Do I really need a /home partition?

[Smitty Werben Jaeger Man Jensen]

I just did a manual partition setup, with swap 8gb and the rest /.

Will I regret this? I have a 500gb external hard drive which I back everything up on, so I'm thinking I'll be ok if my system crashes and I have to reinstall.

I like the simplicity, 3 partitions just seems to much.

[wyohman]

You're free to create partitions as you like. There are good arguments for one partition and good arguments for multiple partitions.

I like the separate /home just in case of a re-install where I want to make sure there are no remnants of the previous OS.

Cheers.

[muungwana]

8GB of swap? how much RAM do you have? how do you plan to use your computer to expect usage of that much swap space?

[ff103]

I guess it kinda depends on how important your data is, I have a 320 gig external HD that I back up on also , but I also have a home partition on my 250 gig HD in this machine. Computer parts  and OS's are notorious for failing at the worst possible time and I like to have some insurance. More than once over the past several years, I have had to re-install and was glad I had a couple of back up plans. Having the /home partition made it much easier.

[wyohman]

8GB of swap? how much RAM do you have? how do you plan to use your computer to expect usage of that much swap space?

Swap is just like anything, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. What's 8GB of HD space these days?

Cheers.

[Smitty Werben Jaeger Man Jensen]

8GB of swap? how much RAM do you have? how do you plan to use your computer to expect usage of that much swap space?

Swap is just like anything, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. What's 8GB of HD space these days?

Cheers.

Exactly. + the installation help page says double your ram is a good swap space size.

[Smitty Werben Jaeger Man Jensen]

I guess it kinda depends on how important your data is, I have a 320 gig external HD that I back up on also , but I also have a home partition on my 250 gig HD in this machine. Computer parts  and OS's are notorious for failing at the worst possible time and I like to have some insurance. More than once over the past several years, I have had to re-install and was glad I had a couple of back up plans. Having the /home partition made it much easier.

ok, this helps me a lot because i don't really keep anything important on my computer. reinstalling is a hassle but thats about it. everything is either on the net or in paper or what have you.

thanks all

[ff103]

O K , how about when you get everything set up the way you like it, make yourself a Live CD and you can just re-install from that, that way you don't have to set up your desktop and everything again. hope this helps.

[dixonpete]

+1 for having a /home partition.

I just borked my system by installing a RPM on a whim. I knew the risks but thought I'd live on the wild side and did it anyway. With the /, /swap and /home arrangement formatting and reinstalling PCLOS is a snap with no risk to your data. The only way to fly IMO.

[T6]

"Do I really need a /home partition?"

no, i never had it and never required it

/home partition is helpful under some circunstances but it also adds compexity to your installation

/home partition makes easier any reinstallation process if you store all your personal files in home but if not, if you use another partition /home won't help you and will be just a waste of space and a limitation for / space

"Exactly. + the installation help page says double your ram is a good swap space size."

that is only valid if you have less than 1 gb of ram or if you are in a laptop and you use suspend to disk, otherwise it is just a waste of hard disk space, i have 1 gb of ram and a swap of 3 gbs, system never uses more than 100 mbs of swap and rarely uses all ram

[Duvid]

Just to throw another scenario out there. I have a terabyte drive , separate root of 15 gig, /home of 45 gig, swap of 1 gig and the rest for data....and a small partition for windows which rarely gets used. I have 6 tabs open in Firefox, Ktorrent is running and busy, and I am using 700 mg ram out of 2gig and non of the swap. This setup has worked for me as it allows me to just reinstall PCLOS in /root if there was a problem and leaves home untouched.

[genomega]

Even on my older boxes I have never seen swap used. Unless you are using memory intensive programs, cad, vid edit, etc, swap is probably not needed or just a token swap.

[Old-Polack]

I just did a manual partition setup, with swap 8gb and the rest /.

Will I regret this? I have a 500gb external hard drive which I back everything up on, so I'm thinking I'll be ok if my system crashes and I have to reinstall.

