Partition Question #42

[LawnBoy]

My single hard drive has 3 primary partitions on it, and som unallocated space I want to install SuSE on. Since I can only have 4 primary partitions, would it be better if \ was the primary and \swp extended, or \swp primary and \ extended? These are the only two partitions I intend to create for this test.

Does it matter?

Thanx in advance.

 

[LawnBoy]

Gad, that's worded poorly...

I know, 4 primary OR 3 primary and 1 extended...

Basically, is there any performance difference between primary and extended for the {root} or the {swap} partitions?

 

[flugh]

if the unallocated space is where you want the gnu/linux os installed, then use fdisk (i always use gnu fdisk) to make the remaining space an logical partition, then create two extended partitions within it, one type 82 (linux native) and the other type 83 (linux swap).

i have the same type of setup running right now, works fine.

erase all your data warning!!!

make sure that you set up the correct partitions as swap and / during installation, because whatever is on the partition you tell it to use will go away with a quickness. i recommend that, if doing this for the first time, you limit yourself to 12 beers or less during the installation process ;-)

----
JBR

 

[zeland]

flugh

You create Logicals in an Extended and not the other way around (too much beer?).


LawnBoy

No matter what you do, always think of the boot partition (/boot) first. Boot partitions should be below the 8GB limit or else they won't boot, althogh most modern BIOSes do sometimes allow it. Don't press your luck. Create a small (75MB to 120MB) /boot at the beginning of the drive. Once your machine boots, it doesn't matter where all your other partitions are.

By conventional knowledge, a HDD works or read/write Outer concentric In while the platters spin at a constant rate. That means data is always red/write faster at the beginning of the drive. Although this benefit may be offset if the manufacturer of the HDD doesn't handle sector skewing properly. Improved disc caching capabilities (either by OS or by hardware) has also evened out the performance accross the disc.

I've got a buch of geek friends that swear its faster to have the swap partition located just after the /boot on a low memory (256MB or less) machine. Whereas its faster to have / (root) just after /boot on machine with more than 512MB of RAM. Haven't had time to test those theories out, but if you're interested just give it a shot.

--== Anything can go wrong. It's just a matter of how far wrong it will go till people think its right. ==--

 

[flugh]

zeland - I'll take your word for it ;-) Can't say I've really payed much attention to which was what when doing this since back in the Stone Age when I first did it (we used a club to partition our hardrocks). Guess I'm just getting too old to remember...

----
JBR