Topic: Partitioning a big HD under Linux...

[newscane]

I recently acquired an old P3 450 from my parents, and I'm using it as a storage server.  I have a SATA card, and just got a 500 GB Western Digital drive to go along with it.  I already have an 8 gig IDE drive that has Ubuntu installed on it.  I'm debating whether I should split the new drive into 2 (or more?) partitions, or just leave it in one big partition.  I was planning to mount this drive at /u/ or something like that.  Thoughts?

[rdfager]

What are you planning to use the drive for?  I assume it's storage as part of the storage server but is it all the same kind of storage, like a whole lot of music, or will you have multiple uses for it?  If it's going to serve a single purpose I'd make it one large partition.  Personally, I have a couple of storage servers like this, one for music and one for video.  I have the OS on separate partitions but keep the storage on a single file system.  It seems easier to know where things are that way.

I'd recommend using LVM for anything like this.  This makes adding additional space much smoother.  The filesystem is built on a volume and you can add new devices to grow the volume.  500GB may seem like a good amount now but it will fill up.

[newscane]

What are you planning to use the drive for?  I assume it's storage as part of the storage server but is it all the same kind of storage, like a whole lot of music, or will you have multiple uses for it?  If it's going to serve a single purpose I'd make it one large partition.  Personally, I have a couple of storage servers like this, one for music and one for video.  I have the OS on separate partitions but keep the storage on a single file system.  It seems easier to know where things are that way.

I'd recommend using LVM for anything like this.  This makes adding additional space much smoother.  The filesystem is built on a volume and you can add new devices to grow the volume.  500GB may seem like a good amount now but it will fill up.

I expect that it will primarily be music.  I'm using LVM on the other drive in this box.  Right now, it's going through a low-level format.  I'm having issues booting Linux, now that this drive is in.  I'm hoping I just need to go in and set something with boot order, perhaps.  The drive with the OS is a straight IDE drive, on a separate controller card, and BIOS is still seeing it.

[SmokinJoe]

Windows folks use P3's for door stops.  We add big drives and use them as servers    My ftp server is a Pentium 166.  It works.

[newscane]

Windows folks use P3's for door stops.  We add big drives and use them as servers    My ftp server is a Pentium 166.  It works.

Back in 1997 or 1998, my uncle had a computer that was "dead".  He gave it to me.  It was a P120 with 64 MB of ram (roughly the same power as my laptop).  It turned out that the 810 MB IDE drive w/ Windows on it had died.  But there was a 4 GB SCSI drive that was working perfectly!  I piddled with it in college, with Debian on it.  I actually set it up as a "router" -- ran my ethernet connection from the wall into that, and then from the computer into my laptop.  Now I use it as a "staging server" for websites I build -- I ssh into it from this computer, code, and upload to my web host.  Works pretty well!  I'm planning to leave all of the web stuff on there... it handles it just fine, and I don't want to bother with transferring everything.

My laptop from college died about a year after I graduated.  I got this computer, and a few years later, bought a HD for the laptop on ebay for $20.  Put Linux on it, and it worked enough for me to take on trips where I wanted internet access   I even got wifi working, which was a real chore w/ the card I had.  Currently it's giving me some major issues, and every time I open it up, it seems the case cracks get larger, but I haven't given up hope just yet...