Dividing the Hard Drive: Food for Thought

Pre-OS-install, mapping out data/system demands for optimal disk segmentation saves headaches down the road. Here’s a heads-up to help.

You don’t have to, but it is a mighty good idea to put pen to paper, ring-fencing the departmental demands you will have on your overall hard disk, or disks.

For instance, you may require space for:-

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• a boot manager (the first thing on the disk, a few mB)
• the Karmic Koala operating system
• your personal documents and settings, which generally are housed in your /home directory
• another operating system
• and maybe another again
• a downloads location
• a location for your music collection
• another for your movies
• and another for pics
• maybe one for websites/special projects
• a place for backup, else an image of all the above, ideally on a separate hard drive
• swap (RAM overflow)
• you get the idea!

How you divvy up the drive is a personal thing, but split it up you will, easily enough, the key partitions being created during the installation process, else prior to that if you use a tool like GParted.

The only must is for any operating systems to be separated, as should the swap file. Furthermore, backup should be in its own location, ideally not just on a separate partition but on an independent hard drive. It is recommendable also to separate user data, housed in the /home folder, to its own partition.

At it’s barest, IMHO, your partition plan should comprise:-

• the Karmic Koala operating system
• another operating system (if you want another)
• your personal documents and settings (/home) to include all personal media
• backup, but on a separate hard drive
• swap (RAM overflow)

.. so, of the primary or only hard drive, you have partitions for each of those sections, with backup on another disk. OK, you don’t have another disk and really don’t want to buy one? This is not good advice, but you can have backup on another partition on the same drive too, or risk all and don’t even backup (that is terrible advice!)

Alternatively, the barest possible would look like this:-

• the Karmic Koala operating system, including your /home directory
• another operating system (only if you want another)
• swap (RAM overflow)

.. so that’s two partitions, plus one for each subsequent OS.

If you are considering your first future-proof multi-partition setup, and really want to get it right, I suggest you Google a lot. If you want to share docs between, say, Windows and Linux, there are methods to allow you to do that too, so Google again. (For any Windows system, your personal docs should be on a separate partition too, especially as the damn thing always breaks).

How Much Space To Allow For Each Partition

Hmmn, for your docs, at least, how long is a piece of string? Then again, so far as Ubuntu is concerned, they say:-

“The [operating system] takes between 3-4gB hard drive space, and 8-10gB will be needed to run comfortably.”

.. That doesn’t take into account much in the way of personal documents and media, nor additional software installations, so allow for that on top.

Regarding the Linux SWAP size, the jury is permanently out, but it is generally reckoned you should allow for a separate partition of two to three times your hardware’s RAM size. I’ve got 2gB RAM in this laptop, for example, and 4gB SWAP. Is that naughty? Dunno, but it works.

OMG! Just Give Me a Solution, Guv!!

I know, for noobs and even intermediates, this is the hardest bit. That’s only because you don’t want to cock things up or have to redo. Almost certainly, if you research a bit, you won’t cock up, and you won’t redo for a good long while. Stay chilled. Have a cup of tea!

Here is a partition suggestion, but merely a suggestion, that allows for Windows (begrudgingly) and backup on a separate disk. It’s not ideal, just a basic idea. Like I say, it’s a personal thing, and a step that should take you longer to consider than anything else in this guide:-

Partition	gB	File system	Purpose	Notes
1	25	Ext4	Karmic system
2	30	ntfs	Windows system	begrudgingly!
3	100	Ext4	/home – docs
4	50	ntfs	Windows docs	can be used by Linux
5	4ish	swap	swap	is shared between Linux systems

If you have extra space, divide it between your Windows and Linux docs partitions, or consider adding additional partitions for a rainy day, else those mp3s.

Then, on a separate drive, divide in two:-

1	big!	Ext4	Linux docs backup
2	big!	ntfs	Windows data backup

Allow for Virtual Operating Systems with VirtualBox

One last consideration. In this guide, for those that want to emulate other systems such as Windows or other Linux systems, I’ll show you how to add and configure VirtualBox in the imaginatively titled Part 25 – Emulate Virtual OSes with VirtualBox.

In fact, using VirtualBox, you can realistically have a 100% Linux box with a copy of Windows, or whatever system, sitting pretty within.

If you think you may want that option, read Part 25 now so you can best prepare for the extra bulk of those operating systems it allows you to virtualize.

For instance, if you’ll be wanting a virtual Windows 7, plus another for, say, OpenSUSE, allow for an extra 25gB for each (to include a bunch of programmes plus rattle space) in your /home directory. Then again, these virtual OSes, undeveloped, will be much smaller at around 10gB each. Just be aware and plan ahead for whatever eventualities are likely to affect you and your biz.

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