PRIMARY, EXTENDED and LOGICAL PARTITIONS

[réjean]

Who said during the holidays this forum was getting boring?Looking into Bruno's tutorials about PRIMARY, EXTENDED and LOGICAL PARTITIONS from Jason I am wandering how I should partition my new 1 TB hd. What I want is;1. a 40 GB partition for Win XP ( which may be replaced by 7 at some point. )2. a 4 GB Swap partition since I have 2 GB of memory.3. a 20 GB / partition for Mandriva4. a 20 GB /home partition for Mandriva.5. and a 500 GB for storage.Then I can leave the rest alone for now and install a few more distros ( probably 20 GB each ) with no separate /home partition later.OpenSuSE, Slackware, Sabayon and Fedora come to my mind.Being a SATA drive how should I go about with the primary, extended and logical partitions?

[securitybreach]

Who said during the holidays this forum was getting boring?Looking into Bruno's tutorials about PRIMARY, EXTENDED and LOGICAL PARTITIONS from Jason I am wandering how I should partition my new 1 TB hd. What I want is;1. a 40 GB partition for Win XP ( which may be replaced by 7 at some point. )2. a 4 GB Swap partition since I have 2 GB of memory.3. a 20 GB / partition for Mandriva4. a 20 GB /home partition for Mandriva.5. and a 500 GB for storage.Then I can leave the rest alone for now and install a few more distros ( probably 20 GB each ) with no separate /home partition later.OpenSuSE, Slackware, Sabayon and Fedora come to my mind.Being a SATA drive how should I go about with the primary, extended and logical partitions?

That sounds fine. As far as the partitions are concerned, it works the same as with IDE drives.

[réjean]

I am not sure I understand your answer Josh. Does it mean that I should go with 1 primary and one extended partition and all the logical ones will end up within the extended one?

[securitybreach]

I mean Sata is the same as IDE as far how many primary and logical partitions you can have.You can have up to 4 primary partitions but if you want more than that you must make on of the partitions extended, and then you can add as many logical ones as you would like. For instance:1 - primary2 - primary3 - primary4 - extended5 - logical6 - logicalI did not realize you were asking which ones to make primary or logical. I thought you were just stating what you were going to do.

[réjean]

No sweat Josh!I can be confused sometimes and not formulate my questions well.So what if I go this way;1.partition for Windows ( 40 GB ) primary and ntfs.2.partition for swap ( 4 GB ) primary and swap.3.partition for storage ( 500 GB ) primary and ext4 ( since my wife's computer could never see my old storage partition which was ( still is for now ) FAT32 ).4. then an extended partition with all the logical within it.

[securitybreach]

No sweat Josh!I can be confused sometimes and not formulate my questions well.So what if I go this way;1.partition for Windows ( 40 GB ) primary and ntfs.2.partition for swap ( 4 GB ) primary and swap.3.partition for storage ( 500 GB ) primary and ext4 ( since my wife's computer could never see my old storage partition which was ( still is for now ) FAT32 ).4. then an extended partition with all the logical within it.

You got it!!

[réjean]

Thanks Josh. I am not going to do anything tonight except maybe downloading a few latest distros that I will burn.

[securitybreach]

Sounds good, let us know how it goes.

[burninbush]

Thanks Josh. I am not going to do anything tonight except maybe downloading a few latest distros that I will burn.

Hi Rejean ... just a few comments; I recently got my first 1Tb drive and had the same problem. Do you really need 40gb for windows? My win2k partition has been slowly growing for 10 years now, and is still less than 15gb size. Hard to imagine 40gb of programs. Whatever, I agree with your notion to put it on first. I would put all the linux stuff next, in an extended partition. No reason you can't create empty partitions now for the various linux you want to install. Put the swap partition in the middle of that set. Again, I've never had a linux part go bigger than 10gb, and that only rarely. Finally, make your big storage partition(s) from whatever is left. I chose to make a couple 100gb fat32 parts, and the rest ntfs. I'd make those primary parts (sda3, sda4). Reason to put the linux parts before any data storage is to get them onto the faster portions of the disk, rather than at the inside. Not a big difference, but as long as you have a free choice about it, why not? I'd also recommend grub4dos as your boot util -- since it's part of windows it'll persist through any linux changes you make -- you'll simply edit your menu.lst in C: to add distros. And a final hint; after you get windows booting correctly, take a copy of the mbr on that big drive and save it somewhere off-disk. Many booting issues [linux install gone wrong] can be fixed by just booting with a live cd and replacing that stored mbr copy.

