Disc partitioning

I am going to install Win7 on my 320GB HDD.

Do you think that three partitions: 80 (for Win), 120 and 120 will be ok?

 

why so many? what is the reasoning for them?

 

Well, generally Windows should be on separate partition than your stuff.

three partitions is not so many.

 

Why? There will be no performance benefit. The only reasons I can think of for creating multiple partitions are:
1.- a multiple-OS system, where Windows is on one partition, Linux is on the other, and data is on the last one
2.- if you plan to reformat often, you can put Windows and programs on one partition, and your data on the other, so you can just wipe the OS partition every time you reformat (but you should have your data backed up anyways, and if you do, what's the point of having a separate data partition)

There are disadvantages with multiple partitions: first of all, modern versions of Windows are designed with a single partition in mind, so there will be various complications when you have a multi-partition system (ie: having to reassign My Documents, Pictures, etc locations, etc).

Second of all, it just isn't as flexible: if you fill up one partition, you'll have to resize it (potentially risky operation, so you should keep your data backed up when you do), etc.

So, my question too is: why?

 

It's not advised to have Windows on the partition that you have your data. During serious failure of Win, you can lose your data.

RADIFIED: Hard Drive Partitioning Strategies

So what do you think about this?
1. 80GB for Win7
2. 40GB for Ubuntu (maybe in the future)
3. 200GB for data

All NTFS.

 

That sounds fine, as long as you figure that 80GB is enough for your needs for OS and programs.
Ideally, you would use a separate HDD to backup your 200GB data partition again. You can go with USB or eSATA (if supported).
I use a Windows Home Server with 2 HDD's to store data, and each one backing up folders to one another every other night so that there is at least a backup from the past 2 days on each HDD. Something to consider.

 

I also set 80GB for Win7.
40GB for Ubuntu might be a bit much, especially if that doesn't include any data. Could probably get away with 20-30 with a LOT of overhead. But make sure the partition order places Ubuntu at the end of the drive, it's just easier to set up later. Also, Ubuntu should be ext4 for the best performance. The rest to data.

 

What about this swap partition for Ubuntu?

 

I can appreciate a multi-partition setup, if only to simply restore an image of the OS partition(s).

The easiest way imho is to use the Ubuntu Live-CD with it's built-in partition program GParted and then partition the HDD into one Primary for Windows 7, one Extended for Ubuntu and one Primary for your data.
The Extended partition can easily be divided in 3 separate (so-called) logical partitions.
For instance; 10GB for the Ubuntu OS, 2GB for the swap partition and 8GB for your home partition.

Example;
1 - 80GB - Primary partition (NTFS) Windows7
2 - 20GB - Extended partition
----10GB Logical partition (EXT4) Ubuntu OS or '/'
-----2GB Logical partition (Swap) Swap
-----8GB Logical partition (EXT4) Home partition or '/home'
3 - 220GB- Primary partition - (NTFS) - Data

Mind you though, the Ubuntu OS only needs about 5GB space and if you have a separate data partition, it isn't likely you'll fill up the 8GB home partition any time soon so size the partitions as you seem appropriate.

The Swap partition, while necessary, is rarely used extensively on modern laptops with a lot of internal memory.
Sometimes it's advised to make a swap partition with double the size of your RAM but if you have 1GB RAM or more, I wouldn't advice it.
So, if you have like 4GB RAM, a 8GB swap partition will be rather pointless as 2GB (or even 1) will really suffice.

If you already have installed Windows 7, then you'll have to resize the current single Primary partition from 320Gb to 80GB.
Make sure to read a decent GParted user guide before proceeding.

(And, like already mentioned, perhaps also make an extra partition at the end of the HDD, 10 to 20GB, where you can store the image(s) of the Windows 7 OS+updates+programs and/or the Ubuntu OS+updates+programs).

 

Well, acutally woofer00 on the previous page told to make Ubuntu partition as the last one.

 

If you're doing it all at once, the other I'd recommend changes. Ubuntu/Linux can go just about anywhere on the drive. Windows should go first because it doesn't play well anywhere else. You could certainly store images on the end of the drive, although I prefer to keep mine physically separate.

 

Do you really need 80GB for the windows partition just for the programs? Window 7 by itself takes about 17GB.
I would suggest the following:
50GB for win 7
--- this is enough space of 17GB win 7 + Programs + 17GB for a virtual OS install
---20GB Ubuntu (9GB main OS files, 2GB swap file, 9GB home partition), ext3/4 filesystem.
---Rest data (Ubuntu can also write to this partition) Data partition comes at the end; so that OS files get the fastest HDD space.

 

Can I make a ext3/4 filesystem on a partition while installing win7?

 

No.
You cannot make a filesystem on a separate partition while installing Windows 7.
Why would you want to do that anyway?
It can be done before and/or afterwards but not during a Win7 install.

 

Er, no, but why would you want to?
While installing windows, just tell it to use the first 50GB of HDD space (leave rest empty).
Then, use a Gparted live CD to make the ext3 or ext4 partitions and swap partition, and the remaining ntfs data partition.

Then, when you boot back into win 7, it will recognise the ntfs data partition created by gparted

Note that you will have to create an "extended partition" in gparted to house sub-partitions as there can only be 4 primary partitions (this is a technicality of the HDDs, and no big deal).

So, assuming you already have 1 recovery partition built by the laptop manufactuerer (you can check this in Gparted), it is going to look like this:
1: Recovery partition primary already present.
2: win 7 50gb primary
3: Extended 20GB
-----9GB OS partition ext3 sub-partiton(called a logical partition)
-----2GB Swap sub-partiton
-----9GB /home ext3 sub-partiton
4: 250 GB ntfs partiton primary

Note that this scheme gives the first 70GB of the HDD, the fastest portion, to programs, and pagefiles. User data is kept in the last 250GB of the HDD.
If you wish, you could further subdivide your 250GB ntfs partition into two sub-partitions for ntfs (completely optional).

