Critique My Partition Setup

[Tyerker]

So, I'm currently running 3 HDDs

128GB Sandisk Ultra Plus Solid State Drive
160GB Western Digital Velociraptor 10K Drive
640GB Western Digital Caviar Black

Here is what I am thinking of doing as far as partitioning:

640GB WD Black - Windows 7 Install
100 MB System Reserved
200GB - NTFS - Aligned to Cylinder - OS and Some Games
~400GB - FAT32 - Aligned to MB - Media files, etc to share to Linux

128GB SSD - Linux Mint Install - MBR with Grub
500MB - ext2 - /boot
3000MB - linux-swap - swap
11.5GB - ext4 - /
~110GB - ext4 - /home

160GB WD Raptor - Speedy Data (Specific Games, Applications, etc)
160GB - FAT32 - Aligned to Cylinder

=======================================================

So that's the plan, at least. I have gotten Mint working flawlessly with this SSD partition set up. However, for MBR reasons I now have to go back and install Windows, then install Mint again (though this current Mint install is only about 2 days old)

I was intending to use GParted to manage the partitions from the Mint Live CD. When I set up the partition tables, should they all be MSDOS partition tables? Any benefit to alternatives?

Should I be formatting the 200GB partition to NTFS with GParted, or should I make a 200GB Unallocated Partition and then use the Windows installer?

And one last question, is FAT32 the best file system for accessing data (both files and potentially executables) from both OS environments? I realize I won't be able to run EXE files in Linux or whatever. But will FAT32 partitions properly map to both environments, and accept a Steam Library along with Videos, Music, Pictures, etc? What would be the best filesystem for the 400GB Crossover Partition, and for the 160GB Raptor?

Thanks for any and all advice.

 

[Luke1978]

NTFS is better for media (and in general, it benches faster than FAT32) as it supports larger file sizes.. At least thats how I learned. FAT32 is more stable on Linux, as well as anything you want to share to Linux

 

[EarthDog]

Sweet jebus... so complicated... why?

Does linux need a swap partition? I do not understand why you are setting up swap partitions? I also do not undestand on the windows drive why you would want to use NTFS and FAT32... or if you can even do that in the first place... different alignments as well.

I'm certainly not an expert, but this seems WAY too convoluted to me...

I can help with Windows on the Caviar black not counting the automatically deployed 100MB bitlocker....

200GB OS/Games (NTFS)
~440GB Media (NTFS)

As far as linux, no idea there but I do not see the benefits of chopping up the drives into so many tiny pieces...

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Earth, the swap space is for transfers between Linux and Windows, as Linux doesn't like NTFS the last I used it.

 

[Luke1978]

You can format 2 partitions as different file types (think OEM Windows XP PC's)

NTFS support in anything Linux based is spotty at best (at least from my research), including sharing media

How the Raptor is formatted or should be formatted depends on which OS you plan on using it with. Windows = NTFS no questions asked.. Linux complicates that.

:edit: or what ATM said while I was typing

 

[Tyerker]

The idea behind the FAT32 partitions was pretty much to try to make a drive accessible to both OSes.

Part of me thinks it may be better to put Windows and some games on the Raptor, and using the 640GB as just storage.

Or maybe I'll do the 640GB as one big Windows partition, and then the Raptor for... Who knows what. I just want to have something other than an actual server where I can access at least some of the same files from both environments.

 

[Luke1978]

Why not put Windows on the Scandisk, along with whatever game you play most, Linux on the Raptor, and use the 640gb as a FAT32 media drive? Or split it up into 2 partitions, NTFS for windows storage, and FAT32 for the media files you want to access in Linux

 

[Tyerker]

I have found, based on just general feel, my system boots and operates much faster with Linux on the SSD. The SSD didn't seem to make a huge performance increase in Windows, in my experience. But in Linux installations, file extractions, etc seem extremely fast. Plus the desktop is practically instantaneous and the boot time is as fast as this motherboard can seem to do.

The partition table you (Luke) lay out is actually what I was using previously. My primary issues were:
1. Windows on the SSD didn't seem to perform everyday tasks any faster than the 10k drive, to me at least
2. I ended up with the MBR and GRUB on the 160GB 10k, which I can only assume negatively impacted boot times.

And as far as Windows on the SSD, I honestly prefer Linux as my "Daily Driver" at this point, even for gaming. With Steam functioning wonderfully for me, I can now play Half Life 1 and 2, Counter Strike and Source, Team Fortress Classic and 2, DOTA 2, Bastion, Metro Last Light... I can reboot into Windows if I really have that much of an itch for Bioshock Infinite or Skyrim.

But for general usage, internet browsing, media (Blu Ray support for instance), and all that (plus the games that is does support), Linux Mint on the SSD just feels so much snappier than even a brand new Windows 7 install. Windows will be almost exclusively for games, and perhaps some work stuff if I end up having to RDP or VPN into my work station at some point.

 

[Luke1978]

Ok, so swap the raptor and SSD

if the SSD is SATAII it will barely outperform a SATAIII HDD (not saying that's the case) Also, their is a pretty new thread on how SSD's perform on different controllers you might find interesting.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Earth, the swap space is for transfers between Linux and Windows, as Linux doesn't like NTFS the last I used it.

The swap partition is for managing memory allocation, sort of like Windows' pagefile.

