Robert Yu schreef: > Thanks for the reply. I just want to know, how do you divide your hard > drive space in Linux? Should I even make a separate partition for > Windows programs at all? > I'm not sure if you wanted this to go to the list as well (it came only to me; remember to use "Reply all" to include the list in the reply recipients), but since it's a question that someone else might wonder about too, I'm answering to the list. Hope that's OK. The short answer would have to be, "That depends"... mostly on 1) whether or not you're dual-booting with Windows and 2) what kind of applications you intend to run with Wine. Obviously, if you are dual-booting, having a separate (FAT32) partition of Windows applications is convenient in that it means you can limit the drive use by having only one install directory for the same application. You may have to *install* said application twice (once under Windows, and once under Wine, although even this is often not necessary as quite a few applications will run without specific installation under Wine), but it will not take up twice the space, since you're installing it to the same "physical" location. In terms of what kinds of applications you're running, the concerns are again often space-related. In this case, it is often vastly more useful to have a separate partition for Windows-based data *created* by programs, rather than for the programs themselves. For example, I run a lot of games under Wine, and let's pretend I also run Office. Now, I know how much space the games and Office take up to install. So if I know that I already have enough space on whatever drive contains my /home folder (assuming that I install all programs to the default of C:\Program Files-- which I don't, but let's pretend-- that resolves to /home/username/.wine/c_drive, so we're essentially talking about how big is the /home directory), there's no problem installing. The problem comes when I play the game, or use Office, and want to *save* something. Every save game or every document saved to C:\My Documents (again assuming I use defaults) is eating up HDD space that I am no longer able to estimate how much it is (since I don't know how big the picture/video/save game/Powerpoint presenatation is without explicitly checking), and this is what causes one to wake up one morning wondering why in the bloody blue blazes the HDD is suddenly full. However, if the folder to which this data is normally being saved is actually a symlink to another partition (rather than a directory within /home), then your /home is safe in terms of size (it's not growing out of your control) and you can keep an eye on this data storage partition much more reliably and clean it out when necessary. So, for example, whenever I install a game with Wine, the first thing I do is find the "saves" directory and symlink it to a partition that I keep savegames on-- basically, I'd create a folder on the "storage" partition using the name of the game, and symlink that folder in the game's install directory, naming the symlink whatever the save game directory is supposed to be called according to the game. Naturally, I've got Wine set to recognize and allow symlinks (otherwise this wouldn't work at all). So when the game creates a savegame file, it's created on the storage partition rather than in my /home/.wine/c_drive/Program\ Files/game_install/saves directory. For documents, I keep all my documents on the "storage" partition as well; map the "mydocs" (or whatever) folder on that partition to a drive letter in ~/.wine/dosdevices, and then I just save all my data files to E:\whatever. Audio files and pictures reside in a separate partition from application data as well, not to mention email. It's just a matter of specifying where the application is reading the data it's acting upon from, and it really makes backing up your personal volatile data much, *much* easier. Throw in a DVD, burn off everything in ~/storage (which is where the partition is mounted into the Linux filesystem), and life is good in case of disaster. Consolidating backup-able data in this way makes it much more likely that you *will* backup every now and again. Consolidating data files also makes disaster much more manageable-- even if you have to delete every other partition on the drive(s) to recover either Windows, or Linux, or both, you can easily avoid the data storage partition and reinstall the OS without fear that you've screwed yourself beyond recall. Reinstalling *apps* is never a problem. Even losing application settings is only annoying in most cases. *Your data* is what's precious, and cannot be replaced-- imo, that must be protected at all costs, and the first line of defense is buffering that data from any area of the filesystem that might ever be deleted wholesale. Such as your /home folder, if it's on the same partition as / --and sometimes even if it isn't-- or the real Windows C:\ drive. Disaster always seems to strike about 5 minutes after you said to yourself, "I should back this up before I go to bed/as soon as I'm finished this long operation/when I get back from the movies/etc", so plan for the worst possible case, where you didn't back up (yet), and now you can't. With personal data files insulated on a separate partition, you will likely be able to repair the system without losing a single document, despite your lack of foresight :-D . Naturally, if your programs are of a specific size and don't generate user data files of their own, then you don't really need a separate partition for them. You don't much need to put things like WinRAR or Nero or Quicktime or even IE on a separate partition if that's what you're running, unless you're a neat freak like me and 1) like to know precisely where everything is and 2) like to get to your directories somewhat faster in a file manager-- you can get to an installation directory installed to a partition mounted in ~/winstuff much faster in a file manager than if you have to Show Hidden Directories => .wine => c_drive => Program\ Files => install directory => program.exe (or program.cfg, if your goal is to edit DeusEx.ini, for example). But of course you could just make a higher-level symlink in your ~ directory so you could get to C:\Program Files somewhat faster if you needed to. So, it depends, like most things Linux, on what you personally need to make your system easier for you to use, based on how you personally use your system. Hope this helps, Holly _______________________________________________ wine-users mailing list wine-users@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.winehq.org/mailman/listinfo/wine-users
