Partitioning question...

[DGath]

I'm building a new system later today and I'm wondering how I should partition it. I have a 120 gb WD and an 80 gb Maxtor, both 7200. Rather than just simply doing what I have do now and use the 120gb as the master and the 80gb as storage, is there any other way that I should do it to optimize the system better? I'm thinking the only advantage would just be that the files won't fragment as fast, but is there any other advantage to doing say....
- 20 gb for XP, Program Files, My Documents
- 20 gb for Linux
- 20 gb for MP3's (Yes I will use that up)
- 30 gb for Games
- 110 for other storage, mostly captured TV, movies, and other big files (ISO's etc...)

Would you reccomend doing that? Also... which should I have as my master, the 80 or the 120? Both are 7200 ATA 100, and I think they're both the same noise level, though I think the WD is quieter, but it's hard to tell. Speed-wise is it better to put it on the smaller HDD or the larger HDD, though I think since they're both massive there won't be much difference.

For the Linux users out there, here's another question... inside that 20gb partition, how should I partition that one? This will be my first time using Linux (RH9).

Basically, if you had this setup, how would you do it?

Thanks

 

[bcterps]

I'm gonna assume that both of the drives have the same amount of cache (2mb or 8mb). It's not really going to make much of a difference with drive you boot the OS off of. I would make a smaller OS partition, say 7 gigs, and have a separate partition for installed programs, and then have another partition for personal files.

I'd keep the OS partition as basic as possible, basically more or less a bare install. That way if your system partition gets hosed, you can still grab the your personal files, and installed program settings from your other partitions and just wipe the system partition and start over.

The way you have it set up now, if your system partition dies, you'll lose all of your personal files as well.