<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">To summarize, I understand Rick to be suggesting partitions set up like:<br><br><meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Win32)"><style>
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<colgroup><col width="86"><col width="86"><col width="86"><col width="140"></colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" width="86" height="18">/dev/sda1</td>
<td sdval="300" sdnum="1033;" align="right" width="86">300</td>
<td align="center" width="86">NTSF</td>
<td align="left" width="140">/windows</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sda2</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sda3</td>
<td sdval="100" sdnum="1033;" align="right">100</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><br></td>
<td sdval="98" sdnum="1033;" align="right">98</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">total sda</td>
<td sdval="500" sdnum="1033;" align="right">500</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdb1</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdb2</td>
<td sdval="100" sdnum="1033;" align="right">100</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/usr</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><br></td>
<td sdval="98" sdnum="1033;" align="right">98</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">total sdb</td>
<td sdval="200" sdnum="1033;" align="right">200</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdc1</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdc2</td>
<td sdval="20" sdnum="1033;" align="right">20</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/var</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><br></td>
<td sdval="98" sdnum="1033;" align="right">98</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">total sdc</td>
<td sdval="120" sdnum="1033;" align="right">120</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>What I would want to change is to also partition the Windoz stuff. The basic XP only takes about 6 GB. Keeping data in separate partitions makes it easier to identify what to back up, and also makes it a bit more tolerant of system crashes. (See my comments in the original posting.)<br><br>So, I would follow the suggestions for the Linux partitions, but reduce the size of /windows and add some more NTFS partitions. As a result, when running either OS, there are things on all 3 disks, so some head seeks can happen in parallel. Also important files are backed up on a different hard drive.<br><br><meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Win32)"><style>
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<colgroup><col width="86"><col width="86"><col width="86"><col width="148"><col width="47"></colgroup>
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<tr>
<td align="center" width="86" height="17"><br></td>
<td align="center" width="86"><br></td>
<td align="center" width="86"><br></td>
<td align="center" width="148">Linux mount</td>
<td align="center" width="47">drive</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sda1</b></td>
<td sdval="20" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>20</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>NTSF</b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/windows</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>C:</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sda2</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sda3</td>
<td sdval="100" sdnum="1033;" align="right">100</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sda4</b></td>
<td sdval="200" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>200</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>NTSF</b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/win_data_backup</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sda5</b></td>
<td sdval="150" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>150</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>ext3</b></td>
<td align="left"><b><Linux_backup></b></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">rest</td>
<td sdval="28" sdnum="1033;" align="right">28</td>
<td align="center">--</td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="18">total sda</td>
<td sdval="500" sdnum="1033;" align="right">500</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdb1</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdb2</td>
<td sdval="100" sdnum="1033;" align="right">100</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/usr</td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sdb3</b></td>
<td sdval="30" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>30</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>NTSF</b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/win_aps</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sdb4</b></td>
<td sdval="50" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>50</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>NTSF</b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/win_data_1</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">rest</td>
<td sdval="18" sdnum="1033;" align="right">18</td>