[amenditman]

I know all the distros and manuals say use a SWAP partition = 2 times RAM.That is an old hold over from the days when our machines ran with skinny little RAM.With 2 GB RAM it's unlikely you'll ever use any SWAP, but if you do in some unusual RAM intense application, you do not need 4 GB.

[abarbarian]

Your storage partition does not need to be Primary. If you are going to access it from Windows then a NTFS file system would be the wise choice.My Mandy "root" was only 8 GB with KDE and loads of stuff.If memory serves me corectly Windows 7 with + Programs needs around 20 GB and you need at least 40 GB extra if you are going to me doing any video stuff an if you don't want to be transfering files every day you might need the space for day to day stuff.

[réjean]

Hi Rejean ... just a few comments; I recently got my first 1Tb drive and had the same problem. Do you really need 40gb for windows? My win2k partition has been slowly growing for 10 years now, and is still less than 15gb size. Hard to imagine 40gb of programs. Whatever, I agree with your notion to put it on first. I would put all the linux stuff next, in an extended partition. No reason you can't create empty partitions now for the various linux you want to install. Put the swap partition in the middle of that set. Again, I've never had a linux part go bigger than 10gb, and that only rarely. Finally, make your big storage partition(s) from whatever is left. I chose to make a couple 100gb fat32 parts, and the rest ntfs. I'd make those primary parts (sda3, sda4). Reason to put the linux parts before any data storage is to get them onto the faster portions of the disk, rather than at the inside. Not a big difference, but as long as you have a free choice about it, why not? I'd also recommend grub4dos as your boot util -- since it's part of windows it'll persist through any linux changes you make -- you'll simply edit your menu.lst in C: to add distros. And a final hint; after you get windows booting correctly, take a copy of the mbr on that big drive and save it somewhere off-disk. Many booting issues [linux install gone wrong] can be fixed by just booting with a live cd and replacing that stored mbr copy.

Ok! 1. I was thinking of installing a few games on WinXP ( nothing big or fancy, no shooting stuff ) but like you said some are on my wife's machine ( 40 GB ) and she hardly uses more than half of it after several years.2. Having the Linux partitions before the /storage makes a lot of sense.So it would look more like this;a. primary partition for winxp ntfs 25 GBb. extended partition for Linux ext4 ( 200 GB ); 10 GB / Mandriva ( sd?5 ) 10 GB /home Mandriva(sd?6 ) 10 GB / OpenSuSE 10 GB / Fedora 10 GB / Sabayon 10 GB /Slackware 2 GB swap more to comec. primary partition /storage 1 fat32 (100 GB )d. primary partition /storage 2 ntfs ( the rest ). 3. I've never used grub4dos. How easy is it to configure? If it is just a matter of editing menu.lst then I can deal with it.4. Someone would have to show me how to make a copy of the MBR from windows ( unless I can do it from booting into Mandy which I will keep onto the IDE drive ( 250 GB ) for awhile until everything is ironed out.Thanks for all the suggestions burningbush!

[réjean]

Your storage partition does not need to be Primary. If you are going to access it from Windows then a NTFS file system would be the wise choice.My Mandy "root" was only 8 GB with KDE and loads of stuff.If memory serves me corectly Windows 7 with + Programs needs around 20 GB and you need at least 40 GB extra if you are going to me doing any video stuff an if you don't want to be transfering files every day you might need the space for day to day stuff.

So what if I go with a primary partition for Win ( 50 GB ) ntfs and then an extended partition for the rest, divided into different logical ones?

[Frank Golden]

So what if I go with a primary partition for Win ( 50 GB ) ntfs and then an extended partition for the rest, divided into different logical ones?

That will work though 50 GB is a little big for Windows.Actually that is probably the simplest setup.Oh what the **** go with it we are talking about a 1 TB drive here.Also one big NTFS storage partition makes more sense since any distro you are likely to installwill have NTFS read\write capability.Using NTFS avoids the 4 GB file size limitations of Fat 32.Again the K.I.S.S. principle applies. Edited January 18, 2011 by Frank Golden

[abarbarian]

I'd scout around and see if all them distros will live happily in one /home. You know how it is with multiple occupancy folk keep putting things away in different places, you go to the fridge and what do you find , live fish

[réjean]

That will work though 50 GB is a little big for Windows.Actually that is probably the simplest setup.Oh what the **** go with it we are talking about a 1 TB drive here.Also one big NTFS storage partition makes more sense since any distro you are likely to installwill have NTFS read\write capability.Using NTFS avoids the 4 GB file size limitations of Fat 32.Again the K.I.S.S. principle applies.

These were my 2 main considerations Frank.1. I've got lots of space.2. I hope to keep the drive for many years. I may replace a distro here or there but I would keep the partitions sizes the way they are.

