Installation on SSD + HDD Setup

Hi everyone,

I have a classic Windows 10 installation on a 250GB SSD for OS and 1TB HDD for storage and since i’m an IT student, I need Linux so until now I’ve been using Manjaro on a VirtualBox setup but I would like a “cleaner” installation. That’s why i’ve been planning on making a dual boot with Windows and Manjaro on my SSD and keep the HDD for both storage.
I’ve been digging around internet to find proper explanation and I found that to install storage + softwares on my HDD (I only want the os and boot on the SSD) I would have to create /home, /usr and /opt partition on the hdd and the other part on the SSD.

The software file system is a bit messy in Linux, and I am not sure if this understanding is correct so could you guys tell me if I would screw everythings up by doing so ?

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Hi!
I wouldn’t do like this, all your applications will be slower in the hdd.
You can use whatever partition you want for software but isn’t recommended and harder to setup.
Let’s say you have 100gb free for manjaro in your sdd. I would do it this way:
512mb fat32 boot/efi
40gb ext4 /
rest gb ext4 /home

Swap
With 8gb ram or more, I wouldn’t use swap partition, use a swap file instead. If you don’t make a swap partition while installing, it would create a swap file automatically.

Like a said before, that’s how I would do it.

Welcome at the forum, @Doidoire

First of all, there is a good tutorial for dual boot:

Usually, it is recommendable (if possible) to install Windoze and Manjaro on different disks to reduce possible interferences and potential issues. Nevertheless, dual booting from the same disk is certainly possible and used by many.

You need to reduce the Windoze partition (ideally from within Windoze) to make some space available. I would recommend to have an additional /boot/efi partition and to consider to use only a / partition in addition. If you prefer a separate /home partition that’s fine. sawp is recommended also, but this could be done either by a swap partition or a swap file within / partition.

Complete separate could be a data partition, ideally on your hdd. If you don’t put your data in /home (only link for example) then in total 30 - 40 GiB should be sufficient already for / and /home together. I would not recommend to have more partitions, you need a good reason to do so.

Thanks for your answer, I also had the idea to put / partition on the HDD leaving only /boot/efi on the SSD but would’nt I lose the speed of SSD by installing OS on HDD ?

Thnak you. Honestly since it would only be a programming computer, I don’t care about speed. I am only going to use softwares like Geany or Sublime Text and my priority is keeping the maximum space possible on my SSD for Windows on which I have every other programs and games.
For the swap partition I read that since I have 16GB ram I don’t have to make one and you confirmed this so I am not worried.
Anyway I also installed Manjaro on a single 250GB laptop HDD which I salvaged months ago knowing that it would probably be useful but the system is very slow and makes weird things like my fans are spinning like if there was hell fire in my chassis. So thats is why I wanted to install on the SSD thinking it would somehow probably fix this king of problems.

Hi!
For that kind of work, 40gb will be enough for the system, wherever you install it.

Yes, that’s true. It’s all about finding the best compromise. If speed matters - put / on the ssd. Personally, I would shrink the existing Windoze partition by approx. 40 GiB and put / on it (i.e. incl. /home folder). On the hdd you could put all your data which could be linked into your /home folder. This is flexible with regard to your data files and fast as all relevant system files are on the ssd.

Be aware the the /home folder contains all your user settings which are accessed from installed packages, therefore the system is a bit faster when /home folder is kept within / on the ssd.

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Ok thank both of you, I see more clearly what are my options I am gonna go with /boot and / on SSD that seems the best fit for me.

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