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View Full Version : [ubuntu] [SOLVED] Is my /home large enough?



anxiousdog
September 4th, 2008, 04:54 PM
I keep getting errors regarding the size of my /home directory. I was wondering if someone would take a look at my gparted screenshot (attached) and see if I set things up incorrectly.

snowpine
September 4th, 2008, 05:03 PM
Your / doesn't need to be so big--5gb should be enough unless you plan to install lots and lots of applications. Shrink your / and grow your /home.

anxiousdog
September 4th, 2008, 05:13 PM
What's the easiest way to do that? When I'm in gparted, I can't resize/move anything. The options are greyed out.

ElSlunko
September 4th, 2008, 05:16 PM
You can't make changes while you're booted from your HD since your HD is in use. You'll have to boot from the Live CD and use the partition editor there.

niyonk
September 4th, 2008, 05:16 PM
Looks like an easier way would be reinstalling. :)

In the installation create 5BG(/), 1GB(swap), the remaining will be your (/home) which i believe will then be 14GB

snowpine
September 4th, 2008, 05:18 PM
What's the easiest way to do that? When I'm in gparted, I can't resize/move anything. The options are greyed out.

You need to boot from the Live CD and then run GParted. Can't resize partitions while they are in use. :)

snowpine
September 4th, 2008, 05:19 PM
Looks like an easier way would be reinstalling. :)

In the installation create 5BG(/), 1GB(swap), the remaining will be your (/home) which i believe will then be 14GB

No offense :) but why on earth would it be easier to reinstall than to resize the partition?

niyonk
September 4th, 2008, 05:22 PM
I do not really trust resizing knowing i already got stuff in the partition.

anxiousdog
September 4th, 2008, 05:24 PM
You can't make changes while you're booted from your HD since your HD is in use. You'll have to boot from the Live CD and use the partition editor there.

This looks like the easiest option. Hopefully I can do so with no data loss. :)

snowpine
September 4th, 2008, 05:30 PM
This looks like the easiest option. Hopefully I can do so with no data loss. :)

Always a good idea to back up your important files first!
But resizing partitions using GParted is very safe. I don't want to say it is 100% foolproof because then if something goes wrong, you'll blame me :) but it is a good piece of software and what you're doing is pretty typical, imo.

anxiousdog
September 4th, 2008, 08:48 PM
Always a good idea to back up your important files first!
But resizing partitions using GParted is very safe. I don't want to say it is 100% foolproof because then if something goes wrong, you'll blame me :) but it is a good piece of software and what you're doing is pretty typical, imo.

I've had good luck with it so far, but I'm curious what I can use to back up my system. Mainly I'd like to save all the data and reinstall XP through virtual box instead of the dual boot that I have now. I just don't have enough space on my HD to back up!

zvacet
September 5th, 2008, 01:13 AM
You can shrink your Windows partition (defragmat it few times before do that) and you will have space to back up.

lswb
September 5th, 2008, 02:57 AM
Having a separate /home partition is overrated IMHO. On a system with only a single linux distribution, I see no advantage to it at all, compared to having home as a subdirectory of root on the same partition.

Sef
September 5th, 2008, 03:29 AM
Your / doesn't need to be so big--5gb should be enough unless you plan to install lots and lots of applications. Shrink your / and grow your /home.

Root (/) should be 8 - 10 GB.


Having a separate /home partition is overrated IMHO. On a system with only a single linux distribution, I see no advantage to it at all, compared to having home as a subdirectory of root on the same partition.

It is good to have it separate in case there is a problem with root, or you desire to do a clean install.

anxiousdog
September 5th, 2008, 01:26 PM
Interesting bits all around. I have completely switched from Windows into Hardy, but mostly because after the install I can no longer boot to XP at all. I'm fine with that so far, but I'd still like to back up my data and try to clean things up a bit.

Elfy
September 5th, 2008, 01:34 PM
You have windows installed but can't access it through gruband want to?

Or you can and don't want to and just need to get data of the partition before you get rid of it?

anxiousdog
September 5th, 2008, 03:30 PM
You have windows installed but can't access it through gruband want to?

Or you can and don't want to and just need to get data of the partition before you get rid of it?

Right now I think I want to see if I can use Virtualbox to do everything that I need XP for. If so, I will not need the windows partition at all and I will just move the data over and blow it away.