Size of partitions ?
 

Hello, I managed at last to find linux that recognizes my hardware, and that is Mandriva 2006, I tested it and liked what I saw, and decided to start using it, I just have to re-install it completely cos I made just a test partition job and I have way too big partitions atm.

So my question is, how big should my partitions be ?

And should I make different partitions for /usr/local , /var/ftp , /opt ... etc

It is nice feature to be able to automatically partition ur hd :)

There is no right answer on that, many different variations depending on usage and reasoning.

For me, my pc being nothing more than a desktop entertainment unit I simply use 4 partitions. Three are linux specific. I have 6gigs for the root partition (of which only 3.7 are used with current set up), a gig for swap, and 25gigs for user home. My fourth partiton(backups) is actually a slave drive formatted fat 32 which is accessible from Linux and Windows..........yes I also have a windows partition since the one and only game I play FMS, has not been ported to linux. ReiserFS is my choice formatting simply because I have had problems with ext3 recovering journal after hard shut downs during power outages and so far ReiserFS has never failed me so far.

I give /home a separate partition incase the operating system itself gets boinked to the point of needing a reinstallation. That way I don't lose my stuff. It has been a few years since I have had something go so wrong that a reinstall was needed.

Yep agree, depends on what you want, if we just post what we have, then that will give you an idea.

I have :-

root - 6 gig
swap - 1 gig
home 48 gig (rest of the drive space)

Thanks guys, I just re-installed.

It looks like this:

xp partition for gaming.
Swap 1 gig
root 6 gig
home about 20 gig
and couple of partitions in Fat32 and ntfs format.

Now it is time to :study: some linux :p

This is a good read if you are new to linux and have the time:
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/