I have got 1 TB of HDD and 4 GB of RAM and I want to install Linux alongside Windows. What is the best partition size to make for linux.
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Depends what you plan to do with it. For typical uses, and assuming you keep your Windows partition for storage, 10 GB should be more than enough. – fkraiem Sep 17 '14 at 22:55
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possible duplicate of How to use manual partitioning during installation? – Eliah Kagan Oct 20 '14 at 10:27
4 Answers
It can depend on many factors such as:
- Do you use Windows more than Linux on a daily basis?
- Are you are gamer and have, play or test many games?
- Do you work on a Windows environment more than a Linux one?
- Are you installing Ubuntu just to learn about Linux or have in mind moving to it eventually?
- How much space is already used by Windows?
Depending on this type of questions and any other you might start thinking, the size can change a lot. If this is your first time testing Ubuntu, I suggest giving Ubuntu about 100 GB to 250 GB, just to have enough space to test how it works, install apps, games, download torrents and more.
If you use both about the same, then giving both half of the size is pretty good, so 500 GB for each.
You would also need to check how much space Windows is using and how much it has left. It is recommended, if you are going to take some space left, and you are into gaming or heavy applications, leaving at least 200 GB to 500 GB to windows for any additional apps.
In regards to memory, it does not matter, the 4 GB of RAM will be reflected completely on both systems.
If you only want to test Ubuntu for a brief moment, I would suggest the minimum of about 10 GB for it up to 50 GB. Enough to at least play around, install Steam or LAMP services and toy with it.
But it all depends on how you wish to use your system at the end.

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The default for Ubuntu installations on a VMWare virtual machine is 20 GB. I would say 20 GB + X, where X is how much space you want for movies, pictures, and music on your Linux system.

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Much depends on the use to which it will give the system.
Overall with 35-45 gigs for /, is sufficient. Primary, ext4
Triple the ram if you fail, 16 gigs in this case for swap. Logica, swap
Free rest for /home. Logica, ext4
In my case I give 35 gigs for /home and the rest for /home/user/data. Logica, ext4

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I always used 10GB for root, 20GB for /home and 1GB for swap on my laptop with 4GB of RAM and 250GB of hard drive. I use my windows NTFS drive also from Linux (for storing documents, files and pictures) and use Linux filesystem only for Linux-only files (bash scripts, Linux executables, etc). Never run out of space in neither system.

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