Xfce Forum

Rovanov

Member

Registered: 2014-06-12

Posts: 4

two partitions is it wise?

Hello!
usually i make two partitions. (habbit from Windows C;D;) With Xubuntu i made allways on all my computers 2 partitions 1 for "/" and one mounted /home.
Is this necessary at all?
When not, can i make 1 out of 2, without losing my home directory? (with GParted)
This is a great forum and i'm still learning.
Thanks for the lesson.
regards
Ronald

Rovanov

Member

Registered: 2014-06-12

Posts: 4

Re: two partitions is it wise?

Ups i'm sorry!
This issnt a xfce toppic!

dollyp

Member

Registered: 2014-03-09

Posts: 35

Re: two partitions is it wise?

Not a problem raising non-xfce issues as someone will be happy to point you in the right direction.

You are right to use 2 partitions, / for the OS and programs and /home for your user settings and data. If at some point you wish to reinstall xubuntu or try a different distro then you will be glad of this as all your settings, not only xfce but also for your installed programs, will remain in /home along with your data. It's fantastic when you reinstall the OS and programs and e.g. Thunderbird opens straight where you left off with no fiddling. IMO 2 partitions should be the default.

You may also have a partition mounted to /boot/efi if you have a newer computer with a gpt bios. You should also have a swap partition as Linux stores its swap in a separate partition rather than Windoze's file in the C drive.

You are not limited to just 1 partition for your data. For instance I keep my video files in a separate partition as they don't change, I only back them up occassionally and I don't want them included in every image backup I take.

Regards
David

Last edited by dollyp (2014-06-14 19:02:38)

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Linux Mint 17 Xfce
Lenovo IdeaPad U410

Mellowbob

Member

Registered: 2011-10-16

Posts: 286

Re: two partitions is it wise?

I recently reconfigured my system with a 2nd drive ... a cheap 60 gig SSD. Put /boot and /sys on it with /home being a link to my 2nd drive.

This did more to speed up my box than anything else I've ever done. And if the SSD crashes or I decide I need a bigger one, no problems since my data is on the 2nd drive. Oh, and don't forget to keep that data backed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sideburns

Member

From: Trinidad, CO

Registered: 2011-03-30

Posts: 467

Website

Re: two partitions is it wise?

Having a separate /home is a very good idea.  That way, if you ever need to re-install, you can simply have your installer mount that partition at /home but not reformat it and (as long as you use the same username) all of your files and customizations will still be there.

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Registered Linux user #470359
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