(This may have been more appropriate under Looking For Something Other Than Support?)
I am building a “Windows-less” HD (no versions of MS Windows). I have acquired the first of two 500GB Seagate Momentus drives for this purpose. The Seagate was selected because the drive being replaced is the exact same geometry, however the new drive is 7200rpm vs 5400rpm. If this process is successful, I may repeat with an SSD.
The current drive is partitioned as follows:
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dd6057a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 25173854 12586896 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2 25173855 25382699 104422+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 25382700 339956051 157286676 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 * 339967528 976768064 318400268+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 339967530 402878069 31455270 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 402878133 411263999 4192933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 411264063 453209714 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 453209778 495155429 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 495155493 503541359 4192933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda10 503541423 545487074 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda11 545487138 671324219 62918541 83 Linux
/dev/sda12 734220288 774217727 19998720 83 Linux
/dev/sda13 774219776 814217215 19998720 83 Linux
/dev/sda14 814222458 856168109 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda15 856168173 898113824 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda16 898115584 926902271 14393344 83 Linux
/dev/sda17 926902368 968382134 20739883+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda18 968382198 976768064 4192933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Windows/7 occupies sda1(Recovery), sda2 and sda3. sda5 is a shared NTFS partition, to avoid direct write to the Windows partitions (my choice). sda’s (6,7,8) are Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS, (12,13) are LinuxMint 9 (“Isadora”), (14,15) is Fedora 14.
sda’s (9,10,11) is the primary platform, openSUSE 11.4. sda’s (16,17,18) is the test openSUSE, currently 11.4 with Gnome 3.
The new HD currently looks like:
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdde49153
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
linux-go8d:~ #
Almost fresh, out-of-the-box, I did let Windows “initialize” the drive, writing the MBR, partition table, etc, without creating any volume(s). I have two ideas for the partition layout:
Configuration #1
Primary partitions: sda1,sda2,sda3 - openSUSE 11.4 (now), the “primary” platform.
Extended partition: sda5 (?), which will contain the test openSUSE, either an Ubuntu OR Mint small configuration, a “playground” set of three(3) partitions, and a “/Data” partition. This /Data partition is to contain my/our actual files, instead of residing in the /home partition.
Configuration #2
One large extended partition, sub-partitioned for everything else,
Configuration #3
One large primary, reserved for future, and the remainder of the drive ala Configuration #2.
I would appreciate any thoughts on the above, or any alternate configuration suggestions. Another question is the location of GRUB. Would GRUB be best in the extended partition ? Can I leave the MBR unaltered, by setting the active partition flag on the extended partition with GRUB ?
These questions may seem inordinately simple, yet the answers are much easier to come by when one has MS Windows squatting on the drive, basically dictating the multi-boot options, occasionally commandeering the MBR and using up the primary partitions.
On a last note, prior to planning the “Windows-less” configuration, I had given some thought to including a small Windows/XP install, in the extended partition. I have never successfully pulled that off, usually greeted by an assortment of odd errors informing me that I should be using primary partitions for Windows. For the very few things for which I do need a Windows/XP environment, I have an old, trusty P4. (Wine does not, as far as I know, handle MS Office VBA applications replete with macros, functions and user panels).
As for the original (and backed up) hard drive, plans are to restore it to out-of the-factory state, seal in a plastic bag and save for either sale of one of the laptops or upgrade Windows 7 to /SP1 and leave it similarly alone.
… Hence I speculated that there could come a time where I would want to keep any GNU/Linux partitions on the extended/logical partitions, and also for some unknown reason now use the primary sometime in the future. But if there is no primary, then that can be difficult to shuffle partitions, unless one resorts to a lot of backups (and indeed has the luxury of a backup external drive to do such mirroring). Hence I created partitions in the extended and also in the primary. … I can’t recall exactly what I ended up with, … but I’ll boot my sandbox PC and post it to this thread shortly.
