Partitioning Question

[blackiecoffee]

Hi!
I have an old laptop myself, a Thinkpad T400, from 2008.
Since RAM proved to be "untouchable", that is, I can only put 4 GB of RAM and the CPU is the fastest supported (T9400@2,53 GHz), the only workaround, was to put a SSD.
Nice looking but I had to rethink partitions since I was using a 1 TB HDD and the SSD has only 480 GB.

So, here is my computation:

Drive name in GParted: /dev/sda
First partition: /dev/sda1, ext4, 15360 MB, Root (/); Total = 15360 MB.
Second partition: /dev/sda2, SWAP, 3072 MB, SWAP;  Total = 18432 MB.
Third Partition: /dev/sda3, ext2, 61440 MB, Home (/home);  Total = 79872 MB = 78 GB.
Now, we need to calculate the fourth primary partition, in case you erase Windows:
I assume that you need time to decide so I'll go for the original amount of space = 90 GB = 92160 MB.
Now, assuming that you want to keep Windows, you need to check IF you have an EXTENDED partition.
If so, the name of your partitions, will be slightly different from the example above.
Usually, the Extended partition skips 1 unit when counting, so you might have something like:
/dev/sda1, NTFS, 160 GB (whatever GParted says), Windows.
/dev/sda3, EXTENDED. 90 GB.
If this is the case, I would do this:
Delete all partitions, except Windows;
SHRINK /dev/sda1 at 90 GB. That will give some more room to Linux.
Before shrinking the first partition, make sure you BACKUP everything that is important. An external HDD, would do great.
And now, after shrinking /dev/sda1, we have the following:
/dev/sda1, NTFS, 90 GB, Windows.
Unpartitioned space = 160 GB = 163840 MB.
--------
Let's move now:

Create /dev/sda2, primary, ext2, SWAP, , 3072 MB. Total free = 163840 - 3072 = 160768 MB.
Create /dev/sda3, primary, ext4, Root (/), 15360 MB. Total free = 160768 - 15360 = 145408 MB.
Create /dev/sda5, EXTENDED, 145408 MB.
Now, in the EXTENDED, create the following:
Create /dev/sda6, ext2, 61440 MB, Home (/home). Total free = 145408 - 61440 = 83968 MB.
Here, you can go like:
Create /dev/sda6, ext4, 61440 MB, Data (/Data). Total free = 83968 - 61440 = 22528 MB.
Create /dev/sda7, ext4, 22528 MB, Video (/Video). Total free = 22528 - 22528 = 0 MB.
Or, maybe you want something simpler:
Create /dev/sda6, ext4, 83968 MB, Data (/Data). Total free = 83968 - 83968 = 0 MB.
Now, after partitioning and labeling the drives, at setup, remember to set the mountpoints for /home and /Data, so that they are mounted after OS load. You'll be able to see them in your File Manager.

That's it!
Enjoy your new computer!
Best regards!

Nice a thinkdpad! I'm a big fan of thinkpads since temporarily using one for work.

Thanks for this, will definitely try this over the weekend.