I have 2 primary partitions installed: 100MB system reserved (NTFS) and 230GB Windows (NTFS).
Can I make a linux /home partition so that different distros can point at it and use it's files? And will it also make backing up my files easier?
And what is the purpose of a /boot? I was told "The reason for a separate boot is if you're encrypting all of the rest of your system, you will need someplace to boot to temporarily where you can give your credentials to decrypt the root partition." Is this so? What are other reasons to create a /boot?
I'm thinking all I will need is a /, /home and a swap? I have 4GB of RAM and 230GB of free space; I'm thinking I will leave a little unallocated space in case I want to install another (non linux) operating system (maybe 32 GB or so).
I think I will make an 8GB swap as I might add 4GB more RAM, I'm just not sure how large to make / relative to /home? What are the factors the influence that? What are your recommendations?
Best Answer
This Lifehacker tutorial suggests that a separate swap partition may be unnecessary. But you may want a "storage" partition for documents and files that you want to access in both OS.