Just to give you an idea, here is my 250GB hdd:
1. 100MB recovery/drivers placed by dell in factory: primary
2. 40GB NTFS, XP: Primary
3. 9GB ext3, Linux OS: Primary
4. 190GB extended
----8GB /home ext3: logical
----2GB swap: logical
----160GB: ext3, data, for linux (linux is my main OS): logical
----9GB: NTFS: logical

And yes, the last NTFS logical partition is visible in windows

 

Dexter, when turn on computer, do you choose if you want to boot Win or Linux?

OK, I started installing Windows.

I clicked 'Disk 0 Partition 1' and started installing on it - I thought that I'd choose the size of partition later. I cancelled intallation. Then I had at the beginning a small partition - 100MB - and the second bigger. On this second I couldn't however click on 'New' to choose size. I formatted the first one (100MB).

How can make it to use only those 50GB for Win?

 

By using the program GParted ( Gnome Partition Editor), present on the Ubuntu LiveCD or just GParted on a bootable CD.
You cannot make partitions as you want with a Windows 7 installation DVD.

Read the user guide I linked in a previous post, otherwise you'll be busy for a long time installing/uninstalling and getting the setup that you want.
Invest an hour into reading it, you will learn a lot (like why you need to know what sda1 means in the GParted partition table) and you'll save days mucking about.

 

Baserk, look what Dexter wrote:
'While installing windows, just tell it to use the first 50GB of HDD space (leave rest empty).'

 

Yes, like Dexter wrote, you can use the Win7 DVD to select the partition size for the actual install.
So, if that's how you want to start partitioning, that's OK.

p.s. Win7 will automatically make the 100MB primary partition during install so that's normal.

 

But I CAN'T do this!

 

Really?
If you install Win7, don't you get a screen with " Where do you want to install Windows?"
In that screen, you should also have the option " Drive options (advanced)"
Select that option and then choose " New".
Then make the 50GB partition.

But as all these steps are available in user guides which are much more helpful than mucking about and asking here later, I'll say again;
Read some decent and comrehensive user guides; link, link.
Those have all the answers to your questions.

 

No, I can't do this!

I have two options:
Disk 0 Unallocated space 100MB
Disk 0 Partition 1 298GB

I can click on new only when i select the first one!

 

That is wierd.

One option is the following:
Using the gparted CD/tool, delete the 2nd bigger partition. Just delete, it so that it shows up as unused space. Then choose the 50GB parition size on that unused space.

BTW, this is not an win 7 upgrade CD is it? If it is, then you SHOULD NOT delete the existing parition which houses the current microosft install.


PS: Aftet you install win7 (and before you install linux) computer will directly boot into win7.

When you tried to install, what was the initial HDD view? Was it all free space? And the win 7 install created the 100MB and 298MB partitions?

And did you choose the "advanced installation mode" if present in win 7?

 

Soooooooooooooooooooo......what happened?

 

I used gparted and everything went allright Reps are going!

Thanks Dexter for big help.

 

Sure.
What paritioning did you do in gparted?

 

You've gone from to fast. Well done.

 

I chose:
80GB for win7
40GB for Linux (divided according to you Dexter)
200GB for data /ntfs/

Thanks again guys

 

Eh? I suggested 20GB for linux....

 

I'm posting here as I don't think I should start yet another thread about disk partitioning.

I've never done disk partitioning before. Now I've got 80gb SSD as primary drive and 500gb HDD as secondary on my ThinkPad. How should I aligning the partitions? Should I do it at all? I'm going to put my OS (Linux) and applications on the SSD and use the 500gb drive for storage. I don't think I need to partition the HDD but I'm not sure. Should I make one partition in the SSD for the OS (and how big) and use rest for the apps or how should I go about do it?

Another thing. I've never installed OS myself either. Do you choose how much space you allow for the OS? What difference does this make?

 

My partitioning system is a complete mess. Originally it was:
HDD 1 (750GB):
50GB Windows 7
700GB Data

HDD 2 (500GB):
200GB Programs
300GB Backup

Then I decided to install Ubuntu, which made it even more of a mess:
HDD 1:
50GB Windows 7
650GB Data
50GB Ubuntu

HDD 2:
200GB Programs
296GB Backup
4GB Swap

Far from ideal, but it works fine.

 

No it's not, I have over 30 primary partitions on one disk . Just have to select which four to use at any one time via custom MBR code. Probably boot managers out there that would be able to do much the same.

 

I hate to bump so soon, but my post was left on the last page and I don't want it to be overlooked (wouldn't be the first time) as I need to do the partitions soon.

 

Most probably I'm not going to partition my 500gb storage drive, but I still haven't solved if I should put the OS and apps on separate partition on the 80gb SSD and how big should the OS partition be. I'll be using Debian as my OS btw

 

Aside from creating a partition to leave some free/unallocated space, there really is no need to partition your OS within the SSD. SSD's don't behave like HDD's in that there is no head that has to move all over a platter to get data, therefore slowing things down if the OS is mish-mashed with all other programs/files.

I understand partitions to be a way to keep files/stuff organize and from fragmenting amonst other stuff. It's nice to have partitions on HDD's to keep the OS on the outside of the platter and slower, less important things closer to the center. SSD's don't spin, so it doesn't matter where the data is on it. Partitioning off your OS on the SSD will not improve performance.

I've got an 80GB SSD for my OS and most programs, then a 500GB HDD for data and games. My 500GB has no partitions. I'm eyeballing the Hitachi 750GB 7200 RPM due to come out early next year. When I upgrade to it, then I'll make a partition or two to separate my games from getting mixed in with music/movies.