Linux partitioning recommendations

I'd like to share with you my Linux partitioning recommendations. You will learn how to partition a hard drive for the installation of Linux alongside Windows, as well as for the Linux-only installation. I will also show you how to partition a new drive for data storage.
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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:30 Partition for Linux-only installation
06:55 Partition for installation alongside Windows
13:30 Partition a new drive for data
Tags: #Linux #partitioning #Gparted

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Text version: averagelinuxuser.com/linux-partitioning-recommendations/

[@nanabrimpong3485]

hi are you familiar with LMDE 5? Because I installed it on my external hard drive but when I boot it up it does not recognise my other primary or bootable windows partition on the main computer which is on a different drive. but the other lines partition on that drive are not visible in devices. when I boot GRUB lists all the operating systems on both hard drives. I have my main drive inside the laptop witch has a Windows, Ubuntu and older linux mint and fedora. now my new external hard drive is meant to have LMDE 5 and MX Linux and DeepIn linux, but currently has only LMDE 5 only installed. But when I boot the system from my external hard drive with LMDE 5, both my windows partition on internal drive which is ntfs and my other ntfs partition on the external hard drive are missing. they are not visible or show in the list of devices. when I looked into my file system of my Lmde 5, I saw an ego folder and when I opened up the ego folder it contained all my stuff from the windows partition, which is all files folders and application. Do you have any idea what happened? each time I boot the lmde 5 it comes up with a which error message saying missing raid45.

[@nanabrimpong3485]

how can I multiboot different linux distros and have and ntfs partition on an external hard drive of 1TB using the MBR method. and does the EFI always have to be the first partition? Because I want to install LMDE 5 and MX Linux and and possibly another distro and keep the remaining for an ntfs partition. This is all to be installed on an external hard drive. my laptop already has a multiple on the internal hard drive which has windows xp, fedora,Ubuntu and linux mint. already and they that runs smoothly. but the external hard drive partitioning and set-up is what I need to know. Because when I did it for my Lmde i could not see any of my ntfs partition showing in the devices or drives listed to even mount them. so i need to know why. I already explained the issue in another message above. Because the content of my ntfs on the internal are being displayed in the file system of the lmde 5 on the external hard drive inside the /boot/Efi folder. please advise. if I boot with my installation usb everything shows as normal in the list. but if I boot with the external hard drive this problem happens. The GRUB works fine and lists all the operating systems from both internal and external hard drives. I also did not have any efi or swap partition created on external hard drive with the multiboot.

[@borisvukcevic1454]

The most accurate comment I can make from watching your videos is that you are not an "Average Linux User." Great content

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Glad you think so! 🙂

[@royalpiece8320]

facts, “average” cannot teach this well

[@reisecat782]

Obliviously he is not, I think he meant us as average ones)

[@methamphetamememcmeth3422]

I don't think average here means the dull, untalented or unsophisticated user. It's rather a collective word used to indicate his use of Linux as common, as opposed to casual. An average Linux user is still very sophisticated and very talented when it comes to managing their Linux systems.

[@nanabrimpong3485]

@@AverageLinuxUser hi I need your help. I installed linux mint deviants edition 5 on my external hdd but I cannot find my ntfs partition on the external and my main ntfs partition on the pc's internal hard drive when I boot with the lmde 5. but it shows me the other linux partitions I have on both internal and external hard drives in the devices section. I also went to the file system section of the lmde 5 I installed and I found an EFI folder which when I opened was showing the content of my internal window xp partition as folders within this same folder. but I cannot find all the ntfs partitions either external or internal to mount. but my lmde 5 is set to automount all devised or drives or partitions whichever you want to call it to list in devices. but not showing. Any help please? one thing I also noticed is I don't have any efi or swap partition created on my external hard drive partitions. but the grub is installed on the external hard drive.

[@joysing2134]

A plain, simple, wholeheartedly big thankyou for this detailed video in simplified and visually depicted format. This will stay with me.

