Main server partitioning strategy

[Jim Noble <yahoo-groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(I figure this is sort of on topic - feel free to tell me to take it
offline if not!)

Ok, so I've just plopped a couple of 1/4 Tb discs into my linux server
which I intend to start filling with CD & DVD rips, photos, videos,
zoneminder data, etc etc.

I figure now would be a good time to decide on the partition strategy :*)

Does anyone have a words of wisdom they'd care to impart with regards to
paritioning large discs for use with linux?

I'm saving the two onboard RAID-aware SATA channels for a mirror of the
120Gb boot device (when I've liberated it's twin from another machine).
So I'm using two of the remaining four non-RAID SATA channels.

Besides, I know I don't want to stripe (not robust enough) or mirror
(lose too much space) the new discs, and I guess that a s/w N-way RAID-5
array using partitions on two physical discs would be somewhat pointless
(the more partitions, the more likely a drive failure would wipe you
out, right?)

But there are still several ways it could be done.

Single partitions on each drive would be a pain to repair (fsck).

I believe there's a way to join multiple partitions into a single
virtual device though (using md?), so I'm currently thinking that I'll
split each disc into 3 or 4 partitions, and join them into 2 or 3
virtual drives (keeping recoverable data (CD/DVD rips etc) separate so
they don't have to be backed up with the rest). I think I can then add
in more storage space on the fly if/when I add more discs.

Sound sensible?

Jim