting would be retained with a reinstall or major upgrade. Your customized desktop, for instance, would be the same as before.