[@treyquattro]

super-useful episode! I think partitioning is one thing that keeps users away from the more complicated Linux distros (they all are compared to other desktop OSs!) Those of us who were around in prehistoric PC times aren't so daunted, but it's still a leap of faith thinking and hoping that you've set up your partition table correctly for the lifetime of an installation right at the start!

[@tah-seen]

This is the best video on how to partition the drive. I have been so confused with that. Thanks a lot.

[@xwinglover]

Such a clear and concise video on this topic!

[@chubbyzombie666]

OMGosh I jad to burn theough 100 videos of people mumbling something to find that. Thank you. This is perfect.

[@maroskukan8387]

Thank you for the video, I recently installed Ubuntu 22.10 and created just EFI and root / partition without creating one for swap. The installer was intelligent enough to create a 2G /swapfile automatically and include that in /etc/fstab.

[@waelelkholi3406]

Thank Yooooooo, I have been trying to install UBUNTU with XFS file system for 3 days , I have made about 10 attempts. Your instructions is the only one that worked 👍👍👍👍

[@TheBrimurray]

Well produced and just enough information to get newbies on the right track. Thank you ALU.

[@abu-bakrmohamed1707]

Man , u can't imagine how much u helped me

[@davesmith8101]

This is a great video, thank you! I watched several others who did not explain things very well. Your explanation was very clear and concise. This the best explained and demonstrated video on the subject that I have found. Well done!

[@parthsalat]

That was a killer video. Exactly what I wanted. Thanks a lot!

[@anjoLas]

Helped me a LOT ! Thank you, good sir.

[@yiannisserpico2646]

Wonderful presentation. Many knowledge. Thank you!!!

[@vnomik]

always the best info vids, TY!!

[@ajinkyakandalkar9643]

Excellent tutor from *Expert Linux User*

[@ipshitshaha7244]

I was looking for something like this. Thanks a lot for the information.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Glad it was helpful!

[@itmensch85]

Awesome tutorial as always. Thanks a lot. :)

[@tiitulitii]

This was really needed. Thank you so much!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Glad it was helpful!

[@adithyan_hp]

@@AverageLinuxUser Which is the Best Linux distro for programming for beginners.

[@tiitulitii]

@@adithyan_hp I like the following: - Fedora (Red Hat) - used by large companies, so it is reliable, very good and useful to learn - EndeavourOS (Arch) - this is a most enjoyable Arch distro even for beginners - Solus (independent) - surpricingly good, quite enjoyable and quick to install, a special distro - Clear Linux (independent) - optimized for Intel hardware, a special distro - Oracle Linux (Red Hat) - optimized for Oracle software, a special distro - Linux Mint (Ubuntu) - most often recommented - Zorin OS (Ubuntu) - easy to use and quite nice - Elementary (Ubuntu) - easy to use and quite nice - Ubuntu Budgie (Ubuntu) - a really nice Ubuntu distro - UbuntuDDE (Ubuntu) - a really nice Ubuntu distro - Bunsenlabs Lithium (Debian) - makes you concentrate in programming instead of playing visuals

[@Kyonyx.]

Thank you! This helped me a lot 😀

[@henrykuppens9097]

Great explanation, thankx. I have used Linux many years already but forget sometimes details when I have to do a new installation. Although I'm smart enough to keep my data safe. :)

[@ashgupta854]

One advantage of putting your swap on a separate partition is you can omit it when making an image of your drive using Clonezilla. There is no way to do this if your use a file for swap.

[@jRafayam34]

Best video. Thanks man. Fastastic explanation with great details. 😃

[@SonofChurchill]

Hay ALU many thanks this was very east to follow, as I was struggling with partition. I didn't have EFI in list to format, so just left as is.

[@augustorobles9931]

Very useful video! Thanks from Argentina!

[@WowMoments7]

This is great, thank you!

[@horatioh5469]

good solid advice. thank you.

[@riddick3943]

Very useful, thanks!

[@kamotebanana5747]

thumbs up for the great tutorial👍

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Thank you 👍

[@mcflurrybutts4927]

Thanks, this really help!

