Author Topic: Partitioning Recommendations  (Read 4422 times)

Kevin Nunn

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Partitioning Recommendations
« on: December 14, 2019, 01:39:00 am »
Hi,

I currently have ArcaOS running on an HP desktop with 500gb drive partitioned 100gb C drive, 400gb D drive. The C partition is the boot partition along with programs. And the D partition dedicated to my BBS, all related programs and data is stored on the D drive.

I recently found a 64gb SATA SSD that I had laying around since it was useless for any current windows install. And it (finally) dawned on me that I might could use it for ArcaOS. So, I have a HP desktop exactly the same as the one I am currently using, except it currently has a 1tb drive in it. My plan is to replace the 1tb drive with the 64gb SSD and a 500gb HD. If I can get that working smoothly, then I'll move the BBS over to the new system.

As for partitioning, I am looking for input. I plan to use a scheme similar to one of those found on https://88watts.net/disklayout.html . I like the idea of having a dedicated boot partition and program partition. And then adding another partition for the BBS, which would need to be D: so I don't have to change all my configs for the assorted BBS programs.

Some questions:

The website recommends a 2gb boot partition, which I am sure would be enough, but with the amount of drive space available, I figured I could up that just a bit for extra room. But still staying under 10gb. Should I stay at 2gb or does it really matter?

How do I setup a maintenance partition, do I just do another install on that partition? Never done anything like that but it sounds like it could be a life saver.

My initial thoughts are as follows:
8gb HPFS Boot (main)
2gb HPFS Boot (maintenance)
54gb JFS "E" (OS2 Program Drive)

And then the 500gb HD setup as "D" for the BBS and related files.

Open to thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks!

Kev

Dariusz Piatkowski

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Re: Partitioning Recommendations
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2019, 03:19:16 am »
Hi Kev,

Well, I can not provide any hands-on feedback on the proposed layout (all of my stuff is dumped onto a single drive, this is due to historical reasons as my OS/2 install has gone un-reinstalled since literally the days of the original install, as in Warp3).

However, as applicable to the following hardware configuration of 3 storage drives: SSD 250G, HDD1 280G, HDD2 475G, I will say the following:
1) I do have my main OS/2 partition on the SSD drive, that also has a small 55M maintenance pertition, all of this is mirrored on HDD1

2) leftover space on HDD1 is a 'scratch' area...basically storage dumping ground...LOL, stuff I need to toss somewhere that for whatever reason I do not want on my main OS/2 boot drive

3) all of HDD2 is basically a DATA_STORE, meaning things like ISO files, etc.

This is all running JFS, HPFS only exists on a 4G ramdrive (which is the temp space while OS/2 has booted and is running, fast).

If I had to do it all over again, here is what I would do:
1) size up the MAINT partition to give me a runable WPS environment
2) separate the OS partition as per the recommendations you covered
3) build a separate partition that's for programs
4) possibly build a separate partition that's for data

#3 & #4 could go on the same partition, it really depends on how much data movement we are talking about, size of datasets, etc., each configuration will be unqiue.

I use a nifty little utility to build the MAINT partition with, it's called BOOTOS2 and you can find it here => http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-viewer.php?dir=/pub/os2/util/system&file=bootos2.zip&backto=%2Fh-search.php%3Fkey%3Dbootos2%26pushbutton%3DSearch.

EDIT
====
Oh...almost forgot, it totally makes sense these days to simply build yourself a bootable USB stick which basically becomes your MAINT partition. I haven't gotten around to doing just that, but that'll probably be my very next project...best to be ready in case the SDD or HDDx take a dump on ya!
« Last Edit: December 14, 2019, 03:22:21 am by Dariusz Piatkowski »

ivan

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Re: Partitioning Recommendations
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2019, 11:59:30 am »
Hi Kevin,

The attached screen grab is of my standard disk layout.  Like Dariusz it evolved from the days of Warp 3.  The 2GB boot partition is half empty space, the tools are literally that but do include the 'temp' dir and e-mail program with stored e-mails from 1999, the others should be self explanatory.  I expect your BBS would fit on D without problems.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: Partitioning Recommendations
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2019, 03:00:04 pm »
I don't think there is a best partitioning scheme for everyone. I build systems for people, and for me the following works best.

X: 1.75 GB FAT16 Maint - the ArcaOS installer environment, modified to run maintenance programs
C: 10 GB JFS  ArcaOS and programs
J:  10 GB JFS  ArcaOS and programs
K:  10 GB JFS  ArcaOS and programs
P:  10 GB JFS  ArcaOS and programs
D: 1948 GB Data

I have 4 ArcaOS partitions because I experiment a lot. The Home directory is on each boot drive, but Home data points to various places on the D: drive. UNIXROOT is on the boot drive as well.

The D: drive is mirrored using rsync onto one or more backup computers, and also onto two external drives that may be off-site. Backups of the ArcaOS boot drives are on the D: drive.

I also have a modified ArcaOS installer on a USB thumb drive

O: 1.75 GB ArcaOS installer
U: (rest of USB stick disk space) Stick Data
Expert consulting for ArcaOS, OS/2 and eComStation
http://www.blondeguy.com

Kevin Nunn

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Re: Partitioning Recommendations
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2019, 04:59:53 pm »
Thanks everyone for the replies! I do appreciate the input. I've never used DFSee before, that looks like a useful program.

I am doing an install now to test the system and see how it works. Then I will finalize how do to the partitions and re-install.

Kev