|
|
45.
|
|
|
Partitioning a disk is only the beginning. Once the disk has been divided up, those partitions need to be formatted so that the operating system can place files on the disk in a structured manner. There are many different filesystem types, each with their own advantages. With Microsoft Windows the two main filesystems are FAT (File Allocation Table) and NTFS (New Technology File System). With Ubuntu there are many options including ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs and many others. The Ubuntu installer chooses ext3 by default, but of course it is possible to override this.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:118(para)
|
|
|
47.
|
|
|
ext3 is a great general purpose journalling filesystem. It handles most tasks well however, xfs is sometimes chosen instead on media-centre systems as it performs better when handling very large files - such as music and video files.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:132(para)
|
|
|
49.
|
|
|
A mount point is a place in the directory hierarchy where a filesystem could be presented. There is no real Microsoft Windows equivalent to this. With Microsoft Windows the partitions C:, D: and so on, are seen as entirely separate entities so the operating system, applications and data is often referred to by a user as being "on the C: drive" or "in a folder on the D: drive".
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:141(para)
|
|
|
51.
|
|
|
On Ubuntu, files and folders reside within a partition as they do with Microsoft Windows. However the partition is not normally referenced directly by the user. The user would typically say that files are "in my home directory" (when referring to /home/< username>), or "in the root directory" (when referring to / ) without specifying which partition on the disk those directories reside in.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:158(para)
|
|
|
52.
|
|
|
Under most standard installations of Ubuntu there will be only one partition where all files and folders reside. However if a user plugs in an external USB-connected memory stick or USB hard disk, Ubuntu will mount the partition(s) on that device under mount point(s) within the directory tree. For example a USB attached memory stick or hard disk will usually appear under /media/disk (unless the device has partitions which are labelled, in which case they will appear under /media/<labelname> )
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:165(para)
|
|
|
54.
|
|
|
As previously mentioned, resizing partitions is not a trivial task. Under most circumstances it requires that all filesystems involved are unmounted, this means they must not be in use. Typically then to resize partitions the system should be booted to an unused filesystem - such as a bootable Live CD. Considerable thought should therefor be given before partitioning a disk with regards to the number and sizes of partitions to be created to prevent later unnecessary resizing.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:177(para)
|
|
|
56.
|
|
|
You may run out of hard drive space in your home partition due to the sub-division of the drive into fixed-size partitions. This may occur even if the other partitions have plenty of usable space. Good and logical partitioning requires you to predict how much space each partition needs.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:189(para)
|
|
|
61.
|
|
|
/var: This directory contains variable data, such as news chapters, e-mails, Web sites, databases and the packaging system cache. The size of this directory also depends on system usage. Most probably, the size of this directory would be dictated by your usage of the Ubuntu package management utilities. If you plan to install all the packages that Ubuntu offers, you need to allocate 2 to 3 GB of space for the /var directory. However, if you want to save hard disk space and do not plan any major software updates, you can get by with as little as 30- or 40-MB disk space for the /var directory.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:233(para)
|
|
|
67.
|
|
|
As mentioned earlier, multiple partitions are very useful especially in cases where a partition is corrupted, as it enables you to boot into GNU/Linux to fix the system, without having to reinstall the system. To do this, a root partition is required. This partition should contain the essential components of the system.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:275(para)
|
|
|
68.
|
|
|
The hard disk drive that you are formatting should not contain any data. If you have already formatted the drive and it contains data, skip the partitioning step and move to the next step - mounting.
|
|
|
|
|
(no translation yet)
|
|
|
|
Located in
chapter10/xinclude.xml:284(para)
|
