Comments welcome RE setting up a new HD for install of PCL 2010

[Cressida]

I got my new 320GB HD installed and recognized and will be setting it up for PCLINUX in a few days.   This will be my primary computer as I have had my wife running her computer on PCL for a couple of years now.  I've never had some much space to waste    so I have been reading about how others have set up the partitions in their HD's and here is my current game plan. 

I want to run PCL as my OS in the "/" partition and think I would like another partition that would be available to use for testing of other versions of PCL in the future or newer beta releases, etc.    I intend to load and use VirtualBox (VB) in order to run WinXP as needed.  I'll probably just disconnect my old existing 30GB HD as it is showing signs of failing according to SMART and I might turn it on once a month for backup.  I don't see any reason to leave it running all the time if I am not going to be using it.

I have read about the different views on having a separate partition for "/home" and that is the direction I plan to go since I was told "/home" will also be used by the virtual machines that I may run in VB.   However I also like the idea of having a separate "/data" partition but I'm not clear on how I redirect PLC to store my documents, files, music, etc. to "/data" instead of it all going into "/home"?

Here is what I'm thinking for this 320GB HD. 

Use Gparted  before the installation to partition the HD and format EXT 4 before installing from the CD.

From reading the forums, I don't believe I need swap since I now have ~4GB of memory - so no swap partition.

1. One primary partition of 12-15GB for PCL installation "/".  (This will be a new install from the 2010.07 CD)

2. Another primary partition of about 12-15GB for the dual boot option.


3.  ?  - At this point I think I now use/make an extended partition for the rest of the drive.  I'm not sure if creating this extended partition uses another one of the primary partitions or not?


4. Create another spare partition of 50GB that will be unused. I am putting it here at this location just so that it will be easy to get extra space should I need some for resizing the partitions before or after it at a later date.

5. Create a separate "/home" partition of 30-40GB .   (I don't know how much space the virtual machines in VB may end up using or needing so I'm making it a pretty good size - I think?    )  (Also, I think I've read were I'll have to learn how to create links from /home  to the /data  partition below.)

6. Create a "/data" partition of about 80-100GB for my data, documents, files, music. 

I plan to just leave the rest of the disk (~100GB)  unformatted at this time.  I can't imagine ever needing this much space - it now just seems like the outer edge of the universe.    .   

I'd welcome any thoughts or comments before I get started with all of this.  I don't think I'm going to need to create a separate "/boot" partition at the front of the disk but if that is something I should consider please make suggestions.

Thanks in advance.
 

 

[uncleV]

However I also like the idea of having a separate "/data" partition but I'm not clear on how I redirect PLC to store my documents, files, music, etc. to "/data" instead of it all going into "/home"?

I think you simply choose to save/move files to that partition?

[Dragynn]

However I also like the idea of having a separate "/data" partition but I'm not clear on how I redirect PLC to store my documents, files, music, etc. to "/data" instead of it all going into "/home"?

I think you simply choose to save/move files to that partition?

Yep.

But that brings up another question I reckon, and I don't have my stuff partitioned this way so I haven't explored it, but I think the natural next question would be: How do you add the /data locations to the right-click context menu?  Because the default "move to" and "copy to" settings only offer you  "home" or "desktop" for locations. It's just a small convenience thing, but might be nice to have it.

[wayne128]

I am new to Linux, I played with multi-boot for a while and a few of my computers are now multi-boot with many OSes.
Based on some of my recent limited experience on partitioning, here are my suggestions and comments:

1. Dealing with primary and extended partition:
Since there is a limit of max. 4 Primary partitions, it is advisable for you to set up three primary partitions and the fourth partition (sda4) will be set as Extended partition. After that you can create new logical partition within that extended partition. That means you would have sda1,2 &3  as  primary partitions and  sda5, 6 , 7, etc when you create new logical partition.
This probably answer your question 3.
You could just allocate 20G to 30G for each partition since you have a lot of space on 320G.

