How to partition Compaq hard drive for Puppy install?

Booting, installing, newbie
Message
Author
backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#21 Post by backpages »

SS1
Last edited by backpages on Tue 26 Sep 2006, 16:09, edited 1 time in total.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#22 Post by backpages »

SS2
Last edited by backpages on Tue 26 Sep 2006, 16:06, edited 2 times in total.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#23 Post by backpages »

SS3
Last edited by backpages on Tue 26 Sep 2006, 16:06, edited 2 times in total.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#24 Post by backpages »

SS4
Last edited by backpages on Tue 26 Sep 2006, 16:07, edited 2 times in total.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#25 Post by backpages »

SS5
Last edited by backpages on Tue 26 Sep 2006, 16:07, edited 2 times in total.

SnowDog
Posts: 312
Joined: Thu 05 Jan 2006, 19:24
Location: Manitoba Canada
Contact:

#26 Post by SnowDog »

Looks like the 7.x Mb space, in this case at least, is just that.. space. It undoubtedly used to contain, a HP restore file.
The hda1 partition is there, but has an unknown filesystem.
No problem.
You can just delete hda1, then start from scratch, creating whatever you want.
If you find my posts helpful and you want to say thanks, please consider clicking the www button under my posts to visit my website.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

hda1 information

#27 Post by backpages »

Well, that is good news! Not unlike what I expected to hear, from everything I was able to dig through while running that laptop, it didn't look like there was anything there to me either. But i'm a rookie (with pc's), so one or more experienced evaluations were necessary. Time to start partitioning!

I don't know, what is the difference between a duck?

SnowDog
Posts: 312
Joined: Thu 05 Jan 2006, 19:24
Location: Manitoba Canada
Contact:

#28 Post by SnowDog »

It is my absolute pleasure, to be able to help in such a little way, once in a while.

You, or anyone else for that matter... (with the possible exception of those who act like they need their diaper changed, when given advice that they don't like), please feel free to contact me anytime, about making Puppy the "exclusive" operating system on anything. If I don't know the answer directly, (which I usually don't, but I might have the same hardware), I might know someone who does.

re: "what's the difference between a duck?"
Oddly enough, I'm told that it is a Lobster.... :?

Hope you enjoy using the worlds greatest operating system.
If you find my posts helpful and you want to say thanks, please consider clicking the www button under my posts to visit my website.

backpages
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu 04 Aug 2005, 22:37

#29 Post by backpages »

Greetings! Thanks to all for the input (again). Coming soon; What the problem was, what the equipment is, what my goals are, and what happened during the partitioning of the main HD of the laptop.

CatmanDru
Posts: 90
Joined: Thu 07 Sep 2006, 21:35
Location: OR, USA

#30 Post by CatmanDru »

If this is better placed in a new thread, then I will do so.

However, crucial to his next step, Backpages earlier requested recommendations for partition structure or organization. For example, allowing for a Puppy, a swap, a data partition, and a few extra partitions for other OS's, programing and testing, what are some recomended partition structures?

FBrands made one recommendation (see above):
"I would do it this way;

1st part - 256Meg, swap, .........................hd0,0/hda1
2nd part - 2Gig, resier, for puppy, ............hd0,1/hda2
3rd part - rest of hd, reiser, data storage, .hd0,2/hda3

This way when you use the installer, at the end Grub is installed correctly in auto mode on the MBR of HD0 and the Grub files will be in hda2/boot/grub ....
You can always mount hda3 after boot, and store whatever you want on it.
"

Im also interested in partitioning structure, and therefore could learn from any recommendations others may post.

You may want a mix of filesystem types because some older OS's (BL1, BL2, and earlier Slackware) will require ext2 or ext3, however when this is not needed it would be better to take advantage of the benefits of ext3 or reiser. If you wish to experiment with DOS or Microsoft or its compatible products then you may wish to have a fat16, fat32 or ntfs filesystem type on a partition. Or you may wish to keep your drive free of M$ compatibility and its compatible malware.

