On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:48:25 Anton Aylward wrote:
James Knott said the following on 12/29/2009 08:38 AM:
When I got my ThinkPad a few years ago, I repartioned the drive so I could have both Linux and XP on it. I also created a FAT32 partition, which I moved the "My Documents" folder to. This allows me to read & write documents from either OS.
The idea of having /home and "user's stuff" on a separate partition from "the system" goes way, way back; I recall seeing it in default installs in the late 1970s and early 1980s on UNIX V6 and V7 systems, where the /usr was more comprehensive, before we had a /home. Where possible we put that on a separate spindle.
Why Windows does not ship with a disk ready partitioned for C: (the system) and D: (the user data) I don't know. The people I know at HP and IBM ranging from senior managers down to salesmen - the non-techie/non-geek people - have all done that or requested it done for their machines and laptops. At the very last it simplifies backups!
While I strongly advocate Linux I've also cleaned up or installed Windows for friends, and set up a D: -for data partition. When I explain why I never seem to get an argument, rather I get asked why Microsoft doesn't do that already since its so obviously sensible. Perhaps that's a crack in the wall of Microsoft into which Linux can move ...
I couldn't agree more. I do exactly the same with any 'doze boxes that I set up for myself or others and I keep most of my Linux file systems separate too. My desktop machine has /, /boot, /var, /usr, /usr/local, /root and /home all on separate partitions (/home is on a RAID-1 volume) and additional /data and /downloads filesystems too. Makes sharing files via samba much easier for a start, not to mention simplifying backups etc. OK, so that example is probably a bit extreme - on the laptops I only have /home and / on separate partitions, but that way if I do need to do a full reinstall I don't lose any data from /home (I just tell the installer to leave that partition alone and don't reformat it). -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org