[@kornelobajdin5889]

Not using ubuntu, but this helped with nobara manual partition. Its mostly the same, boot efi is fat32 swap is linuxswap and / and /home is ext4. I believe most other distros are similar.

[@sanjumondal1176]

Such a great help!

[@weseehowcommiegoogleis3770]

One of the Best vids on this subject.

[@messaoudkrioua5002]

Thank you very much 😊

[@ColiDog]

Great video. Can you do a video on how to Move the Home partition to a different Hard drive on Linux and shrink or remove the old home partition, please?

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Maybe this will help kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJrFfIZ5jZ1orZY

[@onindoshahadat9801]

all working, thank you

[@naquashv]

Very useful. thank you

[@Rfster900]

Great explanation, clear and to the point. Thank you so much for this video, very helpful. Great work! Thumbs up! 👍

[@chipandrews2892]

Outstanding video...as usual! Thanks....I have a much better understanding and appreciation for G-Parted.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Gparted is fantastic. It saved me so many times: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJrFfIZ5jZ1orZY

[@OnLyStrahl]

You help me so much

[@charlescadogan8504]

Thank you very much. Can you please share how to wipe your Linux system partition to install a different distribution whilst preserving your home data folder?

[@manueljordan317]

Thanks for this video, I read in some tutorials is valid declare the swap partition how the latest, but about in the beginning - just being curious, why the swap partition is not the first partition or the 2nd after of the boot (efi) partition? Thank You

[@mosa8952]

God bless you and your loved ones. Really helpful.

[@mathieuberthalay21]

Thank you for your video

[@domagotchi]

excellent video as usual...just was wondering...if you do a pure Linux install, does a gpt partition scheme need an EFI partition? and a msdos partition scheme doesn't?

[@AverageLinuxUser]

I am not an expert in this question. It depends on your hardware. GPT is part of the UEFI. You can install in legacy and msdos on older hardware, but all the newer hardware will require EFI installation with GTP.

[@manueljordan317]

Thanks again for the video, pls can you do other video but for the server environment? Thanks in advance

[@paoloose]

Thank you! I didn't understand why you did that last step, was it just to "show" that sharing disk space between OS is possible?

[@dustpan1]

Amazing video!

[@billieschultz1352]

Your are awesome. Thank you 😊 ❤️

[@arseinetshipidiay]

Thank you so much.

[@smirnizky]

Дякую Вам за дуже корисну інструкцію! Ви висвітлили декілька таких моментів, про які я раніше не чув у інших мануалах. Здавалося б, що для досвідчених користувачів Лінукс вони прості, проте для новачків варто приділити їм увагу.

[@mabell01]

I enjoy your videos greatly. My question is if you dual-boot linux(I have Debian 11) and windows 10, how do you keep windows from taking over? Windows always makes the system skip the grub screen (where you choose which OS to boot into) and boot into windows. How do you keep that from happening? Thanks again!

[@bryants6938]

One of the way is to change Boot Option from your bios into the linux os.. Linux usually give you an option to which boot you want. Choose the "Windows Manager" (I forgot but i think its the most bottom) for booting the windows os.

[@dayronalfaro9461]

thx man help me a lot

[@abdulrahman4213]

Successfully installed ubuntu, 🙂thank you

[@daniellesmith5950]

What bothers me is I lose the vertical scroll arrows after every update. I prefer these arrows over the scroll wheel of the mouse and using the scrollbar doesn't offer the precision of the scrollbar arrows. Sometimes changing config settings in GTK brings them back only to have them disappear after another update. Currently, nothing has worked and I gave up trying to find a way to get them back and am looking for a desktop that doesn't try to get rid of the scroll arrows.

[@classicguy7813]

The best partition, editor picked by me me meeeeeeeeeeeee

[@jimwinchester339]

Most modern machines come w/ enough RAM that you don't need a swap partition. I've built both kernels from source and GCC itself (whilst playing multiple MPEG files and downloaded a file from a server via my browser, just to show off), and there were only a handful of page faults over the course of about 50 minutes.

