I'm moving from Windows 11 to Fedora 44 and want to keep a similar storage arrangement. My computer has a 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I'd like Fedora, frequently used applications, and perhaps some frequently played games on the SSD, while storing documents, downloads, large games, and other less frequently accessed files on the HDD. In Windows, I used the SSD for C: and divided the HDD into separate partitions for general data and work. Do I need separate partitions in Linux, and what would be a sensible beginner-friendly setup?
4 Answers
You don’t need to reproduce the Windows drive-letter arrangement. A simple setup would be to install Fedora on the SSD, letting the installer create its normal EFI, root, and swap/zram-related configuration. Then format the HDD as one large data partition and mount it somewhere such as /mnt/data or /media/data. You can create folders there for Documents, Downloads, Games, and Work, or link those folders from your home directory. Separate HDD partitions are optional and are mainly useful if you want different areas to be independently managed or reformatted.
Put the operating system and applications on the SSD because it has much better access times. The HDD is fine for documents, media, backups, and games you don’t play often. Games can be installed on the HDD through Steam or another launcher by creating a library folder there, but loading times may be noticeably longer and some newer games may perform poorly. Keep several tens of gigabytes free on the SSD so updates and applications have room to work.
You could also put /home on the HDD, but I wouldn’t recommend that as the simplest beginner setup. Keeping /home on the SSD makes the desktop and application data more responsive, while large folders can live on the HDD. After mounting the HDD, you can move a folder such as Downloads or Games there and create a symbolic link in your home directory, or simply select the HDD location directly in each application. Make sure the HDD is mounted automatically at startup using Fedora’s disk utility or a properly configured /etc/fstab entry.
Fedora commonly uses zram instead of a traditional swap partition, so you generally don’t need to manually create swap on the HDD. Let the installer use its default arrangement unless you have a specific reason to change it.
A practical layout would be: the SSD contains Fedora and frequently used applications, while the HDD has one large filesystem with folders for personal files, work, backups, and game libraries. Back up important files separately, since putting everything on a single HDD does not protect against drive failure. If you later buy a larger SSD, you can move the game library without changing the rest of the system.
For a first installation, keeping the SSD layout mostly automatic and using one data partition on the HDD is much less complicated than designing many custom partitions.