You can always leave any primary partition empty, or just use it for one of the following:
Set up Win XP, set up PCLOS, set up another PCLOS,  use as /data , use as /Home. use for another OS.

2. Label each partition
You can label each partition using Gparted, look for it on the GUI, this will let you identify them more easily on your file manager after each boot up.
If you do not Label your partition, when you open file manager, you will be greeted with a long list of partitions with just its size and it is quite confusing.

3. Use 'cylinder' instead of 'MiB' on Align
When you use Gparted, there are three selections on Align , "MiB",  "Cylinder", or "None"
Use "cylinder", this would avoid overlapping issue on adjacent partition.

As you are already aware on what is  /home  and  /data and thus it is all up to your own preferences.

I typically copy important files outside the computer using USB stick, USB disk, DVD/CD or at networking computer.  That is because once in a while, the hard disk can decide to just crash.
Recently one of my USB disks decided not to spin up forever, I have to get it replaced free of charge since it is within warranty. All data are gone with it. But I am alright since I have multiple copies at various hard disks.
This incident makes me practice more of saving my files at multiple hard disks.

I install each Linux OS in one partition with no shared data partition and no separate home partition. Whenever I download data it goes into the default Downloads folder, you could select your folder too, after a while I just do a clean up by saving them over two other hard disks.

I tried out the dedicated Grub partition also on one computer ,  I think it may be the same as what you referred to as "boot partition". There are benefits, firstly I can add three lines for each partition in the grub boot stanza for chainloading even before installing the actual Linux OS, as long as its bootloader is instructed to write bootcode onto its own root partition ( not MBR), the dedicated grub partition will boot it by chainloading.
Another benefit is I could replace any OS on any partition and still be able to boot other OSes.
My dedicated Grub partition is just 100M size.

hope this helps.

[uncleV]

However I also like the idea of having a separate "/data" partition but I'm not clear on how I redirect PLC to store my documents, files, music, etc. to "/data" instead of it all going into "/home"?

I think you simply choose to save/move files to that partition?

Yep.

But that brings up another question I reckon, and I don't have my stuff partitioned this way so I haven't explored it, but I think the natural next question would be: How do you add the /data locations to the right-click context menu?  Because the default "move to" and "copy to" settings only offer you  "home" or "desktop" for locations. It's just a small convenience thing, but might be nice to have it.

When yo download something you can choose the destination.

I am working with two-pane file manager i.e. Krusader so copying/moving goes between the two panes.
Or you can right-click, copy/cut, go to the destination and paste.

[menotu]

Use Gparted  before the installation to partition the HD and format EXT 4 before installing from the CD.

IMO that's an excellent idea - setup your partitions prior to install.

From reading the forums, I don't believe I need swap since I now have ~4GB of memory - so no swap partition.

That one I'm not so sure about Cressida - I always have a swap partition as although it may not be used very often it does get used.

1. One primary partition of 12-15GB for PCL installation "/".  (This will be a new install from the 2010.07 CD)

As you've got plenty of space I would have it a bit bigger, simply to give yourself some "wiggle room" in case you install some heavy duty (large ) apps sometime in the future.  It would be a shame to have to resize or re-install PCLinuxOS because you ran out of space.

5. Create a separate "/home" partition of 30-40GB .   (I don't know how much space the virtual machines in VB may end up

Again, that's an option I think is a good idea. I have my /home set at 50Gb and that seems to work well (again, if you have the disk space going I would err on the side of caution..............)

6. Create a "/data" partition of about 80-100GB for my data, documents, files, music.

+1 - good idea.  I use my /home as my initial data area and then use luckyBackup to backup the important stuff to my data partition (I then backup again once a week to another external HDD)

So basically I have

/ partition
swap partition
/home partition
data partition

[menotu]

When yo download something you can choose the destination.

Quite so.

Also, in:

Configure Your Desktop >> Common Appearance & Behaviour  >> Account Details >> Paths

you can change the default paths (but I've found some apps can get a bit confused and still look for the default paths therefore I keep them as is)