[@leisti]

It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. And with the huge size of modern disks and SSD devices, reserving twice the RAM size for a swap partition isn't going to take much of a bite.

[@benjaminjameswaller]

Thanks for this video and info. I am about to create an EFI partition on my Dell but I don't have it as an option in the menu. I only have the following options Ext4, XFS, Btrfs, VFAT and Swap...any advice here would be much appreciated. UPDATE. I went into the BIOS and change the Legacy to UEFI hybrid so that should be fine but after adding the partitions as you mentioned, the dialog menu is greyed out so I can't proceed. I am stuck again...any advice would be appreciated

[@souravroy-etc-2024]

working for today!!!

[@Sunil_KumarDas]

Thanks.

[@Flowxp]

thanks !!! it helped

[@AverageLinuxUser]

You're welcome!

[@sawanpatel6006]

Hey average linux user.. I love your content 🤗 u r amazing😍👍. Can u pls make a video on cents os

[@dipachowdhury343]

Hi, I am having a 160gb HDD. Can I use its full capacity with Linux or is it the same as in windows (149gb usable)? Thanks for your answers.

[@janiceadriana6830]

Very useful video. Cos most tutorial for installing linux using automatic set up.

[@TheModeler99]

what if I am using a legacy BIOS system. Do create a /boot partition instead of efi ?

[@abolfazlkiumarsi6988]

My system is mbr and my Windows has been saying unusable when I want to use free space in the installation and it doesn't allow me to do any partitioning and + _ is inactive, what should I do?

[@ExistentialDawn]

Question in Windows w have 2 partitions C and D where is D partition usually mounted in Linux?

[@iamwatchingthisvid.7682]

how about if I completely switch to garuda linux on my 256gb ssd and i have my 1tb hdd as a backup and game drive... not a dual boot but a linux only system?

[@modifiedlandfish]

thank u

[@roshanhapuarachchi333]

I did a right click and drag on the soft roll, now if I click Play the position clock starts but my ti cursor does not move and I cant

[@jojo-nu9rl]

I have dual boot my computer with kali Linux and Windows... now im not getting option for boot in either one it's directly boot windows if I selected efi in boot menu and for Linux legacy... how to fix it? Help

[@maxjuhtanovs5863]

Where do you get the Ubuntu Installer in the first place?

[@noahark4832]

What is the difference between the efi and /boot partition?

[@drmarioschannel]

Thank you. In creating partitions I messed up grub. Is there a tech support service I can contact?

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Re-install Grub from a Live USB. There are plenty of tutorials on this topic. No tech support service, sorry.

[@ibrahimakindydiallo3226]

You're a legend ❤

[@Uchiha_Madara1224]

Hey Alu nice informative video. I have some queries 1. Is your partition sequence/order which is efi-root-home-swap mandatory, I mean can't i use first efi part second swap third root and fourth home ( efi-swap-root-home) so as I can allocate the max space available for the home partition 2. Can I mix and match partition file systems say I set Root partition be BTRFS and Home partition as EXT4 so as to use some tools like timeshift/snapper for auto backup while updating any packages or it can either be EXT4 or BTRFS only, not both at the same time. 3. Say my Linux setup is with HDD/SSD of 100GB of which - 1GB is EFI ; 19GB of Swap ; 30GB Root ; 50GB Home . Suppose in future I add an extra HDD/SSD of 240GB to my system, can I increase the size of Home partition from 50GB to 290GB(50+240 GB) from the additional space from the newly added HDD/SSD in the system 4. Can I make manual partitioned Linux installation with 2 SSD (100 +100 GB) be like 1st SSD be only for EFI Swap and Root while the second for Home. Which partition tabel should be used msdos,gpt or other like you mentioned In all 4 cases UEFI is used

[@ordinarryalien]

19 GB swap?! You can create a swap as much as your ram, but if you got 8 GB ram or more, then 2 GB swap is enough. I use 2 GB swap space on my laptop (a laptop from 2005 with 1 GB ram). I didn't encounter any problems. When I check the swap usage, it doesn't even use all of it. You don't really need more than 1-2 GB swap these days. Telling people to create huge swap partitions is an ancient recommendation. Also, having too much swap is an issue. It's often better to have the memory-hogging process be killed right away when you run out of memory, rather than having the entire system slow to an unusable level when it starts spending all its time marshalling data in and out of swap.

