Should I split a big (8TB) backup disk into more than one partition, or not?

[Volker Wysk]

Am Samstag, den 19.09.2020, 10:40 +0100 schrieb Chris Green:
> I am in the process of setting up a new backup system to replace an
> existing one whose 3TB disk drive is over 50% full now.
> 
> I have bought an 8TB disk drive for the new system, the system boots
> and has its OS on a separate drive (i.e. the 8TB drive will be purely
> for backup, no boot partition, no /usr, no /home).
> 
> I'm wondering if there's any advantage to splitting the 8TB into a few
> separate partitions as opposed to one big partition.
> 
> Obviously one big partition is more flexible in that all the spare
> space is available 'everywhere' so that pushes towards one big
> partition.
> 
> I guess separate partitions might be said to be 'safer' if something
> goes wrong, a corrupt partition wouldn't lose so much data.  However,
> unless one duplicates data across partitions I'm not convinced this is
> a big advantage.
> 
> As you can see I'm leaning towards one big partition, can anyone see
> any major disadvantages?

Splitting the drive will only introduce unnecessary complexity. If 
you split it up, you might (for instance) have trouble when the used 
partition is full. And there is still space in the other partitions. 

I have a external 8 TB drive for backups, which I've made one big 
partition.

You might want to also create a small partition (5%). Just in case.

Bye
Volker

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