Installing Linux Part 1: How to partition your Linux installation

Welcome once again to The Nerd Garden my friends.  My name is Aaron and this week I am going to show you how I install a Linux disto.  So what’s the big deal? A lot of the most popular Linux distribution are dead easy to set up these days.  Ah ha! Yes they are. But some times it pays to take a closer look at some of the advanced options and not just fly though the install wizard. There could be amazing features hidden within.

One such feature is the file system.  In Linux you can actually mount different parts of the file system to different partitions on your hard drive or even a different hard drive all together.  Uh oh!  I can hear Steph’s voice in the back of my head telling me to slow down and drop the geek speak for a minute.  OK. So what that means is. I will install the Linux files to one part of the hard drive and reserve a different part of the drive my data.  By keeping your data separate from the operating system you stand a much better chance of being able to keep it if you have to re install Linux, upgrade to new version, try a completely different version, or accidentally delete the entire install by mistyping a command as the root user. Um I may have done that last one.  But only once…  That I’ll admit to.

So the point is that I’ve set up my Linux systems like this for years and it has saved my butt or at least my data many times. I would like to share how I do this with you.

The video demonstrats how I install Ubuntu Linux in a way that I can keep the Ubuntu OS separate from my data and also have a “spare” partition to use later.  You’ll see what I use that for in Installing Linux Part 2.

Download the steps outlined in the video.

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Watch for future posts and videos on how to install apps in your new Linux system. And also keep and eye out for part 2 where we will put that extra partition to use. It is sure to be exciting and geeky!