[réjean]

I'd scout around and see if all them distros will live happily in one /home. You know how it is with multiple occupancy folk keep putting things away in different places, you go to the fridge and what do you find , live fish

I like having my main distros ( 4-6 ) using their own /home and the ones I don't intend to keep for several months I don't save big files in them anyway.

[réjean]

Ok!

I have a new hd replacing the one that died during the holiday.

I am trying to partition it but here I have a problem;

 

I want a win partition fairly big that can be seen from both my wife's computer and some linux distros, and then several smaller partitions where I will install some distros ( one / and one /home for each ), a swap partition and a large storage partition.

 

Here is how far I have gone;

 

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

 

[securitybreach]

I personally first make a window's partition on the first partition, then your / on the second partition, /home on the third, /swap on the fourth partition and so forth. Windows like to be on the first partition or at least that is how I have always done it on dual boot machines.

[réjean]

I personally first make a window's partition on the first partition, then your / on the second partition, /home on the third, /swap on the fourth partition and so forth. Windows like to be on the first partition or at least that is how I have always done it on dual boot machines.

This is exactly what I am trying to do Josh but as you can see in the picture when I try to make the 2nd partition a Linux / I am told there is already one.

[lewmur]

No sweat Josh!

I can be confused sometimes and not formulate my questions well.

So what if I go this way;

1.partition for Windows ( 40 GB ) primary and ntfs.

2.partition for swap ( 4 GB ) primary and swap.

3.partition for storage ( 500 GB ) primary and ext4 ( since my wife's computer could never see my old storage partition which was ( still is for now ) FAT32 ).

4. then an extended partition with all the logical within it.

There is more here than meets the eye. You have to consider not only how your drive is partition to start with, but how future changes will effect things. First of all, the order in which you create the partitions is important. The "Extended" partition should always be created after ALL the primary partitions so that it is physically at the end of the drive. Otherwise, resizing partitions can be dangerous and cause data loss. Secondly, if you are intending to add distros later, leave un-allocated space at the end of the extended partition to create additional partitons for these distro. That way, when you add them, you won't change the partition numbers of the your current distros and thus cause boot problems.

 

Here's how I'd do it.

 

1st partition: 40gb Primary Part for XP

2nd partition: 40gb Primary Part for Win7 or Win8

3rd partition: xx gb Primary Part as spare for future use

4th partition: Extended partition whatever gb size if left

5th partition: 2gb logical partition for Linux boot

6th partition: 2gb logical partition for Linux Swap

7th partition: xxgb logical partition for main linux distro

8th partition: logical partition whatever size if left in the Extended partition less whatever un-allocated space you want to reserve of future distros. Formated as NTFS so it can be used a Data storage for both Linux and Windows/

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Rejean, you're trying to mount / on more than one partition. Whatever LIVE Linux CD you're using to partition is not going to allow that. It thinks you want to install. It doesn't realize that you just want to make partitions. Use the partition editor (gparted, probably) to create all the partitions on the drive. Do not assign mount points at this time. When you get ready to install the OS, then choose the mount points from within its installer.

 

Also, you can only have 3 primary partitions. The rest need to be extended. There used to be a 15 partition (total) limit for SATA drives in Linux due to the libATA drivers. However, I'm not sure if that is still the case these days; probably not, would be my guess.

 

P.S. An interesting thread related to this: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/lofivers...php/t29530.html

[abarbarian]

Who said during the holidays this forum was getting boring?

 

Looking into Bruno's tutorials about PRIMARY, EXTENDED and LOGICAL PARTITIONS from Jason I am wandering how I should partition my new 1 TB hd.

What I want is;

1. a 40 GB partition for Win XP ( which may be replaced by 7 at some point. )

2. a 4 GB Swap partition since I have 2 GB of memory.

3. a 20 GB / partition for Mandriva

4. a 20 GB /home partition for Mandriva.

5. and a 500 GB for storage.

 

Then I can leave the rest alone for now and install a few more distros ( probably 20 GB each ) with no separate /home partition later.OpenSuSE, Slackware, Sabayon and Fedora come to my mind.

 

Being a SATA drive how should I go about with the primary, extended and logical partitions?

 

 

 

Unknowingly to many Windows 7 users, a hidden primary system partition which is active will be automatically and forcefully created by setup during installation of Windows 7. The additional separate standalone NTFS partition, which is not labeled with any drive letter or path, has the size of 100 MB, but only occupy 32 MB of it with 68 MB remains free.

The small 100MB partition actually holds Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), which only available from DVD installation disc in previous operating system such as Windows Vista (see how to launch WinRE on DVD). The partition holds system files and bootable files that are essential to boot the Windows 7 properly in the event of the need to recover the OS in the event of corruption. The 100MB partition is pretty much similar to many recovery partition that been made on factory installation by most OEMs on the computer they sold.

