[H-GEN] Need help during install, or just after ;)

[Martin Pool]

Andrae wrote:

>I'm sorry but I can't agree with this [idea that / should be large
>and mostly empty]. 
>~100Mb is ~80Mb more chance of
>corrupting /. 

That's a fascinating statement.  I wonder...

1. A random failed block on a disk is proportionally more likely
to be on a larger partition.

2. .. but has the same probability of hitting a critical file or
directory on root if root is large and empty rather than small
and full.

3. A larger partition will have more redundant superblocks (I think)
and so be more likely to withstand damage to the default one.

4. Files in a large partition will eventually be spread out more,
and so damage to consecutive blocks is likely to affect less files.

5. Conversely, small partitions will be fragmented earlier and 
more heavily, and so damage to a few consecutive blocks is likely
to damage more different files or directories.

6. Damage to unused blocks is almost-harmless, so saying 
"~80MB more chance of corrupting" doesn't mean much.

7. I vaguely remember hearing some fsck's have trouble on 
nearly-full disks.

>If you want extara space for use recovering from problems,
>keep an empty 80Mb Partition around somewhere, you can mount it if you
>need it (and if you can't mount it, it wasn't going to help you anyway).

Of course, that works too.

>Regardless I put the following on /.
>
>bin, sbin, lib, boot, dev, etc, root, mnt.

Sure, of course.  

--
Martin


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