Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

[amenditman]

Hi,

I've been playing around with Kubuntu 7.10 64 bit for three weeks, my first linux install.
It's been great and I've learned a lot.

I am going to do a fresh install of 8.04 64 bit and need some advice about the specific partitions.
I read in several different places about ways to increase security and durability of install by partitioning the hard drive to keep system and user resources in different places. What do you suggest?

Also, because I did not know what to do when I tried out a few distros all my personal files are gone, no worries, I have backups. It's just a bit inconvenient. How do I set up my new install to keep my personal data intact even if I decide to install anything else? Is this the same question as above?

I know that's a lot in one post, but I will be very grateful for any help you can give.

Thanks,
Bob

[RJ Hythloday]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

gparted is your best friend when it comes to partioning. I haven't done this yet, but I have read that keeping a home partition will allow you to install, reinstall as many times as you want w/ out losing personal data. I'm hoping some one else chimes in on this as I'm ready to do a fresh install of hardy w/ kde4 on the rig in the sig.

[Qqmike]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

Agree with RJ Hythloday about GParted -- download and burn the Live CD and use it BEFORE running the Kubuntu live CD installer (or the Alternate installer).
GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Check out this How-To guide on partitioning:
Partitioning—how to, Rog131:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090704.0

[amenditman]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

Thanks you guys those are very helpful and the link is clear and understandable.

This kind of forum is the reason to choose Kubuntu over other distros.

Thanks again,
Bob

[cpradio]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

At a minimum I always partition the Home directory on new installs. This way all of your personal data can be maintained. During installation, you simply tell it to use that partition for the /home directory and to NOT FORMAT it.

Beyond that, I won't argue one way over another than you will get any performance gains, just realize this. If you do not allocate enough space, resizing the partitions is NOT fun. However, if you want certain segments to NOT exceed an amount of space, partitions ensure that.

Matt

[dibl]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

In the last year I've become a proponent of leaving /home in the root filesystem and making separate partitions for nothing but your data. I have some fairly large collections of images (photos and scans), as well as music, movies and videos, and documents. So, I just mount my data partitions on /media, set them up in /etc/fstab to be automatically mounted at boot, and then symlink them into the /home folders of similar names:

/media/images --->/home/user/pictures
/media/music --->/home/user/music
/media/videos ---->/home/user/videos
/media/docs ---->/home/user/documents

I started doing this after I realized how many "settings" are being parked by the OS in the /home folder, and how screwed up things can be after a new OS is installed using that same /home partition from before. Qqmike says the Linux devs have designed this situation to be resolved by the new OS, but that wasn't my experience last time I tried re-using my old /home partition.

That's my two cents' worth on it.

[cpradio]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

Qqmike says the Linux devs have designed this situation to be resolved by the new OS, but that wasn't my experience last time I tried re-using my old /home partition.

Really? I have never had an issue with doing this, as the programs did take it into account just fine. Was it one specific program or all of them?

I actually use separate hard drives for my Movies and Music as well and I too mount those in the /media folder, and use symlinks to my Home folder (great minds think alike). The one thing I avoid is placing too many items I like to have backed up on a regular basis outside of the folders I setup my backup process to run on. Separating the Documents folder would be a situation like that for me, I backup my entire home folder so all settings, documents, projects, etc get backed up, but my Music and Movies are not items I would need backed up nor want, as it would take too long.

Matt

[dibl]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

Really? I have never had an issue with doing this, as the programs did take it into account just fine. Was it one specific program or all of them?

Mehh -- it's been too many installs ago for me to remember clearly - I think maybe it was when I installed Feisty and attempted to re-use the Edgy /home. I was also experimenting with Ubuntu, and also experimenting with 64-bit (my original Edgy was 32-bit). Maybe part of the problem was I had mucked some things up in Edgy, and wanted a clean start with Feisty, but leaving the hidden folders means my mucked-up configurations carried forward into Feisty. In any event, the lesson I took was to start clean if I don't want unhappy discoveries of old problems brought forward to the new OS.

Right, I understand your backup theory, too. I estimate I have 175GB of music, 220GB of videos, and perhaps 60GB of valuable family history images and documents. Most of that stuff doesn't change much from month to month, if at all, so one good backup to a set of DVDs is good for quite a long while. Actually, I just back the music up to a second hard drive. As long as the house doesn't burn down, one of the drives will surely survive a hardware problem, or so I rationalize ...

[Snowhog]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

As long as the house doesn't burn down, one of the drives will surely survive a hardware problem, or so I rationalize ...

Oh, but have you forgotten the risk of being struck by a diblite?

[dibl]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.



Yeah, there's always that risk, too!

[cpradio]

Re: Advice on partitions for FRESH install.

@dibl, going from 32 bit to 64 bit could do the trick. I know things changed greatly and when I did that type of change, I literally started fresh and just copied all of the documents I wanted manually between my old computer and my new one.

I'm no expert on what changes may apply between upgrades, as I don't keep up on all of the changes in each program, but my experience so far has been good. Though I do like your approach to just keeping your main documents outside of the /home partition and in mountable partitions/drives.

My two issues are programs that store their data in their hidden folders. For me those two programs are Kmail (which has changed to store all emails outside in a Mail directory now) and Kaggregator (RSS Reader).

My RSS Feeds directory is HUGE, talking 20-30 MB minimum, and that is because I am a guy who doesn't delete a lot of files, I rather archive items for long storage. As such, I typically can find posts about any topic in a short amount of time.

In the end, backup first, then clean install, then restore the files you want to keep. I do strongly recommend backing up to at least a second hard drive (internally), but more specifically if you can afford it, buy a 500GB MyBook for roughtly 110 dollars (when on sale) so you have an external portable backup. I plan to buy a second and swap them out month to month so I can stick one in a Fire/Water proof safe in the event of a disaster at some point.

Great discussion, it was nice to read a few others point of view on the subject.