Safe Partitions

English Applications
#1

Hi. I have a 700GB Drive partitioned in 3 parts (C:,D:,E:) of which D: and E: contain backups, software, documents, music etc… And i can at any time re-install windows without partitions D: and E: being effected.

How can i achieve the same with Linux. Meaning having 2 (additional) partitions that a re-install of linux will not destroy. I can find no specific (easy walkthrough), ‘HowTo’ information on this.

Though i prefer to have 2 (additional) partitions, i can combine to have only one, but is there a foolproof way to (during install), that the partiton will remain closed to any formatting.

Regards

#2

Assuming you have all your data in /home in a separate partition, use the expert or custom partition option to specify that you want Linux to install only on / and leave the other partitions alone. That is how most people upgrade from one version to the next.

Note that, unlike Windows, where every partition has to be accessed by its letter, if you assign more than one partition to /home, you will not see them in /home. Linux will use them as it sees fit.

#3

You can have as many partitions as you like, though in your case it would involve an extended partition with logical partitions with that.
Linux is far more configurable than windows and will only install where you tell it.
In linux we don’t use drive letters but rather /dev/sda
then
sda1
sda2

sda1 would be like C:
sda2 = D:\

and so on
It’s a total doddle

#4

Thanks for the info. I’m just used to windows asking where to install the O.S (typically C:), and i can format or deleting/re-partition C: without fear of my data dissapearing.

If i can (as you say), stuff everything into /Home, then all (hopefully), should be well.

To be honest it’s times like this i need a finger to jump out of the monitor and start waving side to side if i’m going to stuff up, or a thumbs up if i’m going to do the correct thing. rotfl!

Regards

#5

stuff everything into /Home

Where did I say that. I didn’t.


/dev/sda1               1        2978    22507033+   7  HPFS/NTFS **(XP)**
/dev/sda2            2978        3403     3213000   82  Linux** swap **/ Solaris
/dev/sda3   *        3403        5821    18281970   83  Linux (ROOT)
/dev/sda4            5821       20674   112286317+   5  **Extended**
/dev/sda5            5821       15303    71681998+  83  Linux (HOME)
/dev/sda6           15303       20674    40604256    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA) (STORE)

Here is a look at one of mine. Simple. But see all the red are Primary. The blue is the extended so it is not a partition as such, the green are Logical partitions within the green extended.

You can only have 4 primary
So I create 4 as extended and you can have as many Logical in there as you want.

Just create your current storage partitions like that in the extended. You can have linux partitions in there to as I have /home

#6

No you didn’t say that but it amounted to the same thing to me, meaning put all my data into /Home.

Regards

#7

That remark was directed at john_hudson’s reply prior to yours, and i must say i didn’t disinguish between the answers so it’s my bad.

Regards