Planning is needed when choosing a partitioning scheme and a tool to create such partitions on a hard drive disk.

Windows Partitions

In general, it is desirable to use Windows tools when formatting Windows partitions, but most current partition managers (such as GParted) are able to format the filesystem (NTFS or FAT32) in the partition correctly.

Linux and Mac partitions

Install Windows in a primary partition

Why use multiple partitions?

This is especially useful when certain applications are able to be used by multiple operating systems. A groupware application (such as Kolab), for example, can be placed in its own partition and be used by whichever operating system is booted. It can stay consistent and independent, even when one or more operating systems update themselves. It can then be updated independently of any particular operating system update and in fact be excluded from "automatic updates" by certain operating systems.

The linux filesystem can use a separate mount point for any directory, even if the directory exists in its own partition. Here are some examples of directories that are often given their own mount points (often in their own partitions):

Arguments against partitioning

Choosing a filesystem for a data partition

If you need a 'universally writable' drive so that Win, Mac, and *nix operating systems can share files, consider these issues:

Other resources


CategoryInstallation

Partitioning issues (last edited 2017-09-02 19:42:00 by ckimes)