Allocate different partitions in ubuntu

Hello,
I have decided to install ubuntu. So I intend to install a dual-boot with Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04. I currently have an old PC (AMD Athlon 1600 + / nVidia GeForce2 MX400 / 384 MB RAM) with a single DD 40 Go In addition to this, I intend to buy an external SD 80-100. My 2nd DD must serve me to put my personal data, my documents multimedia (video, music, photography ...). My / home partition of 9GB it does not duplicate the 2nd HDD? How to allocate you the different partitions on a 40GB HD? Can any one advice me for the same. Thanks in advance.

Hello,
I would say for a system or you will only use 5GB for / 2 for / var, 1 for swap and the rest for your / home. But I do not know the need for space to install Ubuntu and it's also to do depending on your usage but basically (and with a space of 20GB) AC should work fine. Currently, have to installed ubuntu on your computer, if yes then you can make secondary partitions and use them.

Hello,
You put your 10GB for / and only 9GB to your / home, in your place I could reduce the / to increase your / home, which was completed in most cases much faster. With respect to resize partitions you can always go through a utility like GParted but I think it's quite risky if you already have data on your disk Confused. Hope the above information has helped you. If you have any more queries then you can post here.

Hello,
Just a small precision, I thought for installation of Ubuntu, it needed a / partition, a swap partition and possibly a partition / home. Does it also need a / var partition or is it created automatically? Otherwise, we will be 2 users on my PC. Any advice on such case, this is what I want to do with my ubuntu linux operating system. Thanks in advance.

Hello,
Resize a partition that contains data is perilous. With regard to scores, actually, you're bound to nothing, as stated H4rm if you do not specify a particular partition, the system will automatically create all the directories in a single mount point: /
This is not a good way: if your partition crash everything in it is corrupt. So if your home is inside problem. Regarding the / var, as I always do. In this partition you log your systems, your emails, the ability to hide, this partition can reach saturation in a poorly configured system and there would be a shame not to have disk space just because of the logs, right?