 

So if you are going to go from XP + GNU/Linux's to Windows 7 + GNU/Linux's you will need to think carefully about "primary" partitions from the outset to avoid partition number changes later on.

 

You need to make your new drive the first bootable drive in your Bios.

 

I would make partitions in this order,

 

50 GB NTFS for XP -- later you could delete XP and on install 7 would automatically split this into 100MB and 49.9GB

 

250 to 500MB ext2 for /boot this is for GNU/Linux booting and avoids touching the MBR

 

440.5 GB as a LVM partition -- this will allow you to make , create, resize as many GNU/Linux partitions as you like whenever you like -- put swap in here

 

500GB for FAT 32 or NTFS for common storage

 

Take Eric's advice

 

Use the partition editor (gparted, probably) to create all the partitions on the drive. Do not assign mount points at this time.

 

 

That pesky Windows 7 gives me a flaw in my suggested set up :">

 

So a revision,

 

Primary -- 50 GB NTFS for XP -- later you could delete XP and on install 7 would automatically split this into 100MB and 49.9GB (with 7 this would use 2 x primary)

 

Primary -- 250 to 500MB ext2 for /boot this is for GNU/Linux booting and avoids touching the MBR

 

Extended -- all the rest of the disk which would contain, swap, storage, /'s and /home's.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2012 by abarbarian

[BillD]

Whatever LIVE Linux CD you're using to partition is not going to allow that. It thinks you want to installIt doesn't realize that you just want to make partitions. Use the partition editor (gparted, probably) to create all the partitions on the drive.

 

By all means, take note of Eric's comment! This is vital!

 

Bill

Edited February 5, 2012 by BillD

[réjean]

Rejean, you're trying to mount / on more than one partition. Whatever LIVE Linux CD you're using to partition is not going to allow that. It thinks you want to install. It doesn't realize that you just want to make partitions. Use the partition editor (gparted, probably) to create all the partitions on the drive. Do not assign mount points at this time. When you get ready to install the OS, then choose the mount points from within its installer.

 

Thanks Eric!

It has been over a year since I have partitioned a disk and in my excitement I forgot that I don't assign a mounting point at this time, only when I install a distro.

 

 

Also, you can only have 3 primary partitions. The rest need to be extended. There used to be a 15 partition (total) limit for SATA drives in Linux due to the libATA drivers. However, I'm not sure if that is still the case these days; probably not, would be my guess.

 

I am using the disk partitioner that came with PCLinuxOS mini-zen ( Gnome ), See the picture in a previous post, which doesn't look like gparted. I am sure that I do have a gparted on one of my live CDs if you think it would work better.

 

P.S. An interesting thread related to this: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/lofivers...php/t29530.html

Very interesting indeed. I'll have a 2nd read after I bring in some firewood before it gets dark.

[securitybreach]

Excellent tips everyone!!

[réjean]

Thanks guys. I'll be back in half an hour or so.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

HERE is a typical way that I partition and install MS Windows and other Linux distributions on my systems, Rejean. You can refer to it as an example of a multi-boot gone mad.

 

My main system is still set up similarly, but my operating systems are a bit different these days.

 

Slackware - Primary OS

Arch - Secondary OS

CentOS - Tester 1

Debian - Tester 2

Forsight - Tester 3

and sometime today, maybe... Salix - Tester 4 (I just burned the iso 5 minutes ago )

[réjean]

Ok!

First of all I want to thank everyone who gaved me some suggestions.

Then I didn't realize that I had installed gparted into PCLinuxOS mini-zen a while ago.

Finally what do you think of my partitioning so far?

 

 

sdb1 ( 50 GB ) is ntfs for windows and is a primary partition

sdb2 ( 500 mb ) is ext2 also a primary and can be used for /boot.

sdb3 is 882 Gb and an extended partition.

sdb5 is 4 GB and a swap partition

sdb6 is not quite 20 GB ( not sure why ) and an ext4 partition that would be used as / for the first distro I'll install

sdb7 is 20 GB also an ext4 that will be used for /home for the first distro.

 

Right now I have a 2nd hd ( the one I am using right now ) which is 250 GB but it is a little messy right now;

 

 

Well that's enough for me for tonight.

Edited February 6, 2012 by réjean

[b2cm]

primary, ntfs, 40gb, windows

primary, linux swap, 4gb

primary, ext2, 20gb, mandriva

extended, 935gb

logical, ntfs, 500gb, storage

other logical partitions, 400+ gb total

Edited February 6, 2012 by b2cm