Why use multiple partitions on Linux installations?

Even if the performance increase is non-existent, there are several reasons to split up your installation:

• If one file system corrupts, the rest of your data is intact
• A process gone (i. e. writing excessive log files) only fills one partition
• You can mount your /home directory in several installations

etc.

Wikipedia has a great summary on the benefits of multiple partitions.

Multiple partitions are helpful when you want to upgrade your distribution, change to another distribution etc, especially a separate "/home" partition. All your data resides on the /home partition, so its very easy to reinstall a distribution without losing any of your data.

More info here - http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-partition.html

I mainly use the multiple partition for a couple of reasons:

• Upgrading or changing distros is easier. Having your /home partition gives you the peace of mind that you can always easily backup (to a /media/Data) and start the upgrade.
• Backup protection, just in case a file system gets screwed, you have only limited loss.
• OS information is separated from my data files which is beneficial for organization and loss prevention. If my OS partition gets corrupted, I can easily reinstall the OS.
• Multi-boot