[@Uchiha_Madara1224]

@@ordinarryalien for hibernation saw in some post

[@treyquattro]

@@ordinarryalien it depends on your RAM usage. I have 16GB RAM on a laptop and 40GB swap space (8GB partition + 32GB file) and I am currently using half the swap space for a total memory usage of 36GB. Figuring out this stuff ahead of time is one of the trickier aspects of installing Linux and why I ended up with insufficient swap partition: it was what was recommended when I first installed.

[@ordinarryalien]

@@Uchiha_Madara1224 Oh, okay. That makes sense.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

1. You can. But note that the first partitions are accessed faster. If you never use swap, efi-swap-root-home will not be wise. 2. yes, you can. For example, I used to have a data partition for huge files with XFS. Honestly, I did not see the difference from ext4 but it felt nice to be able to configure your system perfectly for my needs. Now, I just use ext4 for everything and do not bother 🙂 3. 1GB EFI is a lot. 100-300M is enough. No, you won't't be able to join than into one partion. The way to join two hard drives into /home, is to format your new 240GB drive as another partition. Add it to /etc/fstab to mount on the boot. Create some folders on it and symlink them to /home kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJynf3WYpcupj8k You may also need to change the permission of these folders to a regular user. 4. Yes, you can.

[@MelvilleG]

I wonder if after an optimal partitioning Linux will acces the drive faster than Windows. Because I have tried some of the recommended setups and felt no significant improvement. Maybe that's because I am still a Linux noob or maybe it depends on the drive type too?

[@AverageLinuxUser]

I am not sure if it is true. But in old times when I used to dual-boot Linux and Windows, my linux did not work as well as when I installed Linux only. Probably, the complex partition setup with dual-boot causes some problems, while only linux install with /, /home, swap works much better.

[@gozzilla78]

Thank you for the tutorial. So, with a 32GB ram box do I really need a 32GB swap partition?

[@gozzilla78]

@Gideon Pioneer yeah, that's what I did in fact -- no swap. thanks!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

It depends. On my work computer, I have 32G RAM and 64G swap. This is because I run jobs on it that can consume an enormous amount of RAM. At home, I have 16G of RAM and I do not run heavy program. So, I just use 2G of swap file. Also, I only put my computer to sleep and never hibernate. If you want to Hibernate (what I do not recommend because it often doesn't work correctly), then you need 32G swap or more. If you are not sure, create a swap file of a few Gb kzbin.info/www/bejne/op3FfWmthMiZpas If you see that it is not enough, delete that swap file and create a new larger one.

[@selcuksen8199]

Hello guys, I suggest you to setup dual boot configuration on 2 separate disks unless you wanna experience future possible headache due to bootloading conflicts.

[@hritikbatra6988]

2:08 What do you mean when you say this installation is on efi hardware?

[@gautamchawda691]

I got an error "an attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the media failed"

[@dimaclever4859]

5:48 Загрузчик куда по умолчанию установлен будет, в sda1 _efi_ или в sda2 "/" ?

[@rohan_bhateja]

any guide for pop os

[@rossphillipgerard]

I do not have the "Installation type" step as an option!?

[@johnalfredkonig8490]

Hey! I wondered where you were

[@alantan157]

If i want my ssd to boot on two different motherboard, 1st mobo is UEFI boot, 2nd mobo is Legacy/mbr boot. Should i add /boot partition with ext4 format?

[@shafi123]

fat32

[@unclejoseph8397]

Дякую друже! Ввів запит і приємно здивувався, що відео від земляка має найбільше переглядів (79тис), зроблю все можливе від мене щоб і лайків побільшало. Ще раз щиро вдячний!!!

[@debian2397]

Which method is better with VirtualBox?