In addition to various filesystem types, you may wish to have partitions which differ in size so that you can run a program or an OS in a partition appropriate for its size and thereby make the best use of both your HD space as well as the number of partitions you'll be able to make.

My Puppy 1.09's MUT recognizes only 10 partitions of a secondary 120G HD (there are partitions that it doesnt recognize) so 10 or maybe 9 may be the upper limit of partitions for 1.09. Your puppy version may be different.

Swap partition size is generally recommended to be equal to ram quantity. Try to place your swap partition in the 'fastest' part of your drive. I think this may depend on the age (and thus drive geometry -- the location of magnetic charges) of your HD.

My questions may also aid Backpages or others:

1) Generally, is the 'fastest' (combination of access and read times *) part of the hard drive at the a) 'end' (i.e. toward the center of the platters) or at the b)'beginning' of the hard drive (i.e. toward the outside rim of the platters)?

c) Is this true for older **(1G -30G) as well as newer HDs?

2) What is the upper limit for the number of partions recognized by Puppy 2.xx ?

Backpages, please remember that creating partitions does not create formatting. However, Puppy's installation will format 'its' partition.

Thanx for any input.

CatmanDru

*real terms are access time and data transfer rate :)
**I have or use 2, 3.4, 6, 10, 20 & 30Gb HDs.
Last edited by CatmanDru on Fri 29 Sep 2006, 05:13, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#31 Post by Flash »

CatmanDru wrote:...My questions may also aid Backpages or others:

1) Generally, is the 'fastest' (combination of access and read times) part of the hard drive at the a) 'end' (i.e. toward the center of the platters) or at the b)'beginning' of the hard drive (i.e. toward the outside rim of the platters)?

c) Is this true for older (1G -30G) as well as newer HDs?

2) What is the upper limit for the number of partions recognized by Puppy 2.xx ?

Backpages, please remember that creating partitions does not create formatting. However, Puppy's installation will format 'its' partition.

Thanx for any input.

CatmanDru
  • 1. Here's what I've read: hard disk drives begin writing at the outside of the disk and move inward, so the first partition on the hard disk drive will be at the outside of the disk. The boot sector, which contains the MBR, being the first sector on the disk, is at the extreme outside rim of the disk. Data transfer rates are fastest when reading from the outside of any hard disk. It is for this reason that it is usually recommended to make the swap partition the first partition on the hard drive. However, transfer rates are only part of the whole access time number, so it probably won't make much measurable difference where you put the swap partition. See here for more details. I haven't seen anything to indicate that this is not true for all hard drives.
    2. I have no idea. :lol:

marksouth2000
Posts: 622
Joined: Wed 05 Apr 2006, 20:43

#32 Post by marksouth2000 »

Flash wrote: It is for this reason that it is usually recommended to make the swap partition the first partition on the hard drive. However, transfer rates are only part of the whole access time number, so it probably won't make much measurable difference where you put the swap partition.
Putting swap at the rim gives the fastest transfer times and the maximal average seek times for swap use. If you only occasionally swap large-ish files, that's the best solution. If you swap small amounts of data regularly, it's suboptimal, and having smaller swap partitions distributed across the disk platter will be quicker because of the reduced seek times.

The best is to do what you do and have so much mem that the system never swaps, although that approach is application-limited, and quite expensive. Swap is several orders of magnitude cheaper than RAM.

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#33 Post by Sage »

It's a lot more complicated than that, especially since LBA translation was introduced, making tracks appear continuous (ie even if they are not).
The standard protocol is to make the OS booting tracks first in line (hda0 in Linux, C:\ in 'doze) and a swap partition next (hda1 in Linux; 'doze uses swap files intermingled with OS partition free-space - recipe for disaster!). However, not all distros observe these rather loose philosophies and the big distros have their own ways of creating default partitioning.
Just to confuse everyone, I believe optical drives write from the inside first in a single continuous track?! Not sure how DL discs are treated.

Pence
Posts: 200
Joined: Sat 30 Jul 2005, 13:27

#34 Post by Pence »

Puppy has some information about Disk label. Click Menu=>Control Panel=>GParted partition manager=>Device=>Set Disk Label.

Post Reply