On 2011/04/24 15:17 (GMT-0400) Stephen P Molnar composed:
I have a new Seagate 1GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. I would like to install OpenSUSE 11.4 on the disk and I should like some expert guidance on partitioning the drive. I would like to have a 2 GB vfat partition so that my Win OS computers (laptop and a tower) will be able to recognize the
Unless your Windows puters use antique versions older than W2K, I suggest you choose NTFS rather than VFAT. VFAT has a file size limitation that modern filesystems don't. DVD isos and many media files you might like to store there won't fit without dicing and splicing. With NTFS there won't be any reason to limit its size to 2G, which won't me very convenient to use if ever you'll be saving big files from Windows.
external drive. Currently, as a result of an abortive installation on linux, there is no vfat partition of the external drive.
I am willing to accept the I 11.4 installer defaults, suitably adjusted for the 2.0 GB to be allocated to the vfat partition. How should I partition the drive?
I _always_ partition before installing anything. And I always assume Windows will eventually need _re_-installing, which blows away the myth that Windows needs to be installed first. http://fm.no-ip.com/PC/install-doz-after.html is a place percentage-wise to start WRT deciding how to partition. USB, unless you have v3, is quite slow compared to ATA. It's not a good place to install an OS that needs more than occasionally use. It'll keep you waiting more often than you like, and thinking it's Linux or openSUSE that's slow rather than your hardware. Remember, most HDs are noticeably faster putting and getting data from the front of a HD than the end, not unusually a 50% difference, so the front is where swap and OS should go, while data storage slowness usually is a non-issue. Give every OS what it needs, and only what it needs, including swap (windows can have its own separate swap partition too, and a separate partition for most user data, and a separate small "boot") near the front. Save the slow parts of the HD for the rest. FWIW, my externals are all USB/eSATA combos, so that machines with eSATA connections aren't forced to wait on a USB storage sluggard. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org