[ILUG] Partition Sizes

[Gavin McCullagh]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Adrian Flynn wrote:

> The machine will be a test / development platform with a view to migrating
> partially / totally from Windows to Linux and testing various applications
> such as have recently been discussed on the list (spreadsheets / word
> processors etc).

So fairly temporary and not particularly important in itself.

> My Windows requirements fit fine on a 20GB disk on my previous machine so I
> was considering leaving perhaps 25GB for Windows (to allow for 'inflation')
> and the remaining 15GB for Linux.
> 
> Is the 1024 cylinder boot limit gone from LILO?

As far as I know it's long gone (like approaching two years ago).

> Does the Linux Boot Partition have to be 'early' on the disk?

Not that I'm aware (mine is 7GB down a 14GB disk).

> Must the Windows partition be the first on the disk, or is it sufficient
> that it is the primary boot partition?

<pure speculation>
With Win9*/ME I *think* it must be first primary partition.  I think that's
the bootloader it uses though.  The win2k one will load multiple versions
of windows along the disk so I suspect it'll have no problem if win2k is
not the fist partition.
</pure speculation>

> I usually allow the installation program from the Linux distribution to
> decide the split of the Linux partitions - I've had no problems yet ;-)

Well, that's up to you.  I don't know what Suse will recommend you do, but
RH used to say "one big ext2 partition" which was certainly not to my taste
and is bad news in terms of data security, ie if one filesystem goes, you
lose the lot.  Given what you've said about the machine's importance well
maybe you'll be okay, but I'd think it out yourself for a permanent box.

Gavin