I like the simplicity, 3 partitions just seems to much.

It's a matter of perspective.

[root@littleboy ~]# fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000565cd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          45      361431   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              46         257     1702890   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3             258       12161    95618880   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           12162       24321    97675200    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           12162       24321    97675168+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 164.7 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd7523ebd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              14         257     1959930   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3             258        1778    12217432+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb4            1779       20023   146552962+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            1779        7860    48853633+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb6            7861       14000    49319518+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb7           14001       20023    48379716   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1          39      313236   83  Linux
/dev/sdc2              40        1047     8096760   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc3            1048        7127    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sdc4            7128      121601   919512405    5  Extended
/dev/sdc5            7128       20500   107418591   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6           20501       33267   102550896   83  Linux
/dev/sdc7           33268       37158    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc8           37159       41049    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc9           41050       44940    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc10          44941       48831    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc11          48832       61886   104864256   83  Linux
/dev/sdc12          61887      101050   314584798+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc13         101051      104942    31262458+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc14         104943      108893    31736376   83  Linux
/dev/sdc15         108894      113071    33559753+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc16         113072      116988    31463271   83  Linux
/dev/sdc17         116989      121601    37053891   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2db1883a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdd2              14         761     6008310   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd3             762        4497    30009420   83  Linux
/dev/sdd4            4498       91201   696449880    5  Extended
/dev/sdd5            4498       16947   100004593+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd6           16948       41750   199230066   83  Linux
/dev/sdd7           41751       45520    30282493+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd8           45521       50506    40050013+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd9           50507       65096   117194143+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd10          65097       79686   117194143+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd11          79687       91201    92494206   83  Linux

[AndrzejL]

I just did a manual partition setup, with swap 8gb and the rest /.

Will I regret this? I have a 500gb external hard drive which I back everything up on, so I'm thinking I'll be ok if my system crashes and I have to reinstall.

I like the simplicity, 3 partitions just seems to much.

It's a matter of perspective.

[root@littleboy ~]# fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000565cd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          45      361431   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              46         257     1702890   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3             258       12161    95618880   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           12162       24321    97675200    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           12162       24321    97675168+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 164.7 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd7523ebd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              14         257     1959930   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3             258        1778    12217432+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb4            1779       20023   146552962+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            1779        7860    48853633+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb6            7861       14000    49319518+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb7           14001       20023    48379716   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1          39      313236   83  Linux
/dev/sdc2              40        1047     8096760   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc3            1048        7127    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sdc4            7128      121601   919512405    5  Extended
/dev/sdc5            7128       20500   107418591   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6           20501       33267   102550896   83  Linux
/dev/sdc7           33268       37158    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc8           37159       41049    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc9           41050       44940    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc10          44941       48831    31254426   83  Linux
/dev/sdc11          48832       61886   104864256   83  Linux
/dev/sdc12          61887      101050   314584798+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc13         101051      104942    31262458+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc14         104943      108893    31736376   83  Linux
/dev/sdc15         108894      113071    33559753+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc16         113072      116988    31463271   83  Linux
/dev/sdc17         116989      121601    37053891   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2db1883a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdd2              14         761     6008310   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd3             762        4497    30009420   83  Linux
/dev/sdd4            4498       91201   696449880    5  Extended
/dev/sdd5            4498       16947   100004593+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd6           16948       41750   199230066   83  Linux
/dev/sdd7           41751       45520    30282493+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd8           45521       50506    40050013+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd9           50507       65096   117194143+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd10          65097       79686   117194143+  83  Linux
/dev/sdd11          79687       91201    92494206   83  Linux

HAHAHA eat this T6... Just kidding !

Andy

[Georgetoon]

Having a /home partition saved my lunch when I borked my install.  The folks up here really saved me. I neede to upgrade to solve an issue.

After asking all my questions up here and making double sure I understood the entire procedure, I did the upgrade and the /home was untouched! All my data was intact. It was a simple matter of moving files and folders from an old user account to my new user account.