ext3 or ext4 for Ubuntu (I decided not to install windows)

If I only install Ubuntu as the operating system should I format it as ext3 or ext4.Because I have been using easyBCD to boot both systems,the only choice I had was ext3 before.
What is the best way to partition a 500GB hard disk for Ubuntu.Should I do manual partitioning or leave it to the Ubuntu installer?
.

 

You don't have to manually partition but I recommend it. The reason being is that it's good to have a separate /home partition for your personal files and the default installer will not provide one.

I also have a 500 GB disk and I partition it like so:

/boot 200MB (ext4)
/ 20GB (ext4)
swap 2GB
/home =the rest of the disk(ext4)

What this does is allow you to keep your settings, personal files, etc. if you reinstall, etc. Actually my /home partition is only 30GB as I have a separate /storage partition i made for my music and movies, etc. It is formatted with XFS.

 

Out of curiosity why use a journaling filesystem on the /boot partition?

I'm not saying it's wrong just wondering what your reasons are? I always use ext2 on fairly static partitions.

 

please install xp as well if its free i mean if your laptop in under guaranty period and you get free install why to lose it because you never know when you might need it there are certain programs which work on xp and second good reason is its always easy to install linux after xp then xp after linux

if you like like linux too much and want it default system you can do is install grub of linux which auto add xp in it so this way you have both linux and xp without need of easyBCD

 

This is my desktop(hard disk is under guarantee),I own a Vista laptop too so I thought maybe it would be easier for me to use only Ubuntu.

 

Select ext 4 for all, this is what I do and it works out well, also the faster boot process in Ubuntu is an ext4 attribute.

 

So is this right:
/root 100GB ext4
swap 2GB
home 400GB ext4
One thing I do not understand is that root also has home in it,if I partition like the one above will there be 2 home partitions?

 

/root doesn't generally need to be more than 30gb

My setups are as follows:
(legend: L=logical P=primary)
/boot = 256MB P
/swap = 4096 P
/ = 30720MB L
/home = rest_of_drive L

 

No. Think of it like this:

/ is the root of the filesystem. Everything branches out, like a tree, from it. Every directory under / will be mounted on the same drive / is *unless* you specify otherwise. So each directory you specify to be on another drive will be and it wont be duplicated.

That's one of the beauties of the Unix file structure -- any directory can be mounted on any drive and the filesystem still works as one. You could have 20 directories mounted on 20 different drives if you wish.

 

Usually 20GB for / is fine in Ubuntu, for swap, make it double of your installed memory so for instance a safe number thats auto selected by Ubuntu in case of 4GB is 12GB, then you don't run into hibernate issues.