How large should my /home partition be, and which filesystem is easiest to maintain?
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MellowPine42
I'm switching from Windows to Linux Mint Cinnamon and the installer is asking me to create a separate partition for /home. How much space should I allocate, and which filesystem should I choose—ext4, Btrfs, JFS, or something else? I'm mainly looking for a reliable, low-maintenance setup. If I create the partition, should I format it during installation?
Answers
A separate /home partition isn’t required. For a personal computer, you can simply use one main root partition, with the installer handling the layout. That’s often easier and avoids guessing how much space each partition will need. If /home ever fills up, it can affect the whole system, but this is usually manageable on a single-user desktop.
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For a straightforward home-user installation, ext4 is the safest choice. It’s reliable, well-supported, and requires very little maintenance. If you’re creating a separate /home partition, give it as much of the available drive as possible after accounting for the EFI, root, and swap areas. Yes, format it during installation if it’s new or you’re replacing its contents—but don’t format it if you need to preserve existing files.
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Btrfs can be useful if you specifically want features such as snapshots, compression, or flexible subvolumes, and it may help with game-library compression. However, those features add some complexity and aren’t necessary for a low-maintenance Mint installation. Ext4 is generally the better default unless you already know you want Btrfs.
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If this is a laptop that could contain sensitive information, consider full-disk encryption rather than encrypting only /home. Encrypting just the home partition can be simpler, but full-disk encryption protects more of the system if the device is lost or stolen. The partition layout should also leave room for the EFI system partition, the root filesystem, and swap.
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Answers are reviewed before publication.
QuietHarbor31: What filesystem would you use for the main root partition in that setup?
SilverKite6: For a personally managed desktop, ext4 is still the uncomplicated default. Separate partitions become more useful on remotely managed workstations or servers, where a full /home filesystem shouldn’t prevent administration and recovery.