Partitioning questions

[kah5683]

When I recently bought a new 1tb harddrive, I divided it into partitions the following way (and this is how it shows in PCC):

Swap  3.8gb
Root   48gb
Home  439gb
Data   439gb

I split the home partition and data partition evenly with the idea of using the data partition as a backup for the home partition.  I also have a second harddrive in the computer I have always used as backup, so I don't know if this would really be necessary for 2 backups.

What is the thinking - pro and con - for having a partition for both home and data separate?  At a minimum, how big should the home partition be without data if it WOULD be a good idea to have the home partition and data partition separate?

Would I be better off having just one big home partition?

If one is better (or even if you think it wouldn't be  ) How would I absorb the data partition into the home partition.  I have already copied everything from the data partition into the home partition...so would it be as easy as deleting the data partition and then expanding the home partition to add on the unallocated space?  Would I use PCC to do this, or ?

The last question I have is that the other day I reinstalled root only.  While I was doing so, I saw from the livecd when I was looking at the partitions that my backup harddrive is listed as sda, and my main harddrive with pclinuxos on it (the one we're talking about above) is listed as sdb.  Does that matter?  When I replaced the harddrive a couple months ago, I replaced it with a SATA from being IDE, and the other backup harddrive is IDE also.  If this is something that better be corrected, how do I do so?

I know these are a lot of questions for one posting, so thanks in advance!

[muungwana]

I am aware of hard drives failing, not partition failing. If you want to have back up, have it on a separate drive. As far as i know, when a hard drive goes down, all partitions go with it.

the "sda", "sdb" thing shouldnt matter, you would have seen a problem if it did.

[Bald Brick]

When I recently bought a new 1tb harddrive, I divided it into partitions the following way (and this is how it shows in PCC):

Swap  3.8gb
Root   48gb
Home  439gb
Data   439gb

I split the home partition and data partition evenly with the idea of using the data partition as a backup for the home partition.  I also have a second harddrive in the computer I have always used as backup, so I don't know if this would really be necessary for 2 backups.

What is the thinking - pro and con - for having a partition for both home and data separate?  At a minimum, how big should the home partition be without data if it WOULD be a good idea to have the home partition and data partition separate?

Would I be better off having just one big home partition?

Having a separate backup partition is of course a good idea. Having it on the same drive as the partition you intend to back up is not such a good idea. It's better than having no backup at all: it means that you can sometimes restore corrupt files and directories. But when the whole drive dies on you, you lose both your original data and your backup.

If one is better (or even if you think it wouldn't be   ) How would I absorb the data partition into the home partition.  I have already copied everything from the data partition into the home partition...so would it be as easy as deleting the data partition and then expanding the home partition to add on the unallocated space?

It is. And if your /home and /data partitions come in that order and are adjacent on the disk it isn't even very dangerous.

Would I use PCC to do this, or ?

I think you could. I'd use GParted (which is usually safe) and O-P would probably do it with fdisk from the command line.

The last question I have is that the other day I reinstalled root only.  While I was doing so, I saw from the livecd when I was looking at the partitions that my backup harddrive is listed as sda, and my main harddrive with pclinuxos on it (the one we're talking about above) is listed as sdb.  Does that matter?  When I replaced the harddrive a couple months ago, I replaced it with a SATA from being IDE, and the other backup harddrive is IDE also.  If this is something that better be corrected, how do I do so?

I know these are a lot of questions for one posting, so thanks in advance!

I see that muungwana was faster.

[T6]

I am aware of hard drives failing, not partition failing. If you want to have back up, have it on a separate drive. As far as i know, when a hard drive goes down, all partitions go with it.

the "sda", "sdb" thing shouldnt matter, you would have seen a problem if it did.

partitions do fail too, but is more common to see a ntfs partition fail than a ext4

about having a backup on the same hard disk, it is not secure but hard disks normally last for 5 years with decent performance unless you got a special model(ready to die in 6 months    )

about swap, 3.8 gbs is big, almost too big, how much ram do you have there?  the rule is to have 1.5 times the size of ram in swap but if it is a desktop and you have more than 2 gbs you will not use that swap, possibly never

just leave 2 gbs of swap

about having multiple parts of the os on different partitions/hard disks i never done it but in the past this was a common practice, specially with swap with pcs with low amounts of ram

i personally don't have more than two partitions, one swap and one /

/ contains /home as a folder, all fine here since 2007 with pclinux( all was fine since 2005 with mandriva)

have multiple partitions sometimes just means that you have multiple partitions, nothing more, no benefits, no improvements, nothing more

if that hard disk was mine i would make a swap at a right size, a / with 400 gbs and the rest for a ntfs partition to share with my second os, xp