What size HDD is most suitable for dual-booting Linux on seperate drive?

[vinushka]

I currently have a 1TB HDD which holds my Windows 8.1 OS and a 1TB external HDD which I will be using for backing up and storing media on.
I want to dual boot Linux on a seperate drive but am not sure what size HDD to purchase. Since all music/pics/videos etc. will be on my external HDD and Win8.1 HDD then I'm guessing I won't need anything over 500GB. Would prefer to pick up an 80GB or 160GB HDD if this is suitable.

 

[SU11YBEAR]

Linux is very small so you do not need a lot of space, I have mine running on my laptop drive partitioned so that only 20GB is usable by linux and it is more then enough, but it depends on what you want to do with it. If this is just for playing around in and trying to learn Linux then that should be good, if you want to do actual gaming in it then you will need to allocate enough spaces for games on the drive
That being said in this case I would recommend a 80GB SSD if you have the budget and have it store your Windows and Linux for booting, (60 for windows and 20 for linux)

 

[CompGee]

You can use something like a 40GB or if you need/want something smaller, go with a 20GB HDD. I had a 80GB hard drive in my trashy old laptop. It was good enough for me at the time. I think an 80GB HDD would be good. You might want to also partition your external hard drive 50/50. Make sure to format BOTH partitions with NTFS. I have a Toshiba 1TB with 5 partitions on it. (2 for OS's, 2 for file storage, and 1 for Windows 7 recovery.)

 

[vinushka]

Linux is very small so you do not need a lot of space, I have mine running on my laptop drive partitioned so that only 20GB is usable by linux and it is more then enough, but it depends on what you want to do with it. If this is just for playing around in and trying to learn Linux then that should be good, if you want to do actual gaming in it then you will need to allocate enough spaces for games on the drive
That being said in this case I would recommend a 80GB SSD if you have the budget and have it store your Windows and Linux for booting, (60 for windows and 20 for linux)

no gaming. Just want to get to know the OS and use it full time. Granted, I'll be installing plenty of programs etc. but I doubt I'd need much more than 40GB for that. Might go for a 80GB HDD to play safe.

 

[CompGee]

Linux is very small so you do not need a lot of space, I have mine running on my laptop drive partitioned so that only 20GB is usable by linux and it is more then enough, but it depends on what you want to do with it. If this is just for playing around in and trying to learn Linux then that should be good, if you want to do actual gaming in it then you will need to allocate enough spaces for games on the drive
That being said in this case I would recommend a 80GB SSD if you have the budget and have it store your Windows and Linux for booting, (60 for windows and 20 for linux)

no gaming. Just want to get to know the OS and use it full time. Granted, I'll be installing plenty of programs etc. but I doubt I'd need much more than 40GB for that. Might go for a 80GB HDD to play safe.

80-100GB is safe.

 

[SU11YBEAR]

80-100GB is safe.

Agree, again if you have the budget I would say get an SSD the prices have come down alot and you can setup a dual boot with your windows so you get Linux and when you do use windows it will be significantly faster as well
120GB SSD for $60
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-internal-hard-drive-sv300s37a120g

Cheapest 80GB is $25
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd800aajs