Partitioning with Linux

[One Who Watches]

I have honestly searched the site for this, as well as Google. However I have not found concrete information that I could apply to my situation.

When installing a Linux OS. I have read from manuals and online that it is a good idea to partition the OS in several different partitions. I have read that you should partition a SWAP partition about twice the size of your RAM. Not only this, but you should(for better performance), make two separate partitions equaling twice the amount of your RAM.

I have read to make a small partition for your root, so you can update your kernal quickly and easily. That you should make various other partitions to optimize Linux.

These sources say, "It is a good idea to make several partitions so one corrupted partition will only affect a small area, updating your kernel will not affect your data, etc., etc., etc.

I'm new to this. I take it that this makes sense, cause it does to me, but I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind it. I know what to do with the swap partition for my system, but that's about it....

How much space for which partition?? Which partitions to create??

I have 37GB partition. I have SuSE 8.2 Prof. I have 1024MB of RAM.

Please, any information about where I could locate a DETAILED tutorial on the rational and functionality, or your own personal opinion with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Watcher

[rcgreen]

If it is a personal computer, not professional, multi-user, or a server,
there's no reason you can't run just one partition, plus a swap.

The default install on many distributions will create a small partition,
mounted at /root, for the kernel and a few related items. This is for
historical reasons. Some older machines were very touchy about
where the kernel was stored (below cylinder 1023).

One partition is fine until you form your own opinions about other
possible arrangements. Later, after you have built your third or fourth
linux system, you may have reasons to create several partitions, but
there are as many different theories as there are linux gurus.

[lumpyporridge]

You have pretty much answered your own question with ""It is a good idea to make several partitions so one corrupted partition will only affect a small area, updating your kernel will not affect your data" You can have as many or few partitions as you want if you are just playing around or don't care if things get screwed you could have 1 big partition (windows is that way) .I believe it is recommeded to have 2x your ram as swap because the kernel is tuned to that amount , but with 1024 your system is not going to be swapping very often.It comes down to personal preference and needs. if you are running a server you will want a lot of room in /var for your logs , you may want +800mb for your /tmp so when you make iso images to burn cd/vcds you have enough room to keep them there. By having multiple partitions you mostly eliminate fragmentation , /var and /tmp get written to often where as / does not. You can have your swap on the outer edge of the disk so therefore it is read faster , back up is made easier too, if i want all my personal stuff backed up i just dump my /home partition if after years my /home gets fragmented badly i can dump it to another disk or to extra space and then back and it is clean again.