Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as 'partitions'
77
votes
17answers
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I have 16GB RAM. Do I need 32GB swap?
I read many places that the rule of thumb for swap space is to double the amount of physical RAM. However, 32 GB does seem a LOT. Do I need that much? Do I need it at all with this high amount of ...
48
votes
11answers
20k views
What's your recommendation on drive partitioning schemes for a desktop and home server?
What partitioning scheme do you recommend for a desktop? I've always created three or four primary partitions -- root, swap, home, and sometimes a separate boot partition. Ubuntu's default install ...
25
votes
4answers
16k views
What is LVM and what is it used for?
As a Linux/Ubuntu newbie, what is LVM and what is it used for?
In terms of a web server installation, what benefits does it provide?
Would you recommend using it?
24
votes
9answers
3k views
What is the meaning of the default directories in the Linux filesystem hierachy?
Having installed various Linux distros for tinkering, I'm puzzled by the installers offering partition layouts - for an easy way out I just use the whole available disk space.
Some of the partitions ...
23
votes
7answers
65k views
How to resize a ext4 root partition at runtime?
How to increase the size of the root partition of a system a runtime? I have a partition that is not allocated after the root partition (which is in ext4), how can I add it to root without having to ...
19
votes
5answers
9k views
Installing Ubuntu with Windows, which is left and right when allocating space?
I'm installing Ubuntu (or Xubuntu/Lubuntu/Kubuntu) alongside Windows 7/XP. I got to the screen that says, "Allocate drive space by dragging the slider below." On the following screen, I'm not sure ...
19
votes
2answers
8k views
How to move Ubuntu to an SSD
My current situation is:
One hard disk
Dual boot Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows 7. Partitions:
100MB Windows System thingy
144GB Main Windows
160GB Ubuntu
4GB Swap
12GB System Restore stuff
Now I want ...
18
votes
8answers
49k views
How to make a disk image and restore from it later?
I'm a new Linux user. I've reinstalled my Wubi from scratch at least ten times the last few weeks because while getting the system up and running (drivers, resolution, etc.) I've broken something (X, ...
17
votes
9answers
24k views
How do I repartition with GParted? [duplicate]
I wanted to create more space for Ubuntu on my hard disk in favor of my Windows partition. I booted the livecd and resized the NTFS partition to 100 GB. Then I wanted to resize my Ubuntu (ext4) ...
17
votes
6answers
22k views
How large should I make root, home, and swap partitions?
I have a laptop with win7 installed. I have now made a 60gb partition which I want to install ubuntu into. The question I have, before I do the installation, is how large each of the root, swap, and ...
16
votes
1answer
12k views
How can I quickly copy a GPT partition scheme from one hard drive to another?
On a non GPT partition table I can do
sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb.
But sfdisk doesn't support GPT partition tables. What can I use instead?
I'm looking for a one or two command solution, ...
15
votes
8answers
3k views
Is it possible to install Ubuntu without formatting any partitions?
Can I install Ubuntu without formatting any partitions on my hard drive?
I am already running Windows 7 and I want to install Ubuntu as well without formatting any of the partitions I have already ...
15
votes
5answers
4k views
How do I get rid of “U3 System” on my USB drive?
I have a USB drive (SanDisk SDCZ40-016G) that mounts in a way I've never seen before. When inserted, two items appear in Places -> Computer:
"SanDisk Ultra Backup: 16GB" contains my data, and "CD ...
13
votes
4answers
710 views
Home on a different partition
How do I define a separate partition for Home?
How does it affect systems with multiple users?
EDIT Okay, thanks for all the answers, I understand the thing about Home on adifferent partition, so ...
12
votes
7answers
7k views
Can I remove Windows Vista from my notebook and only install Ubuntu?
I would like to remove Windows Vista from my notebook which is currently running a dual boot Windows Vista + Ubuntu and use Ubuntu as the only OS.
The notebook is unstable when running Windows Vista, ...
12
votes
7answers
7k views
Should I choose exFat or NTFS for a “shared” partition in a dual-boot system?
I have a new laptop which I am setting up as dual boot Windows/Linux.
I would like to access files from both Ubuntu and Windows 7.
Should I create a separate NTFS partition?
12
votes
4answers
4k views
How big should I make my swap partition?
I'm (re)installing Ubuntu on my Toshiba NB100 netbook (Intel Atom, 120GB HD, 2GB RAM). Already have a partition I call "Stuff" with all my media and docs. Will be deleting the one I had Win7 on ...
12
votes
4answers
24k views
How do I align my partition table properly?
I am in the process of building my first RAID5 array. I've used mdadm to create the following set up:
root@bondigas:~# mdadm --detail /dev/md1
/dev/md1:
Version : 00.90
Creation Time : Wed ...
12
votes
2answers
4k views
How do I check whether partitions on my SSD are properly aligned?
I just installed ubuntu on my new intel SSD. Now I am not sure, whether paritions are properly aligned in respect to my specific SSD.
Here's my fdisk output.
$ fdisk -l
Platte /dev/sda: ...
11
votes
3answers
922 views
Why is there 4.86(maybe 15.1) GB of USED-space on a newly partitioned and formatted 298 GB drive (as ext4 by Gparted)
Well the question says most of it...
Gparted reports the used space as 4.86 GB
Nautilus reports used space as 15.1 GB...(via Properties of /media/U_0298_data)
Why is this space used? and who is ...
11
votes
3answers
6k views
How do I resize my current ubuntu partition?
I've got Ubuntu 10.10 installed to use my whole hard-disk, but would like to use the 130GB of free space I've got to create a new partition and do some development on Unity and Natty.
Can I use ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Is the swap partition encrypted?
Selecting the encryption option at install time to encrypt the home partition. Does this enable encryption of the swap partition or is the swap partition unencrypted. If the swap partition is ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
Why can't I install Ubuntu or Wubi on a dynamic disk? (“The request isn't supported” from bcdedit.exe)
I've been trying to install 12.04 for a while now, I'm running on Windows 7 and I already made the partition (it's dynamic). I've tried booting from a disc and also the Windows installer. I haven't ...
10
votes
6answers
10k views
My laptop already has 4 primary partitions: how can I install Ubuntu?
I would like to install ubuntu alongside windows 7 in a HP G62 Notebook. Although I have installed ubuntu as a dualboot many times I found out that this model has already four partitions.
SYSTEM ...
10
votes
3answers
3k views
Is a /boot partition necessary anymore?
A fair while ago (~ 2004) I was told to always create a separate partition for the boot directory. And since then I always have. But after reading a few questions about partitioning questions, I'm ...
10
votes
1answer
4k views
What's the difference between ddrescue, gddrescue, and dd_rescue?
The dd command is commonly used to make image backups of a drive or partition. However, it performs poorly if the source drive is unreliable or failing. I read that ddrescue/dd_rescue is a good tool ...
10
votes
1answer
3k views
Should I align partitions on an SSD, if so how do I do it at install time?
I just bought a new SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) and plan to do a clean install of Maverick on it (/home is on a separate HDD). I read that it is wise to align SSD partitions.
What advantages does it truly ...
10
votes
2answers
16k views
GRUB: “invalid arch independent ELF magic” after install on SSD
I've got a brand new laptop with a 128GB SSD drive. I read that aligning the partitions to match the Erase Block Size of the SSD is important. I followed William Scott's guide SSD Tweaks in Linux and ...
10
votes
3answers
7k views
Should I use btrfs or Ext4 for my SSD?
Should I use btrfs (with discard, compress=lzo and space_cache options) or Ext4 (with discard option) for the SSD for my Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric) amd64 desktop root partition of my office machine?
...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
btrfs partition won't mount after upgrading 64bit Ubuntu 11.10 laptop
I have tried many ideas from the net, but none of them work.
This looks correct and in good order
**sudo btrfs filesystem show /dev/sda2**
failed to read /dev/sr0
Label: none uuid: ...
9
votes
8answers
25k views
Fix corrupt NTFS partition without Windows
MY NTFS Partition has gotten corrupt somehow (it's a relic from the days when I had Windows installed).
I'm putting the debug output of fdisk and blkid here.
At the same time, any OS is unable to ...
9
votes
4answers
11k views
Change owner of internal hard drive partition from root to user
I have a number of drives internal and external. Some are partitioned. Most mount automatically at boot (all did at one point).
One partition is owned by root and therefore does not mount ...
9
votes
3answers
4k views
Mount Ubuntu's partition on Windows 7
Is it possible to mount Ubuntu 10.10's partition on Windows 7?