<td align="center">--</td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">total sdb</td>
<td sdval="200" sdnum="1033;" align="right">200</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdc1</td>
<td sdval="2" sdnum="1033;" align="right">2</td>
<td align="center">swap</td>
<td align="left">n/a</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">/dev/sdc2</td>
<td sdval="20" sdnum="1033;" align="right">20</td>
<td align="center">ext3</td>
<td align="left">/var</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sdc3</b></td>
<td sdval="30" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>30</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>NTSF</b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/win_data_2</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18"><b>/dev/sdc4</b></td>
<td sdval="50" sdnum="1033;" align="right"><b>50</b></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
<td align="left"><b>/win_backup_2</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>yes</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">rest</td>
<td sdval="18" sdnum="1033;" align="right">18</td>
<td align="center">--</td>
<td align="left">None – un allocated</td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="18">total sdc</td>
<td sdval="120" sdnum="1033;" align="right">120</td>
<td align="center"><br></td>
<td align="left"><br></td>
<td align="center"><b><br></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>Paul<br><br><br>--- On <b>Tue, 4/7/09, Rick Moen <i><rick@linuxmafia.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com><br>Subject: Re: [conspire] Comments on setting up disk partitions.<br>To: conspire@linuxmafia.com<br>Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 10:43 AM<br><br><pre>Quoting Paul Zander (paulz@ieee.org):<br><br>> My basic question is what disk partitions to set up on a new desktop.<br>[...]<br>> The new machine has three hard drives:<br>> o new 500 GB SATA<br>> o used 200 GB IDE (has partitions from previous Linux install, but<br>it's <br>> time to update the OS)<br>> o used 120 GB IDE (has some partitions with data files, and also what<br>> was C: which can now be re-purposed.)<br>[...]<br>> It would be really nifty to have Thunderbird set up to run on both<br>> OS's but share the same
email data files. <br><br>It's important determine which drive you can (and wish to) boot from,<br>for two reasons: 1. MS-Windows will want to be on an NTFS filesystem<br>("partition"), there, i.e., it really likes to be on the first<br>primary<br>partition on the first drive recognised in the BIOS. 2. The booting<br>process will be controlled from that drive. Boot sequence thus goes:<br><br>1. BIOS branches to<br>2. Microsoft unnamed program in the first drive's MBR, branches to<br>3. First stage of GRUB in first sector of /dev/sda2[1] (second filesystem<br> of the first physical drive, a native-Linux ext3-formatted <br> filesystem; /dev/sda1 being a huge honking NTFS partition for<br> MS-Windows). GRUB presents you with the "What do you want to<br>boot?"<br> screen, with a countdown to whatever OS you'll set up as default,<br> Windows of Linux. Depending on which you pick at boot time, <br> branch to either:<br><br>3a.
Remainder of GRUB's code in /dev/sda2, which finds the kernel, <br> loads it with instructions about where to find the root filesystem,<br> and there you go. The kernel reads /etc/fstab ("FileSystem<br>Table")<br> to locate the other filesystems, mounts them during startup.<br><br>or<br><br>3b. First sector of /dev/sda1, where Microsoft's OS Loader program<br> takes over, locating the NT kernel and all that other stuff. <br><br>Machine BIOSes' boot routines are idiosyncratic, so you should consider <br>checking to see which drive(s) you can boot from. <br><br>And then, fortunately, you have gobs of space, so you can afford to (1)<br>be generous in your allocations and (2) keep it pretty simple, i.e., use<br>relatively few Linux partitions.<br><br>In fact, when people are starting out and don't have well-developed<br>opinions on partitioning, I urge them to lean towards the simple. You<br>can always back up your data and redo the
filesystems, when you have a<br>clearer idea what you want to accomplish.<br><br>You can use the fact that the system has three physical drives to<br>increase Linux performance by reducing average drive seek time.<br>"Seeking", i.e., changing from one concentric track to another, is by<br>orders of magnitude the slowest operation a hard drive is called upon to<br>do, so anything you can do that decreases the average seek distance (and<br>thus seek time) is good. One thing is thus to include a swap partition<br>on each drive. Another is to split among the drives the parts of the<br>total Linux file tree that get the most seek activity on average, i.e.,<br>put all of /usr on one drive, /var on another, and /home on the third.<br><br><br>So, how about this (under the assumption that the SATA drive is first<br>in BIOS drive order):<br><br>500 GB SATA "/dev/sda" divided up as:<br><br>Size Type Device Mountpoint within Linux<br>300 GB NTFS
