[vox-tech] recommended partition scheme for a dual boot windows 7/ubuntu machine?

[Rod Roark]

I try to avoid creating a partition without a good reason.  Modern distributions for example don't need a separate /boot.

Generally I lay it out something like this:

  Windows partition, if desired
  Root partition, around 10-20 GB
  Spare root partition (reserved for upgrades, same size as above)
  Swap
  /tmp partition (optional, I usually don't bother with this)
  /work partition containing remaining drive space

The idea is that things specific to the distribution go into root and things that should survive a distribution upgrade/change go into /work.  Use symbolic links in home directories and elsewhere as appropriate to get at stuff under /work.

Rod

On Sun, 3 Nov 2013 15:04:44 -0800
Thomas Johnston <trjohnston at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

> I need to do a clean reinstall of both Windows and Linux and was wondering
> if the following partition scheme makes sense.
> 
> /dev/sda1    ntfs          150  GB  (for Win) (obviously a primary
> partition)
> /dev/sda2    ext2             1   GB      /boot
> /dev/sda3    extended   314 GB
>    /dev/sda5 ext4             35 GB      /root
>    /dev/sda6 ext4           267 GB      /home
>    /dev/sda7 swap            12 GB     /swap
> 
> 
> I did a lot of searching of forums and there seems to be a difference of
> opinion (or perhaps an evolution of opinions) on the wisdom/necessity of
> both the /boot and /swap partitions.
> 
> If hardware influences the decision at all, I have a Dell XPS15z (511z). It
> has a 8GB of RAM, a 500GB SATA/SSD hybrid hard drive, the NVIDIA GeForce GT
> 525M graphics card, and the Core i7-2640M CPU.
> 
> The two issues I was trying to get a concrete answer on is: (1) is it
> really beneficially to have a separate boot partition and (2) is it wise to
> use a swap partition with a SSD?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Thomas