[@watchmanmichael2023]

😊👍

[@ThanHtutZaw3]

I have C drive( window 10) and D drive( Data) I want to delete win 10 and install Linux on my C drive. How can I do that ?

[@Eduardo-be6uy]

Tks for the video, about the swap, I have 8Gb ... do I really need a swap? How much swap I need? I thinking to install gnome debian.... greetings from Mexico

[@treyquattro]

yes you will need a swap file or partition unless you don't load your memory with programs (I do). I had 8GB RAM and initially created an 8GB swap partition. It wasn't sufficient. The only time I've crashed Linux was when I ran out of swap space! I subsequently added a 32GB swap file for 40GB total swap space. I've seen half of my swap space get used. I do tend to load many, many browser tabs and sessions, plus other programs simultaneously. Linux handles it all well, but it needs the swap space. I've since added 8GB RAM but it's still not enough and the swap file/parititon is a necessity. I think if I reinstalled I'd try for the full 40GB swap partition (1TB SSD)

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Everything depends on your use case. 8Gb is minimum I recommend. If you are not sure, create a swap file of 8G kzbin.info/www/bejne/op3FfWmthMiZpas Then use your computer for a few days and check if you use swap and how much. Use the system monitor or the command 'free' in the terminal. If you see that your swap is constantly in use and you need to hibernate, delete the 8G swap file and create a new larger one.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

I have 16G ram and my system seldom write into swap. I only use Sleep and never Hibernate.

[@dt8179]

I need help please SGX DISABLED BY bios what can I do?

[@newdev76]

what you recommend for a optimised partitioning ssd+hdd setup?

[@jimmyo68]

My question is very similar. What size do you recommend for root and home in my scenario? I have a Lenovo with 12 GB ram with a 250 GB Samsung SSD and 1 TB HDD. I run Linux Mint 20.1 with Windows 10 VM in Virtualbox. I started with a 15 GB root and it started to fill up after loading a couple of apps like Gimp, etc? I was able to expand a little bit by deleting and rebuilding swap space at end of hdd. Sounds like I should double root size to 30 or 40 GB.

[@ricardourias4943]

Use ssd for root (/) and boot (/boot or /boot/efi) Partition and hdd for home (/home) partition

[@treyquattro]

don't put your swap partition on the SSD if you can avoid it - increased SSD writes while swapping will reduce the life of your SSD. My current (laptop) setup is SSD only and isn't optimal. Ideally have more RAM than you use and don't have a swap partition or swap file!

[@hb9145]

@@treyquattro With 12 GB of RAM, it will swap very little, if at all. However, writing Swap to HDD will slow the system down to a crawl when writing to it. Bad idea.

[@treyquattro]

​@@hb9145 I have 16GB physical RAM on my Linux machine and 40GB swap space. Yesterday I had 20GB swap in use. Swap is there to extend RAM virtually. All operating systems supporting virtual memory work the same way (Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD, ...) The system will use as much as it requires. Saying "With 12 GB of RAM, it will swap very little" is very ill-informed, as is " writing Swap to HDD will slow the system down to a crawl when writing to it". All systems use virtual memory via swap file or partition. The only time a system will "slow ... to a crawl" is if thrashing is happening - because your swap space is insufficient. Makes me think you don't know what you're talking about.

[@soniaouizi5723]

I don't have efi option what can I do ???

[@nariharicreations]

other desktop soft making software have more features and you can do much more than you can on mobile but the user interface in

[@superbin6021]

Root partition is super important. 28gb never enough for computer science package installation.

[@nandpatil]

is this lvm partition?

[@tutdo.s6688]

Hi, my PC doesn't have UEFI, it uses BIOS. Can you explain how I should go about?

[@DilbertCronicles]

Use MBR partition table instead of GPT. UEFI requires GPT partition whilst BIOS requires MBR partition.

[@shiyashashim7225]

Please made a video to how to make a linux server so that client machines can login to the server

[@AverageLinuxUser]

How about this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXWZpYWVZbmisLM