# Partitioning 120GB SSD and 2 x 1TB HDD



## defex (Dec 19, 2011)

Hey Everyone,

I'm about to embark on installing FreeBSD 9.0 RC3 on my desktop and I'm looking for some opinions on how best to make use of the hard drive space in my computer. I originally built this machine for Windows, and as you do, I went a bit overboard on specifications.

I've got a 120GB Intel X25-M SSD, and two Western Digital 1TB hard drives.

In linux, I had set these up so that the SSD was the root partition, and each 1TB drive had 4GB of swap space and a home partition on each (raid0 using MD/software raid).

I checked my partition manager today to see how that plan worked out and I'm surprised that only 4GB of the SSD had been used, even with both the Gnome and KDE desktop environments (with all supporting apps for each) installed.

I'm on the verge of saying "stuf'it, let's make one big partition on the SSD and dump everything, even the userland in there."


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## dave (Dec 19, 2011)

Just put everything (/) on the SSD for the install.  Then configure your 1TB drives as a mirror, and create a new mount point, such as /storage.  Then, move and symlink directories over there as neede/desired.  For example, /usr ---> /storage/usr, /var ---> /storage/var.


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## Simba7 (Dec 20, 2011)

Why not use the SSD in a ZFS array?


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## defex (Dec 20, 2011)

dave said:
			
		

> Just put everything (/) on the SSD for the install.  Then configure your 1TB drives as a mirror, and create a new mount point, such as /storage.  Then, move and symlink directories over there as neede/desired.  For example, /usr ---> /storage/usr, /var ---> /storage/var.


Thanks Dave. That's a better plan than I would have come up with.
I'm also intrigued by ZFS so I'll look down that road as well.



			
				Simba7 said:
			
		

> Why not use the SSD in a ZFS array?


Do you mean something like this?
http://blogs.freebsdish.org/lulf/2008/12/16/setting-up-a-zfs-only-system/


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## dave (Dec 20, 2011)

Simba7 said:
			
		

> Why not use the SSD in a ZFS array?



There is only 1 SSD drive, and it is significantly smaller than the others.  Am I missing something?


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## bbzz (Dec 20, 2011)

defex said:
			
		

> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I'm about to embark on installing FreeBSD 9.0 RC3 on my desktop and I'm looking for some opinions on how best to make use of the hard drive space in my computer. I originally built this machine for Windows, and as you do, I went a bit overboard on specifications.
> 
> ...



I would:

-make one zfs pool with just SSD which will have everything except /home, /usr/ports/distfiles, /usr/ports/packages. 

-make another zpool with 2x1TB drives in mirror, which will have stuff I mentioned above and then some (music, movies, docs, etc). These can also hold SSD zfs snapshots.

This way you can trash SSD and still have all important stuff on big drives.

What I would _not_ do is make raid0 with 2x1 TB drives.


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## gkontos (Dec 20, 2011)

I would install FreeBSD on the SSD with UFS2+J . Then I would use the rest 2 drives to create a mirrored zfs pool and probably mount it under /export

Regards,


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## kpa (Dec 20, 2011)

I would also keep the base OS on an UFS filesystem, ZFS on root is nice and usually works just fine but if you ever run into problems the recovery process can be quite involved.


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