/dev/sda1 /windows<br> 2 GB swap /dev/sda2 [not applicable]<br>100 GB ext3 /dev/sda3 /<br>rest - - None - unallocated space<br><br>200 GB "IDE" (PATA) /dev/sdb, divided up as <br><br>Size Type Device Mountpoint within Linux<br> 2 GB swap /dev/sdb1 [not applicable]<br>100 GB ext3 /dev/sdb2 /usr<br>rest - - None - unallocated space<br><br>120 GB "IDE" (PATA) /dev/sdc:<br>I'm a little confused, here. You say it has "some partitions with<br>data<br>files". If those are files you care about, you might want to boot the<br>Linux live CD of your choice (I like Sidux), mount those partitions, and<br>copy the files over to somewhere for safekeeping.[2] Since you say<br>nothing about what kind of partitions, how large, etc., are on the<br>drive, and whether you want to keep them completely unchanged, or<br>alternatively want to keep the contents but are OK with blowing away
the<br>partitions currently holding them, it's difficult to advise you.<br>Assuming you can copy those files away, and are willing to rebuild the<br>partition table:<br><br>Size Type Device Mountpoint within Linux<br> 2 GB swap /dev/sdc1 [not applicable]<br> 20 GB ext3 /dev/sdc2 /var<br>rest - - None - unallocated space<br><br><br>There ya go. Clean, easy to understand, avoids all the complexity of<br>"extended partitions" and "logical drives" by keeping<br>per-drive<br>filesystem count to four or fewer, and has room unallocated on each <br>drive that can be deployed however needed, later.<br><br>You'll eventually regret at least part of whatever partitioning scheme<br>you start with -- but that'll be when you can think over how you'll<br>re-do it. ;-><br><br><br>Personally, I like to use whatever is my favourite Linux live CD of the<br>moment to lay out partitions (edit the partition table) on each
drive.<br>You could even establish there the definition of the /dev/sda1 space<br>that you'll later turn into NTFS when you install MS-Windows on it.<br>The Microsoft installer will format the target partition, so there's no<br>point in running mkfs.ntfs on it. Just define /dev/sda1 to be 300 GB<br>and type 7 ("HPFS/NTFS"), which edits the partition table<br>appropriately<br>but doesn't mkfs ("format") the actual partition.<br><br>So, in your live CD, you can do<br><br>fdisk /dev/sda<br>...and lay out your partitions for it. Save, exit. Then<br><br>fdisk /dev/sdb<br>...and lay out your partitions for it. Save, exit. Then<br><br>fdisk /dev/sdc<br>...and lay out your partitions for it. Save, exit. Then<br><br>mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda3<br>mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb2<br>mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc2<br>mkswap /dev/sda2<br>mkswap /dev/sdb1<br>mkswap /dev/sdc1<br><br>...with the result that your data-bearing and swap partitions <br>are now already defined and formatted
(except that the MS-Windows <br>one isn't formatted), even before you install your OSes.<br><br><br>But you don't _need_ to use a live CD. Instead, you can (1) first,<br>install MS-Windows to /dev/sda1, and then (2) do all of the<br>above (or equivalent) in your chosen Linux distro installer.<br><br>Either way, remember that it's always advisable to install MS-Windows<br>_before_ other OSes on multiboot machines, because Microsoft makes no<br>effort to get along with others, and will without asking permission<br>overwrite your MBR, reset partition flags, etc.<br><br><br>As to your question about Thunderbird sharing e-mail data files across<br>OSes: Last time this question came up, I think it was posed by Darlene <br>Wallach, and I suggested using a symbolic link from the Linux side<br>pointing to the Windows-side files. The user (Darlene or whoever) <br>said it didn't work. However, here's a different
way:<br>http://lifehacker.com/348858/use-a-single-data-store-when-dual-booting<br><br>Note: Referenced page talks about fetching and installing the<br>"ntfs-3g" <br>tool. That's often no longer needed, as many distros have been<br>incorporating ntfs3g. The point about using that driver set is that, <br>for the first time, it safely permits not only reading but also<br>_writing_ arbitrary files to NTFS partitions from Linux. That had been<br>a longstanding problem, because Microsoft refuses to publicly document<br>the NTFS specification, and the Linux coders were obliged to<br>reverse-engineer it.<br><br><br>> It might be a good idea to have partitions to back up data on other<br>drives.<br><br>Well, you can either repurpose some of the unallocated space as<br>dedicated filesystems for that, or you can just create backup<br>subdirectories on the existing ones. Footnote [2] gives tips on using<br>rsync (and other tools) for copying directory
trees.<br><br>I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but I hope the above is<br>somewhat useful.<br><br><br>[1] I change /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda3, further on, to insert swap. Don't<br> be confused.<br><br>[2] If you need to move files around, just boot a live CD and use<br>rsync. See: "Copying Directory Trees" on<br>http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Admin .<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>conspire mailing list<br>conspire@linuxmafia.com<br>http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire<br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></table>