Partitioning Your Linux Drives: Does It Provide Any Benefits?
Partitioning your drive is something that basically everyone on Linux does but what purpose does it actually serve and is there any reason why it might be better to avoid creating partitions in your d...
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This is mostly a worthless discussion. A computer / device should be considerable disposable as well as all the data on it. Just sync everything real time to a local "server" with something like Syncthing and if something goes wrong with your machines resync it back. Done.
Not everyone is rich. I sure wish I was, but we can't all do that.
Why do you say you've to be rich in order to do that?
I mean, I'm sure you can find some old laptop, ARM SBC or anything second hand with a broken screen that people may even gift you or sell very cheap to run as your "home server".
Not everyone can afford to host such a service. For some people, bills would be an issue. For others, buying and storing the hardware would be an issue. For me, storing the hardware and hosting anything would be problematic, as I'm in student accommodation meaning space is limited as it is, let alone with extra stuff laying around. There's also a point in my contract which states that upon using too much electricity, I would be asked to pay for it over it being included in the contract. On top of that, I don't even need this as it is overkill for my use case, where I already have a backup of all cool and important stuff and a secondary backup of all the cool and important stuff that can't be found on the internet or is very difficult to find. So yeah. That's what I meant. Not everyone can afgord the luxury of doing so.
There’s also a point in my contract which states that upon using too much electricity
Yes, because an extra 1.50$ / year would definitely kill your wallet.
For me, storing the hardware and hosting anything would be problematic, as I’m in student accommodation meaning space is limited as it is
This is a valid concern thought, however you may host it at your parent's home for instance. Either way a RPi and a disk aren't that big.
You're framing this as luxury when it fact it's more like a small time effort to set it up than anything else.
Oh yeah, but did you know your server is a computer/device and therefore should be considered disposable, too? Checkmate, atheists! \s
Honestly, though, you're not wrong about how always having multiple copies of your data on separate devices is essential. (You do however also need backups, not just synchronized copies, because data-destroying fuck-ups can get sync'd too.)
I'm not sure what your comment has to do with partitioning, though.
Ahahaha nice comment. I never said I didn't have backups, the thing is that once you get your data across multiple machines with something like Synching your life becomes way better and things are easier to deal with. Even if my "server" dies I still have three more real time copies of the data (or at least one actually real time and two others a bit behind because those machines aren't always turned on) and the "server" backups to another local drive a long term offsite backup that gets updated from time to time.
I’m not sure what your comment has to do with partitioning, though.
People usually go about and suggest partitioning their disks because they might require to reinstall the system and that way your home directory "will be safe" from whatever mess forced them into a reinstall. In reality this will just introduce unnecessary complexity and it is as likely to fail as single partition system. To be fair I would rather consider a BRTFS sub-volume for home with regular snapshots is way more interesting and manageable than just dumb partitions.
When the only tool you have is a hammer...
Will syncthing help me dual boot then? Our setup EFI? Or boot into a system that uses LVM for a root mount point even if the boot loader doesn't support LVM?
People usually go about and suggest partitioning their disks because they might require to reinstall the system and that way your home directory “will be safe” from whatever mess forced them into a reinstall. In reality this will just introduce unnecessary complexity and it is as likely to fail as single partition system. I would rather consider a BRTFS sub-volume for home with regular snapshots is way more interesting and manageable than just dumb partitions.
I think when people talk about partitions these days they typically mean things like LVM or sub-volumes. I would also recommend only having 1 or 2 physical disk partitions and then doing all your partitioning in software.
But the examples I provided above all require on-disk partitions to work. UEFI doesn't know what a btrfs sub-volume is.
Oh, good idea, should I use partitions on my 'server' though?
I guess it depends on how you're running things... and you should have backups anyways.
My previous point was that once you get your data across multiple machines your life becomes way better and things are easier to deal with. Even your “server” dies you'll still have more real time copies of the data in your laptop, desktop etc. and eventually a long term offsite backup that gets updated from time to time. Having backups is important as real time sync won't save you from you deleting files by mistake.
A quick way to do things would be to have an SSD drive (so no noise) on the "server" for your real time sync and OS and a mechanical hard drive (usually spin down) that gets a copy of the data via rsync every day. Then you do a monthly or weekly backup of the data to a remote location ove the internet or some USB hard drive that you physically move to other site.
If you're using on an SBC you may run your OS on a SD card + 2.5" SSD drive for real time data + 3.5" for daily backup. And some other remote / offsite backup solution.