Some Linux distros don't include ntfs support by default, but the driver can be installed for accessing an ntfs partition or disc.

Driver : ntfs-3g

Tools for ntfs management: ntfsprogs

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/

http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-manual/

Edited to replace crappy link

Just for info- both ntfs-3g & ntfsprogs are available in through your disto's software package management system.

Edited for after-thought

 

[EarthDog]

The swap partition is for managing memory allocation, sort of like Windows' pagefile.

Slight threadjack... is this NEEDED then in Linux? I mean you do not need a partition for the windows pagefile... is that different in the Linux world I take it?

 

[ihrsetrdr]

I have read discussions about this issue, and feel comfortable omitting a swap partition on machines with plenty of physical RAM. I have also read that when using an SSD that it's 'not good' to include a swap partition.

Here is an article from Linux Journal that does a better job than I, at illustrating the workings of swap space, virtual memory and how they play in the system's handling of programs memory demands:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10678

 

[Tyerker]

Makes me wonder if 16GB of RAM + SSD Swap is why it feels so snappy...

 

[MongGrel]

Seems a bit complicated to me.

OS not on the SSD? but I've never used Linux I guess so not sure about a few things you're doing I suppose.

Yeah I'd all ways thought a awap file with SSD's were a bad idea from what I'd read before even trying them out ? My pagefile is off at any rate.

I think it is at any rate, if I do still have one it's on the RE3's.

About like de-fraging one I'd think a bit which was also a no no I thought.

 

[MongGrel]

Earth, the swap space is for transfers between Linux and Windows, as Linux doesn't like NTFS the last I used it.

OK there might be that I guess, after reading up.

I'm not a LINUX user obviously.

 

[Stratus_ss]

There seems to be a lot of confusion in this thread so lets try to clear some of it up.

NTFS driver in linux is stable and has been for quite a while. Particularly with Mint, Ubuntu, Arch or anything relatively recent. In my opinion there is no reason to use FAT at all for hard drives.

SWAP: The issue of whether it is "needed" or not is hotly debated to this day. Previous statements about it being like the page file are correct, except in linux land if often resides on its own partition. In general, I either have it off or have it very small. On a machine with 12G of ram for example I limit it to 512M and do not put it on the SSD. This gives the OS just a little bit of emergency breathing room should there all of a sudden be pressure on the memory from some intensive process.

On the idea of carving up your hard drive, this is often a matter of opinion. On systems where I have an SSD and a spinning drive I usually do the following

SSD:

/
/home

On Spinning:

/storage (or whatever you want to call it)
/var
swap

/storage actually has folders for 4 things that are linked into home:

VirtualBox VMs
Documents
Downloads
Pictures

Some of this is obvious, keep the big files off the SSD. The reason for putting /var on the spinning drive is because thats where your logs are written. Anything with excessive rights I move off the SSD to reduce the wear. Anymore I dont think this is strictly necessary, but when I got my first SSD it was a concern.

 

[Tyerker]

Thank you Startus! That's exactly the kind of input I was hoping for.

Does putting Swap on the SSD lead to read / write degredation from the amount of temp files and rewrites it does regularly? Would the data blocks within that swap partition eventually get bogged down? I don't know how modern SSDs are as far as performance degredation, how TRIM works, all that stuff. Time to do some reading, methinks

 

[Stratus_ss]

Thank you Startus! That's exactly the kind of input I was hoping for.

Does putting Swap on the SSD lead to read / write degredation from the amount of temp files and rewrites it does regularly? Would the data blocks within that swap partition eventually get bogged down? I don't know how modern SSDs are as far as performance degredation, how TRIM works, all that stuff. Time to do some reading, methinks

Swap on the SSD will not lead to degradation unless you are swapping a lot. Unlike windows, Linux will not put anything in swap unless it can't handle the load. Its used as a pressure release valve in times where it cannot hold everything it needs in RAM.

As for trim, this is supported but not enabled by default (or at least it wasnt). Its easy to enable, its an option you put in the /etc/fstab file.

Its always a good idea to read up on TRIM and related technology so you have a good idea of what its doing and whether or not you actually want/need to enable it in your specific circumstance.

 

[EarthDog]

Excellent post up there stratus!!!

I wanted to confirm that writes are not remotely a concern these days on SSDs. It really hasn't been in the last couple of gens honestly (years). For example, the OCZ Vertex 460 (think Samsung Evo - performance/budget SSD) is good for 20GB writes /day for 3 years. Good luck doing that, or 1/4 of that in a non-enterprise environment. Rarely would a home user come close to that number, DAILY.

TRIM should always be enabled AFAIK. Is there something in Linux that makes that statement false?

 

[Tyerker]

I kind of figured that performance degradation for SSDs was pretty much fixed at this point, and I think this Ultra Plus, from the reviews I've read, seems to be up near the top as far as the current crop of SSDs, though it is slightly outdated compared to the 840 EVO.

Anyway, got my Steam installed, and I am able to directly access my 640GB Windows drive (just a 600+GB NTFS partition) in Linux Mint 16 with no configuration. I can just mount it like a thumb drive. I was able to do that to download the LAN drivers that Windows 7 inexplicably doesn't seem to include for this motherboard. Just downloaded the EXE from the Gigabyte website, and saved it straight to C:\Users\Tyerker\Desktop. Booted into Windows and installed no issue.

Only 400 more Windows Updates to go.