Partition scheme for a 500gb drive for MS + 2 distros

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I would like to read some ideas from the experienced penguins out there on how best to partition a 500gb drive to host win7 and 2 linux distros.

I know I can share a /swap partition between Linux distros but, can I share a /home partition?

I was thinking of splitting the 500gb HD like this: 200gb for MS and 150 for each distro. I dont know.

Thanks in advance.

2

M$ 200GB Primary

The other permutations are wide and varied. But you obviously already know you can only have 4 Primary. In your case One of these will need to be an Extended Partition. So your next step after the above M$ could be

300GB Extended (Everything Linux in here)
swap
2 x /
2 x /home

3

Here are my thoughts on the subject…

Dualbooting SuSe and Ubuntu? - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums

4

You can (and you should) share the home partition but you shouldn’t share home directories. So, either use a different login name on each distro or create subdirectories like /home/openSUSE, /home/Ubuntu and change the default location of the users home directory on each system.

Example

First:

  • sudo mkdir /home/openSUSE /home/Ubuntu

Then

  • on openSUSE: sudo useradd --save-defaults -d /home/openSUSE

  • on Ubuntu: **sudo -D -b /home/Ubuntu
    **

Type man useradd on each distro for more infos.

5

great. thanks all for the advise. Ill update once I get things running.