Plz help with linux partition sizing and arrangement

[slimbim]

Hello.
I am about to install Linux so I can learn.
I have a 30 gig drive. Am going to install Mandrake 8.1.
I heard that it's not that good to just have one big partition. So I was wondering if anyone can give me any guidelines on how to separate my partitions, for like /home, /usr, etc ( I don't even know what those things are yet). And if I wanted to upgrade to future versions of linux without losing my own data and programs or freshly installing everything.

So...

30 Gig Drive. 256 RAM. Linux Mandrake 8.1
I need to know how much space I should assign to each partition.

Thanks a bunch everyone.

[brandt_82]

Ok, since you sound pretty new to this stuff, get Partition Magic 5, 6 or 7. You'll want to create another partition (at least 5gig) and it must be an ext2 filesystem (used for linux)...Then after you create that, make a boot disk (very easy to do in mandrake 8.1)...Put your boot disk in and reboot and just read the directions. If you have more problems, email me wbd104@psu.edu and I can help you out.

[Statica]

Are you multi-booting with any other OS?

Just a few clarifications. You do NOT need Partition Magic or any other 3rd party software to install Mandrake either by itself or with any other operating system. Check out the discussions and recommendations put in:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=21428

A lot of what goes into efficient partitioning is dependant on what you will be doing with your system.
There is no better source of information than from the Linux Documentation Project. Check out: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/P...rtition-4.html

Incidentally brandt_82, using a 3rd party software to create partitions is a BAD idea. A better idea is to reserve (or resize) partition space and let the respective OS create the requisite partitions. The scope of a partition magic is very limited in terms of the support to filesystems, and to the versions. For example if a person were to use an older version of PM, the filesystems it can support are limited.

[slimbim]

Thanks guys.

I just partitioned as below:
/ - 5 gig
swap - 512 MB
/home - rest of HDD

i think it will do for now since I am just trying to learn.

thanks.