Need Advise On Partitioning A New Drive need advise on set up

hii have got my new harddrive for my pc. what i want to do it run gentoo from this new drive. but i might want to experiment with other os' and distos [skyos looks really interesting] i also am going to use a large amount of the drive for a ntfs partition storing raw video for editing in either windows or linux [havnt decided].im not really sure where i should put my partitions and how i should lay them out. would it be better to put the windows partiton at the beginning. the / in the middle. then possibly a /home after that and then free space or whatver.im quite interested in seperating my mount points up quite alot. i'd just like some experienced advice on how to logically set up this drive. btw its a 300 gig and i guess i want at least 100 gig for video possible more.thanks in advance

Edited January 6, 2006 by miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG (see edit history)

well no-one replied to this. im not sure why. i'll try again. the main things i want to know is what linux users recormend about partitioning. i guess my drive will be roughly like this:

 

hdb1 drive j ntfs 180 gig

 

hdb2 linux root / ext3 [here i need to know what size i would need for a / mount point on a gentoo system running possible large video software]

 

[then i need to decide how and what extended partitions here for the rest of gentoo. i have heard that is is good to have a seperate /tmp and /home mounts to make the system faster. and i need to know what sized they will be]

 

hdb3 drive k fat32 40gig

 

free space for expansion later. [skyos/bsd?]

 

thanks in advance.

I'm not much of a help on this as I don't know more than the absolute basics about linux. :)but if you're not getting a response, try to PM xboxrulzHe's a linux user and seems to know quite a lot on the subject.

Hi, sorry i didnt see your post before.You may want to read up on UNIX partitoning documentation.Linux distro's tend not to use partitons to their full potential, usually just swap, root and boot, and sometimes a /home partition for advanced users.but partitions can be used for so much more, and even increace security.For example, the /tmp and /var directorys are writable to all users, yet in linux they are usually both put on the same partiton as root.in Unix, it is common to put such directorys onto a seperate partiton, and mount them with the mount options "noexec nodev"(also mount /home with the options noexec and nodev)this will stop the system from allowing any programs or scripts to be executed on the writable partitons.this will also prevent any users from creating dev nodes (like /dev/hda1) on the writable partitons.Many privilage esculation exploits involve a hacker gaining limited access to a system, then executing a specially written program, however with this partiton scheme, un-privilaged users cannot execute any programs unless the root user has installed them to the root partiton.Partitoning in this manner is not a huge security boost, but does add an extra obsticle to anyone attenmting to get into your system.In BSD, a typical partiton scheme may involde../ (root) partiton should be as small as possable, and only include programs vital to a system recovery.. for example the mount program, text editors, etc etc/home/usr/tmp/etcfind the partiton documentation at freeBSD.org

could i ask what your partition table look's like? as you are a gentoo user. and especially could you tell me what sizes each parts are?also. will i need a boot partition? what atually goesin the boot partition? if i am booting from a different drive [hda] then i guess i dont need one.

It's universal. All Linux distributions have almost the same tables.

Here's mine anyways:
$ cat /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1            /                    xfs        defaults              1 1/dev/hdb1            /mnt/windata         vfat       user,noauto,exec    0  0/dev/hda3            /mnt/winsys          ntfs       user,noauto,exec              0 0/dev/hda2            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0/dev/hdb2            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0/dev/cdrecorder      /media/cdrecorder    subfs      noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0/dev/cdrecorder2     /media/cdrecorder2   subfs      noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0/dev/fd0             /media/floppy        subfs      noauto,fs=floppyfss,procuid,nodev,nosuid,sync 0 0none                 /subdomain       subdomainfs noauto         0 0

On Gentoo, you don't need subdomainfs since you don't have the need for it. It is a SuSE Linux feature for its security system.

xboxrulz

It's universal. All Linux distributions have almost the same tables.

i disagree.

also. will i need a boot partition? what atually goesin the boot partition? if i am booting from a different drive [hda] then i guess i dont need one.

you dont NEED a boot partiton, but they make things more simple when dealing with more than one Operating system.

the boot partiton holds the kernel, and possably any information the computer needs to boot an operating system.

on my system i have...

100 megabyte /boot/ partiton.

60 gig / root partiton (for gentoo linux)

1 gig swap partiton (for gentoo linux)

15 gig for windowsXP ( no-longer need since i installed Cedega (for HalfLife 2))

5 gig for FreeBSD Unix ( installed out of curiocity, preffered gentoo )

the boot partiton is capable of booting all 3 of my operating systems.

because the boot partiton is seperate from my operating systems, i can re-move or un-install any operating system, without damaging the ability to boot others.

If you dont intend on multi-booting.. only having one operating system on disk, then you dont need a boot partiton.

Linux will work perfectly well with only one partiton (although i would recomend a swap partiton, even though linux has not yet needed it on my machine(i have 1 gig of ram)

for windows users, the concept of partions can be confusing..

but imagine this.. imagine if you could format C:\Documents without effection C:\Windows\System on MS windows.

thats what partitons are all about.

If you dont intend on multi-booting.. only having one operating system on disk, then you dont need a boot partiton.

Ooops, i remember beeing serverely mislead by such a statement when i was a linux newb.

When i say that you dont require a boot partition, i dont mean that you will no-longer require the data stored on the boot partiton.

without a boot partiton, every thing that would normally go into the boot partiton goes instead into the main root partiton.

@organicbmx : I would suggest what I think is the easiest way to do this, and the most confortable if you are not very familiar with Linux and if you use a handy Linux distro like Mandrake.First, do all your Microsoft Partitions. I would suggest create 4 60 Gig partitions, two NTFS ones and two FAT32 ones.The NTFS ones because you want them to be NFTS, the FAT32 ones because they will be automatically shared by Linux.Now your disk has 240 Gig now accessed by Windows, and 60 Gig (or afew less) not used.Then, boot on the Linux CD or DVD, and choose "newbie install on the space remaining free on the hard disk".You will see the install program create all your Linux filesystems (/, /home, /usr, swap etc, don't worry about that it's automatic) and you will see that all your Microsoft partitions will be automatically mounted, accessible from Linux as /mnt/win1, /mnt/win2, /mnt/win3, and /mnt/win4. Yo will see that, from inside Linux, you will be able to read from any Microsoft disk, and you will be able to read and write on any Microsoft FAT32 disks.The install system will also install the multi-boot facility, allowing you choose to boot from Linux or from Windows. I configured this later in order to boot automatically to Microsoft Windows, when I want to boot to Linux I use the "down" key to highlight Linux and boot from Linux.And if you configure your Linux internet browser the same way you configureyour Microsoft Internet browser, you will be able to surf the same way.Come back posting here if you have more questions.Hope this helped.yordan

partition magic 8 works some wonders trust me... also umm can't remember the name of the program my dad uses on his system for the win95/xp/dos/os2/linux hmm... it's something explorer anyways and works great....