9
votes
4answers
8k views
My /boot partition hit 100% and now I can't upgrade. Can't remove old kernels to make room
My first issue was when i tried to apt-get update/upgrade. On upgrade I get the following error:
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views
How to avoid problems when installing Ubuntu and Windows 7 in dual-boot?
I want to try out Ubuntu (and hopefully choose it as my primary OS). After looking at many versions of it in VirtualBox and from Live CD, I've finally decided to install it.
So I defragmented and ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How can I move my /home directory to another partition if it's already part of the / partition?
I have a wonderful running Maverick Meerkat install going on right now. I want to move my /home to another partition as per many suggestions.
How can I go about doing this without reinstalling the ...
9
votes
2answers
581 views
Why does the first partition start at sector 34 when I choose “Guided - Use entire disk” during install?
After choosing "Guided - Use entire disk" during installation of Ubunsut Server 12.04 I find that the first partition starts on sector 34. Why that specific sector and not the first one?
(parted) ...
8
votes
2answers
35k views
How to resize partitions? [duplicate]
Previously, I have installed Windows 7 on my 320 GB laptop with three partitions 173, 84 and 63 GB each. The 63 GB partition was where the Windows was installed. The rest were for file containers.
...
8
votes
7answers
887 views
How safe is it to install Ubuntu on a Windows 7 PC - repartitioning the disk?
I am going to install Ubuntu on a brand new PC, which comes with some OEM installation of Windows 7. I know that Ubuntu can resize an existing Windows NTFS partition, so that it has free space to ...
8
votes
1answer
13k views
Trouble creating 3TB ext4 partition due to msdos-partition-table-imposed error
I just bought a 3TB WD green drive, but when I try to partition in in gparted I get an error like:
======================
libparted : 2.3
======================
partition length of 5860530176 sectors ...
8
votes
2answers
6k views
What's a good partition method to combine an SSD boot drive with a 1TB data drive?
i actually want to switch to ubuntu, but i'm afraid that i cant use my harddrives as i want.
I have a SSD with 64gb and a 6gb/s 1 Terabyte harddrive.
I want to use the ssd only as a boot device and ...
8
votes
4answers
18k views
“the partition is misaligned” error in Disk Utility - should I repartition?
I have a Dell XPS M1330 laptop that has Vista installed and I just installed Ubuntu 10.4 LTS so I can dual boot.
Everything seems to be working well, but when I opened the Disk Utility to have a ...
8
votes
3answers
4k views
How do you resize a live partition?
I saw the question : Is it possible (aka safe) to resize a partition while the system is running?
Short answer : yes, but they don't explain how. How do I resize my partition while the system is ...
8
votes
6answers
2k views
How do I change from dual-boot Windows/Ubuntu to single-boot Ubuntu?
I have an old Vista laptop that I partitioned and installed Ubuntu on, with dual-boot. I've now decided to switch entirely to Ubuntu. What's the best way to achieve this?
My current partitions:
...
8
votes
0answers
3k views
In the installer, when splitting an existing partition, which side is which? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Installing Ubuntu with Windows, which is left and right when allocating space?
I am about to install Ubuntu alongside windows. I've reached a setup screen which has a ...
7
votes
2answers
6k views
How to move /usr to a new partition?
My /usr folder needs to get moved to a new partition. How can I do this without erasing the contents?
Can this be done while Ubuntu is running, or do I need to use the LiveCD for this?
7
votes
3answers
8k views
How to format/partition SD card?
How can I format or partition SD card in Kubuntu?
Is there an application with GUI for this?
7
votes
1answer
257 views
Which partitioning program does Ubuntu use during installation?
Which partitioning algorithms use ubuntu during the installation, is it also available as a standalone application or command? Is it gparted?
7
votes
3answers
577 views
Partition advice, how can I stop running out of space on “/” partition?
I run Ubuntu 10.04 on an EEEPC with a 4GB fast SSD set as the / partition, and a 16GB slower SSD set as the /home partition. I keep running out of space on "/", and can no longer install the latest ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Easily add mount points to Ubuntu
Is there a nice, possibly GUI way to add mount points to partitions in Ubuntu?
For some reason, the mount point for my windows NTFS partition which was recognized during the installation is gone. In ...
