Partition Sizing and Examples

For normal use we recommend ext4, it is the default file system for aptosid.

With the Partition-Manager GParted hard drives are partitioned and/or formatted. The program has a graphical interface and is self-explanatory.

Gparted can also shrink or move partitions and also manipulate NTFS partitions [with a special caveat that once you alter an NTFS partition you must reboot immediately before doing any other operations ]. See full documentation for gparted. Changes to ntfs-partitions can also be made with proprietary tools such as Partition Magic™ and Acronis™.

ALWAYS BACK-UP YOUR DATA!

Should a partition show up as mounted, unmount the device, including swap with a right click on the partition icons in gparted or via a terminal, for example:

umount /dev/sda1

The swap partiton can be unmounted in a terminal with:

swapoff -a

In principle, 5 GB is more than sufficient for a hd-install, but you won't have much fun with this. A reasonable minimum install should have 12 GB. For those new to linux, we suggest only 2 partitions for a start (root/home and swap), because this simplifies your first install quite a bit, then establish extra partitions for a separate /home and additional data partitions.

You really should have a swap partition (equivalent to the windows swapfile, but is much more effective). For normal usage, the swap partition should be up to twice your ram.

For data-exchange with a Windows installation you should use vfat (fat32) or ext2 as an MS Windows™ driver is available for data-swapping. [XFS is not supported]. Ext2 Installable File System For MS Windows and also Writing on NTFS partitions with ntfs-3g.

It is wise to write down the names of the partitions for reference.

Here are some simple examples for different partition sizes:
1 TB for dual boot MS Windows and Linux
Disk Size Filesystem Mountpoint/System
sda1 50 GB NTFS MS Windows System
sdb1 100 GB ext4 / (includes home)
sda3 300 GB FAT32/ext2 Data for MS Windows System and Linux
sda2 550 GB ext4 Data for Linux
sda4 2 GB Linux Swap Linux Swap
120 GB hard drive with MS Windows, dual boot with Linux:
Disk Size Filesystem Mountpoint/System
sda1 30 GB NTFS MS Windows System
sda2 20 GB ext3 /
sda3 20 GB ext3 /home
sdb1 48 GB FAT32/ext2 Data exchange MS Windows and Linux
sda4 2 GB Linux Swap Linux Swap
60 GB for dual boot MS Windows and Linux:
Disk Size Filesystem Mountpoint/System
sda1 24 GB NTFS MS Windows System
sda2 10 GB FAT32/ext2 Data for MS Windows and Linux
sda3 10 GB FAT32/ext2 Data for MS Windows and Linux
sdb1 14 GB ext4 / (includes home)
sda4 2 GB Linux Swap Linux Swap
200GB hard drive:
Disk Size Filesystem Mountpoint/System
sda1 20 GB ext4 /
sda2 20 GB ext4 /home
sda3 158 GB ext2/3/4 data
sda4 2 GB Linux Swap Linux Swap
160GB hard drive:
Disk Size Filesystem Mountpoint/System
sda1 20GB ext4 /
sda2 20GB ext4 /home
sda3 59GB ext4 data
sdb1 59GB ext4 data
sda4 2 GB Linux Swap Linux Swap
General

There are many ways to partition your hard drives. These examples should be enough for a start.

It makes good sense to purchase a USB hard drive to make a regular data back up should any of your hard drives fail. If dual booting with MS Windows™, always put MS on the first hard disk/partition.

For other partitioning options see Partitioning to use LVM - Logical Volume Manager and Installing to encrypted partitions - cryptroot.

Content last revised 20/04/2011 - 0745 UTC