Best Storage Capacity? and how do I make this setup...?

[ledOnion]

Right now, I’m saving up for some high-capacity SSDs for my Thinkpad T440p.
I’ve set my eye on a 512GB Transcend M.2 SATA SSD Reference here!
to install the operating system (Maybe 32 to 128GB root partition with the rest used for redundancy overhead).

I do currently have a 1TB SATA SSD which I could use to store all my templates and VMs but, being a total beginner at QubesOS, I wonder if that’s going to be enough storage. How much do Qubes VMs usually take up? Should I get an SSD with a bigger capacity?

Is it possible to configure the installation so that the main operating system is in a separate partition from wherever I store them?

On a side note, is it possible to also create a seperate boot partition in a USB drive so I would have to plug it in when I boot my PC in order to start my OS? I did try it once but I wasn’t able to finish setting up Qubes that way.

[augsch]

@ledOnion

On a side note, is it possible to also create a seperate boot partition in a USB drive so I would have to plug it in when I boot my PC in order to start my OS? I did try it once but I wasn’t able to finish setting up Qubes that way.

Here’s one guide for this.

Qubes OS Installation - BTRFS w/ Detached encrypted boot and header

Continuing the discussion from Qubes OS Installation - Detached encrypted boot and header: In above thread I use xfs with uefi + gpt. In here I will using mbr + bios with btrfs blake2 checksum. Keep in mind that below are disk i used in the tutorial, you can use 2 flashdrive (1 boot, 1 header) + 1 hdd or whatever you want. and btw I don’t detach swap partition, well i think you should. Do write out to /dev/sdb3 if you want Take this as additional challenge I use different …

@ledOnion

How much do Qubes VMs usually take up?

100GB of disk space can easily accommodate 20+ linux templates, which offers decent isolation of installed softwares. Your user data are counted separately, because those are stored in the private volumes of you AppVMs, not in the root volumes of templateVMs that are shared.

[TheGardner]

I’m running all on a 1TB SSD, mean OS and all templates and qubes are on that 1TB drive.
Should be enough. So in the end - you can use your setup too…

[ledOnion]

Hello again.

What if I had a couple of matching SATA SSD’s (one in the main SATA slot and another in a caddy adapter).
Could I make them a RAID array in Qubes and store my templates and AppVMs in them?

If I do set my template and VM pool in a seperate drive,
how much GB do you recommend for the root partition?

Thanks.