Can HD partitions be too big?

[davey]

After running PCLOS and 2 other distros on an 80 gig harddrive I'm getting a new machine with a 500 gig HD. It seems ridiculously more space than I'll ever need unless I start collecting videos or something. I suppose I'll give PCLOS around 200 gig and divide the rest into 2 more partitions, but I'm wondering whether having 200 gigs where 25 was just fine will slow things down. Does having all that space to thrash around in make the HD less efficient or slower? Or is it total disk size, and not partition size, that makes the difference?

[menotu]

No it'll be fine on a large hard drive.

As Linux doesn't fragment very much it doesn't have to go scouring all around the disk to retrieve the data its looking for (not like some other OS's)

The 500GB drive this version of PCLInuxOS  is installed on is setup as:

/ = 50GB
/home = 50GB
swap = 10GB

and I've split the remainder of the drive in 2.

BUT you'll get LOTS more advice on how to do it    

[Xyus]

I have a 150 GB partition on a 200 GB USB Hard Drive, and it is pretty instantaneous.

As Linux doesn't fragment very much it doesn't have to go scouring all around the disk to retrieve the data its looking for (not like some other OS's)

Like Windows? Throws files around every which way, that one. (I'm guessing that is why it slows down considerably when you fill more than 100 GBs)

[T6]

if you are using ext4, the maximum size for a partition is 16 tebibytes(tera) in reality but technically is 1 exbibyte(exa)

the limitation for that size would be the size of the hard disk that at this time is 3gb afik

the bigger size doesn't mean that you will use all that space but i will mean that if you do a fsck the time complete the task could be longer

you decide how big is the partition and how many partitions you will create but with 500 gbs a / with 200 and without /home partition sounds perfect, the rest for another os or as a backup/storage partition, depends on your usage

[ElCuervo]

After running PCLOS and 2 other distros on an 80 gig harddrive I'm getting a new machine with a 500 gig HD. It seems ridiculously more space than I'll ever need unless I start collecting videos or something.

lol - HD space is like money: the more you have, the more uses you find for it.

[T6]

i say that different, the more you have, the more you waste 

[davey]

menotu, I'm curious about what you use the rest of the (almost) 400 gigs for. Not that it's any of my business, but you might have some good ideas for what to do with all that real estate.

Thanks all, for the suggestions. I think I'll stick to the 200 gig partition and use the rest for trying other OSes (or more likely other versions of PCLOS -- the downside of this OS is that my appetite for trying other distros is severely diminished).

[sammy2fish]

Yes...they can, kind-of.

If too much data is kept on the first partition, whether win or Linux, a re-install could wipe more than just the OS.

That's why it is good to have a /home partition.  So you can re-install, and still keep your data and settings.